Hello, @Oyakodon0928.
Thank you for posting your Internet-dropping concern, and welcome to Rogers Community Forums!
I appreciate your observation of the Internet dropping while you’re online gaming. T3 timeouts alone may not help in isolating the root cause of the intermittency you’re experiencing.
We’d need a bit of more info to better assist. Please answer the following:
- How far is your gaming computer from the modem?
- Do other devices lose the WiFi/Internet at the same time as your gaming computer?
- Do you need to reboot your modem to gain Internet access back?
- How far is your gaming computer from the modem?
Please also post the Downstream and Upstream tables from the Status/DOCSIS WAN page of the modem.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Cheers,
RogersMoin
@Oyakodon0928 what computers are connected via ethernet or wifi?
Your downstream signal levels are higher than usual. The limit is +/- 10 dBmV. So, where your signal levels are currently sitting, Rogers won't do anything. What you really need to drop those levels is a forward path attenuator such as this:
https://www.amazon.ca/line-Signal-Forward-Attenuator-FPA6-54/dp/B07882H96R
That will drop the downstream by 6 dBmV, but, leave the upstream levels where they are. You could actually use a 6 dB and 3 dB attenuator, connected together to drop the downstream signal levels by 9 dB. That would put that at or very close to 0 dBmV, which is the target signal level.
If you happen to have a cable splitter such as a two port splitter which has a single input and dual output, you could put that in line to drop the downstream signal levels. The downside to this is that the attenuator will also push up the upstream signal levels. In most cases, including yours, there is enough room to allow that. The max signal level is 51 dBmV according to DOCSIS spec, 52 dBmV according to Rogers.
So, I suspect that even if you drop the signal levels, you will probably have the same issue with the dropouts. They usually occur too fast to catch via the signal level table, but, as you have seen, a T3 shows up in the Docsis Events log. The T3 itself isn't indicative of a cable or signal failure, its usually an indication of a "no response" from the Cable Modem Termination System, which controls of its connected modems and which provides data services to those modems. A communications failure between the modem and CMTS can also result in a T3 timeout.
1. Are you in a house or condo/apartment/highrise, etc, etc?
2. If you're in a house, is the external cable underground or overhead to the nearest utility pole?
3. Would you happen to know how long that external cable has been in place, or when it was last replaced?
4. Looking at your signal levels, it appear that you have a CGN3 modem which is a black, rectangular, vertical modem. Is that correct, as seen by the modems on this page:
https://www.rogers.com/support/internet
@Oyakodon0928 since you have a 3 way splitter installed, have a look at the face of the splitter. I suspect that its an unbalanced splitter with one port dropping 3.5 dB and the other two ports dropping 7 dB. The internet modem is usually connected to the -3.5 dB port, although that's not necessarily the rule. See if you can identify the cable that does connect to the 3.5 dB port and if that happens to be the modem's cable, swap that with one of the 7 dB port cables. That will drop the downstream level by -3.5 dB and force the upstream to rise by 3.5 dB, which won't cause a problem.
If you happen to have a two port splitter on hand that you're not using, you could install that on the modem's cable, either at the existing splitter location or at the modem.
Dropping the downstream levels will help to determine if this is a signal level issue caused by high signal levels, although they are still within spec. Fwiw, historically, from what I've seen, when the signal levels our outside of +/- 6/7 dBmV, then you can expect to see problems arise. Not a golden rule, just an observation from numerous past posts.
I'm expecting that you'll still see disconnects, but, we'll see. Just to see if this is an external cable/connector issue, you can run a continuous ping test to the CMTS. The path to the CMTS looks like this:
1. modem to splitter via internal RG-6
2. splittter to external demarcation point via internal RG-6
3. external demarcation point to local tap via external RG-6
4. local tap to neighbourhood node via hard cable
5. neighbourhood node to CMTS via fibre
Usually, if there is a disconnect issue, the problem is caused by a failing external cable, or failing connectors in the external demarcation (otherwise known as the Network Interface Device (NID)) or at the local tap. So, to determine if there might be a cable or connector issue, you can ping the CMTS for a period of time, usually an hour or more. I prefer to run longer tests of several hours, up to 24 hours.
To do this, run a trace to anywhere. Bring up a command prompt and run a trace to google for example:
tracert -4 www.google.com
Take note of the 2nd hop IP address. The first hop will be the modem if its running in its default Gateway mode. The second hop will be the CMTS. Ping the CMTS for at least an hour.
ping -n 3600 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx where this IP address is the second hop IP address from the trace
You can run a longer test simply by using a larger number. Windows runs 1 ping per second, so, 3600 pings will take an hour, at which point the test will automatically terminate. You can stop the ping test at any time by using Ctrl c
When the test terminates, select the bottom results, use Ctrl c to copy the results and then paste them into a post. You can use Ctrl v to paste in the results. Under normal circumstances I'd expect to see no more than a dozen packets lost over a 24 hour period, so, one maybe two packets lost in the course of an hour.
You can also run a continuous ping test:
ping -t xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx This will run until you use Ctrl c to stop the test.
Ok, so, thats one thought, disconnects due to a cable and/or connector failure.
The other thought that comes to mind is an IPV6 problem at the CMTS. Thats harder to diagnose and even more difficult to convince Rogers tech support that there is a real problem.
I suspect that your modem is running in a Dual Router mode, that is to say that its supplying both IPV4 and IPV6 addresses to the various devices on your network. The primary address scheme for those connected devices will be IPV6 as that's the design priority these days. Log into your modem and navigate to the Basic ..... Gateway Function tab. The Router mode is probably set to run Dual mode. Change that to IPV4 and save the changes. The modem will take two to three minutes to sort itself out and switch to IPV4 only mode. I usually run a modem reboot as well, ADMIN .... Device Reset .... Reboot.
I'd consider running IPV4 mode first for a day or two to see what happens. With that, you could also run a ping test just to see what the failure numbers look like. You'll come to a conclusion pretty quickly, that there is an IPV6 problem or there isn't. Continued disconnects would point towards a cable and/or connector failure. The question at this point is, just how bad is the problem?
Edit: Do you have a powered amplifier in the system just ahead of the splitter? If so, that could explain the high signal levels.
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