Node Congestion

[flash67]

Rogers has identified node congestion in my neighbourhood and has done nothing about it for a year

I've been dealing with an issue for almost a year now at home with high latency, packet loss and sometimes absolutely no internet.

I initially called Rogers about this back in May 2019.  It wasn't until January of 2020 that they identified congestion on the node with too many modems and and apparently scheduled service.

It's been delayed 3 times now and apparently it's schedule for May 2020 with absolutely nothing confirmed.

Why do I have to wait this long to use my internet properly?  The only reason this became an issue is because of a new subdivision developed just south of me.  Nothing was done before or after the subdivision was completed.

My town is small, we have two internet providers, Rogers and Bell... Tek Savy is an option but it uses Rogers infrastructure.   Bell doesn't offer fibe and the max we can get is DSL at 10mbps down and .5 mbps up.

SO I AM STUCK.  Completely stuck until Rogers fixes this issue.  I am a healthcare worker who is on call and this pandemic has only made the issue worse.  I am on call for a hospital and I cannot even remotely connect back to my work to service something, I always have to mobile hotspot with my cell phone who is provided by Telus.

My Telus LTE connection is better then my Rogers gigabit connection.... How does that make sense?

I have an extensive call history with Rogers for this and the amount of time I've had to commit for them to eventually diagnose the problem... I could easily be a full time Rogers technician.

I eventually will be going to a news outlet or the CRTC to have this issue brought to light because I am not the only one on my street with this problem.  There is a petition in my neighborhood for Rogers and it has over 10,000 signatures. 

Anyone else have any input?

***Added Labels***

[Alex4161]

Contact the Ombudsman office (https://www.rogers.com/customer/support/article/ombudsman) and tell them of the issues you have had and the poor service you are getting.

They will try to get the appointment rushed and credit you for the service issues which is not your fault.

Years ago, I had a similar experience when my home was built on infrastructure that could not support the service levels they provided.  After several techs and calls, I went via the ombudsman/office of the president's approach and things started getting done. I received billing credits for several months of poor service and the wiring was fixed. 

[flash67]

I've already done that

I'm already receiving credits for about 6 months now and going forward.. full statement credit.

But to be stuck with a service that just doesn't work is absolutely unacceptable

[RogersZia]

Good evening @flash67,

Welcome to the Community and thank you for your post.

I realize unexpected delays can be quite inconvenient. Typically maintenance calls are scheduled tentatively and confirmed closer to the date. 

When was the last time you spoke to tech support about this? If you'd like, we can review the request on our end as well. Please reach out to us via PM @CommunityHelps  and we'll be happy to look into this for you. Not familiar with our private messaging system? No worries, Click Here.

RogersZia

[flash67]

I've sent a PM.

Thanks

[Taab]

@flash67 Hey dude, have they said anything in PMs to you? I've been having ping issues since December 2019 and I spoke to a rep in PMs recently and I've spoken to OOP but I've gotten no updates.

[flash67]

@Taab 

No.. the PM was absolutely useless...

They looked at my account and told me I was already doing a good job with who I was communicating with and that was it.

I received a call back from Harman at the Office of the President yesterday with two dates and nothing confirmed

May 19th

Aug 6th

I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that they push for the May 19th date with all this pandemic . going on and millions of people working remotely.

[maniac]

I have been super frustrated with me speeds for the past couple months.

1) I generally get 40mbps at any time of day.

2) my internet completely goes down often, but very very often on Friday and Saturday nights .

I've had many conversation with support over Twitter DMs; chat; etc.

Tech support came to check outside my house, replaced a cable splitter (which was 10 years old) and told me to request a new modem. I received the new modem - same as the one I had (hitron cgnm 2250 DOCSIS 3) and it made no difference at all in speed. I was on the 150 download plan.

I was then sent a 3rd modem (the white DOCSIS 3.1) and I installed it today. I also upgraded my service to Ignite 300.  No difference. Sometimes 10Mbps sometimes 40 Mbps.

One person told me my neighborhood has too much 'congestion' and there's no hope until this gets resolved.

I'm seriously considering to cancel my entire Rogers service over this. I hate to learn all the new channel number on Bell, but I can't function with Internet this bad from Rogers.

Does anyone have any insight? 

Is there a way I can get Rogers to take me seriously and fix my area? Or do I just cancel?

Is there some other test I can do to prove it's not my network; my modem; etc?  I am running ookla speedtest.net as well as fast.com

[maniac]

If it helps anyone my DOCSIS 3.1 WAN info is below:

Downstream Overview

Port ID	Frequency (MHz)	Modulation	Signal strength (dBmV)	Channel ID	Signal noise ratio (dB)
1	615000000	256QAM	1.600	11	40.946
2	849000000	256QAM	1.400	2	40.366
3	855000000	256QAM	2.100	3	40.366
4	861000000	256QAM	3.000	4	40.366
5	579000000	256QAM	1.400	5	40.946
6	585000000	256QAM	1.400	6	40.946
7	591000000	256QAM	1.400	7	40.946
8	597000000	256QAM	1.200	8	40.946
9	603000000	256QAM	1.400	9	40.946
10	609000000	256QAM	1.500	10	40.366
11	279000000	256QAM	-1.100	1	40.366
12	621000000	256QAM	1.600	12	40.366
13	633000000	256QAM	1.900	13	40.946
14	639000000	256QAM	2.000	14	40.946
15	645000000	256QAM	2.200	15	40.946
16	651000000	256QAM	2.400	16	40.946
17	657000000	256QAM	2.300	17	40.366
18	663000000	256QAM	2.200	18	40.946
19	669000000	256QAM	2.600	19	40.946
20	675000000	256QAM	2.500	20	40.946
21	681000000	256QAM	2.500	21	40.946
22	687000000	256QAM	2.400	22	40.366
23	693000000	256QAM	2.300	23	40.366
24	699000000	256QAM	2.200	24	40.366
25	705000000	256QAM	2.000	25	40.946
26	711000000	256QAM	1.500	26	40.366
27	717000000	256QAM	1.600	27	40.946
28	723000000	256QAM	1.800	28	40.946
29	825000000	256QAM	2.400	29	40.366
30	831000000	256QAM	2.000	30	40.366
31	837000000	256QAM	1.500	31	40.366
32	843000000	256QAM	0.900	32	40.946

OFDM Downstream Overview

Receiver	FFT type	Subcarr 0 Frequency(MHz)	PLC locked	NCP locked	MDC1 locked	PLC power(dBmv)
0	NA	NA	NO	NO	NO	NA
1	4K	275600000	YES	YES	YES	-0.900002

Upstream Overview

Port ID	Frequency (MHz)	Modulation	Signal strength (dBmV)	Channel ID	Bandwidth
1	22100000	ATDMA - 64QAM	33.000	5	3200000
2	25300000	ATDMA - 64QAM	32.750	6	3200000
3	36996000	ATDMA - 64QAM	30.750	8	6400000
4	30596000	ATDMA - 64QAM	30.500	7	6400000

OFDM/OFDMA Overview

Channel Index	State	lin Digital Att	Digital Att	BW (sc's*fft)	Report Power	Report Power1_6	FFT Size
0	DISABLED	0.5000	0.0000	0.0000	-inf	-1.0000	4K
1	DISABLED	0.5000	0.0000	0.0000	-inf	-1.0000	4K

[xo1]

Some helpful advice from someone who is dealing with the same issues right now, cancel.  I have wasted countless hours trying to talk to support, with some tech's acknowledging the congestion on our node, and others pretending like it doesn't exist.  The issue you are having has nothing to do with you or the wiring in your home or a faulty modem, but a congested CMTS.  Try speedtesting and running a ping test to your CMTS (if you run a tracert it is the IP after your router), and you will notice poor speeds are directly related to poor response times during the day and both will clear up at night/early morning.  The best part is Rogers has a subcontractor laying fiber lines right now literally 200m from my house which is also either unheard of to support or the solution to all my problems.  Regardless trying to get customer service to drop the bill for the month took literally more time than it is worth.  Bell isn't much better, but if they have fiber in your area, I 100% encourage you to switch as it is just a better service.  If Bell only has DSL in your area (which is awful), at least threaten support to cancel and see if they throw you a bone.

[Datalink]

@maniac are you seeing the low rates via ethernet, wifi or both?  

Call tech support and ask the tech for the following DOCSIS 3.1 OFDM information:

1.  Signal level

2.  Signal to noise ratio

3.  QAM level. 

That data isn't presented to the user but tech support has access to it.  While they are all important, the QAM level will tell you in an instant what that modem is capable of providing.  The QAM level, should be 1024 for that modem running with optimum signal levels and signal to noise ratios.  64 QAM is the bottom level QAM for that modem.  Below that it will bail out of the OFDM channel and use the upper DOCSIS 3.0 channels for download purposes.  Even with that, the 4582 modem is a good performing modem even if its running on DOCSIS 3.0 channels.  

If the tech can't find the data, insist on him or her finding someone that can find it.  Don't take no for an answer.  Please post the data. 

For the speedtests you can use https://www.rogers.com/customer/support/article/internet-speedtest or you can use the www.speedtest.net Toronto, Montreal or Moncton Rogers servers, which ever is closer.  If you go to change the default server, type in Rogers to display all of the Rogers test servers.  Use the nearest Rogers server.  

[maniac]

xo1, that is exactly what I'm thinking.

One person admitted bad congestion, the others did not.

I have started searching for alternatives already. Bell vs. TekSavy vs. CanNet vs. CarryTel. But I know if they are using Rogers to the home anyway then there is not much point in switching to anyone except Bell.  😞

Bell tells me "We currently do not bring fibre to this address but we do bring it to your neighbourhood".

I have just run several test:

Speedtest.net is giving me 9/1 to 12/2 to 20/1 at best.

fast.com is giving me 20/2 to 50/12.

I've tried wireless and plugged in directly to modem. Numbers are all over the place. Plugged in is consistantly faster, but I don't pass 50/12.  My plan us 300.

I don't know why speedtest.net is sooo bad

It's crazy that there is no speed test tool built into the modem to alleviate any in-between hardware.

[maniac]

Thanks for the direction Datalink. I'll give that a try and report back when I have the numbers.

Right now, I turned off IP6 (just in case) and reset my wifi adapters on 3 laptops I am using just to make sure I'm starting fresh.  Speedtest.net is giving me 33/21, 21/18, 22/15, etc.  I know this is over WiFi so it may not be true but it should be better than that regardless (it was far better in the past).  I'll go plugin directly again later.

I am in Vaughan, Ontario. When I use my IP to find my location it always thinks I'm in Richmond Hill, Ontario (nearby). I guess that's where by node is coming from? buh. I always choose a nearby server when I use Speedtest.net. If nothing available in Richmond Hill I choose Toronto.

[Datalink]

Fwiw, since January there have been real issues with the Rogers network which results in slow speeds, latency and packet loss.   This also affects TPIA customers.  Rogers is completely silent on the issue so, no one outside of the company knows what the problem is.  It would appear that the field techs have some idea of the fact that a problem exists, but, they're not saying anything.  So, beyond the signal data at the modem and no packet loss to the Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) which is the first hop beyond the modem enroute to anywhere, one can only conclude that the network issues are at play and are resulting in your poor network results.  

Note that I'm making an assumption here that you're running an ethernet connected desktop or laptop to run the speedtests in order to rule out any wifi issues. 

Edit:  for now select the www.speedtest Rogers Toronto server.  

The issue of wrong location data is due to the fact that ISPs move IP address blocks around and don't update the various location service providers with the updated location to IP block data.  So, end result, users end up with wrong geographic locations.  Normally not a big deal, but, if you've signed up to some type of streaming service that uses Geolocation data to allow viewing of a particular event type, NHL hockey for example this becomes a complete headache.  Its yet another ongoing problem that's been around for at least 5 years, probably longer, with no solution in sight. 

Note that with DOCSIS 3.1 running on the downstream side, the front Downstream LED should be light blue, it supposed to be Magenta, officially.  From your signal data above, your modem is running DOCSIS 3.1 on the downstream side.  

Ask the Tier I tech to pass you onto a Tier II tech.  What you want to know is the load level of the neighbourhood node and CMTS that you're connected to.  Hopefully the Tier II tech can tell you what the percentage level happens to be.  Just let the Tier II tech know that you're experiencing miserably slow data rates and you would like to know what the load factors happen to be.  Maybe that might shed some light on the situation.  The Tier I tech will probably give you some static on this, but, simply ask if he or she has access to the neighbourhood node and CMTS load data.  If not, get on with it.  I think you're beyond the Tier I tech level at this point, time to look for answers from above.

Edit II:  When you have a desktop or laptop connected via ethernet to the modem, have a look at the connected port LED at the back of the modem.  It should be flashing amber, indicating a 1 Gb/s transfer rate with the connected device.  If its flashing green, that indicates a 10/100 Mb/s transfer rate.  Those transfer rates are device to device, not the data rate that your internet plan dictates.  To run 300 Mb/s, the connected port LED at the back of the modem should be flashing amber.  Assuming that's the case, and you have a capable desktop or laptop connected to the modem, and the modems DOCSIS 3.1 OFDM QAM Level is at 1024, then the inescapable conclusion is that your neighbourhood node, or connected CMTS is hopelessly overloaded.  You would need the load numbers to determine which one is the problem but my bet would be on the neighbourhood node,which might require splitting in order to spread the load across two or mode nodes. 

[xo1]

Yeah if Bell doesn't have fiber in your area unfortunately you are out of luck.  DSL is God awful by design. Just try arguing with support for a rebate.  So far I have gotten a $100, but I am not going to stop until my bill is refunded for May-June (my node is supposed to be split on the 30th of June which should solve my congestion problems).  At this point if constant stable internet is not essential, just try and get your money back.

[super_robot]

I've been having issues in my neighborhood for almost two years now. Back then I was told my neighborhood was still under their threshold to initiate any upgrades.

Fast forward to today and they finally say they are going to do a node segmentation but can't even give me a ballpark whether it'll be even this year.

I am in the same boat as you, no other options. Aside from sending a PM to the Mods here and getting a high5 for providing stats,there isn't much you can do.

Really concerning given the fact it is one of the two large ISPs.

[maniac]

@Datalinktoday when I am plugged in I am getting anywhere from 60/10 to 80/20.  So it's better for some reason, but still not right.  My internet has also completely dropped a couple times. (I can see my google home display immediately tell me when there is no internet)

I am plugged directly in to the modem. When I do a trecrt to google.ca I get the following first 4 hops:

1 4 ms 5 ms 4 ms CODA4582 [192.168.0.1]
2 152 ms 15 ms 14 ms 99.228.xx.xx
3 16 ms 32 ms 21 ms 8077-dgw01.mtnk.rmgt.net.rogers.com [66.185.91.177]
4 33 ms 17 ms 29 ms 209.148.229.81

Spent 1 hour on live chat with tech support. They would not give me the numbers you asked for Signal, Noise Ratio, QAM. But they told me the numbers are "all fine".  They suggested 3 things:

1) That I don't plug the modem into a power bar. I plug directly into the wall outlet. (I have not changed it yet).

2) That I remove all my other devices to rule anything weird out (which I did).

3) That I PHONE in and ask for level 2 or back end support to check my node. (lololol)

I'll try calling now.

Edit 1: Tech Support guy (on the phone) says my top speed of 80/20 today is not nearly high enough for Ignite 300 plan. He would think 175Mbps is more like a normal speed to expect. So another tech is now scheduled to come to my house (staying outside of course). "The technician should be able to tell if there is a node congestion problem". 

[super_robot]

Yea.. plugging your modem in the wall will help fix the latency experienced at the 2nd hop

*facepalm*

You're wasting your time amigo, same yourself the trouble.

[maniac]

So tech support guy told me "I see in the notes here on your file that the maintenance person indicates your node has congestion, and they have escalated to have the node split up to resolve the speed issues.... could take weeks or months... no one has a clue".

So now I either stick with Rogers Ignite 300u with my horrible 20Mbps download average; or I cancel and get Bell who claims I will get close to 50Mbps on their service.  😡  

[lethalsniper]

Bell.. it took them 1 year to do mine

[flash67]

Bro, this couldn't be more accurate.

The best news has come up recently and that Wightman Telecom will be investing 50+ Million $ in TRUE fibre to the house for the entire infrastructure in my town. 

This is all I can hope for or pray something still happens in August regarding the node segregation.