I have been having issues with my signal levels since signing for Rogers a month ago. Tech support seemed to agree with me (most of the time) that I shouldn't be having such low signals and a hundred thousand uncorrectables, so they sent techs out. Unfortunately, it seems like they haven't been able to fix the issue, despite replacing things and then declaring to me that it's fixed.
I'm posting here now as I feel I'm slowly being driven insane by contacting first-line tech support - it seems to be random when they can see the issue or not. The agent I spoke with yesterday on live chat took the unprecedented step of blaming me and my equipment for everything (which had never happened before in my 10+ calls to tech support), then said I wasn't responding and terminated the chat due to "inactivity" (despite the chat transcript that was sent to my email later clearly showing all my messages went through down to the minute that the chat was terminated)
One of the things the last tech to visit suggested was to periodically monitor my modem stats. So, I modified a script that some Comcast users have written to periodically scrape the modem stats and generate graphs to work with my XB7. It seems to confirm pretty clearly that there is still an issue, as SNR fluctuates over a wide range of 35-42dB (with some channels sometimes going down to as low as 30dB)
How stats look for individual channels:
Downstream power levels (low-power channels are ch 1 and 33):
Upstream power-levels (5th OFDMA channel excluded as it just shows a value of 435000.0 dBmV):
And my most recent stats copied straight from modem:
IndexLock StatusFrequencySNRPower LevelModulation
Downstream | Channel Bonding Value | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
23 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 |
Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked |
693 MHz | 303 MHz | 849 MHz | 855 MHz | 861 MHz | 579 MHz | 585 MHz | 591 MHz | 597 MHz | 603 MHz | 609 MHz | 615 MHz | 621 MHz | 633 MHz | 639 MHz | 645 MHz | 651 MHz | 657 MHz | 663 MHz | 669 MHz | 675 MHz | 681 MHz | 687 MHz | 699 MHz | 705 MHz | 711 MHz | 717 MHz | 723 MHz | 825 MHz | 831 MHz | 837 MHz | 843 MHz | 350000000 |
39.8 dB | 38.2 dB | 37.8 dB | 36.8 dB | 37.8 dB | 38.2 dB | 39.1 dB | 38.6 dB | 38.2 dB | 38.7 dB | 39.2 dB | 40.0 dB | 38.7 dB | 38.3 dB | 40.5 dB | 39.0 dB | 38.4 dB | 39.7 dB | 39.5 dB | 39.9 dB | 39.0 dB | 38.5 dB | 39.5 dB | 41.1 dB | 38.9 dB | 41.1 dB | 41.0 dB | 40.2 dB | 38.7 dB | 39.2 dB | 37.9 dB | 39.7 dB | 40.5 dB |
5.9 dBmV | 1.6 dBmV | 6.2 dBmV | 5.8 dBmV | 5.9 dBmV | 4.7 dBmV | 4.8 dBmV | 4.9 dBmV | 5.0 dBmV | 5.0 dBmV | 5.5 dBmV | 5.5 dBmV | 5.0 dBmV | 5.3 dBmV | 5.3 dBmV | 5.3 dBmV | 5.1 dBmV | 5.2 dBmV | 5.3 dBmV | 5.4 dBmV | 5.8 dBmV | 5.9 dBmV | 5.9 dBmV | 6.1 dBmV | 6.0 dBmV | 6.3 dBmV | 6.3 dBmV | 5.8 dBmV | 6.9 dBmV | 7.2 dBmV | 6.9 dBmV | 6.6 dBmV | 2.3 dBmV |
256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | 256 QAM | OFDM |
IndexLock StatusFrequencySymbol RatePower LevelModulationChannel Type
Upstream | Channel Bonding Value | |||
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked | Locked |
21 MHz | 25 MHz | 32 MHz | 38 MHz | 4 MHz |
2560 | 5120 | 5120 | 5120 | 0 |
45.5 dBmV | 47.0 dBmV | 47.0 dBmV | 47.3 dBmV | 435000.0 dBmV |
QAM | QAM | QAM | QAM | OFDMA |
TDMA_AND_ATDMA | ATDMA | ATDMA | ATDMA | TDMA |
IndexUnerrored CodewordsCorrectable CodewordsUncorrectable Codewords
| CM Error Codewords | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 |
2941127777 | 4259313928 | 4259330913 | 4259345703 | 4259355167 | 4259359940 | 4259373389 | 4259371776 | 4259379917 | 4259387137 | 4259391486 | 4259403402 | 4259399590 | 4259398071 | 4259410045 | 4259418570 | 4259424292 | 4259434361 | 4259443450 | 4259453509 | 4259455292 | 4259464761 | 4259463457 | 4252880535 | 4254225566 | 4259479562 | 4259492585 | 4259497763 | 4257374221 | 4253613213 | 4259029911 | 4259520345 | 2941127777 |
1719920946 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 75624 | 215196 | 2161 | 1189 | 0 | 24091 | 36554 | 11570 | 0 | 1719920946 |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 215253 | 549942 | 3093 | 4 | 0 | 69674 | 50069 | 23430 | 0 | 0 |
Any ideas for what I should do and whether this should be fixed or not? The first (contractor) tech that came out for this issue blamed the drop cable (which was 30 years old), so he replaced it with a temp line and claimed my issues would be solved once a new buried line is put in. Signals did improve slightly, but didn't appear to be fully fixed (still got thousands of uncorrectables, even after line was buried). Second (contractor) tech blamed high downstream power and some F connectors; he added an attenuator at the demarc box and replaced the connectors, but clearly that hasn't seem to have fixed the issue either. In fact, I'm getting more uncorrectables now than before he replaced the connectors.
I make an issue about this because I've been noticing some packet loss spikes of 1-2% every few hours on my OpnSense router that monitors my connection (contrast this with my Bell backup connection, which it monitors to always have 0% packet loss), which I'm not sure if it's related to the signals/uncorrectables. Though, I've been told signals/uncorrectables is a problem as well independent of whether I get packet loss or not (as the signals/uncorrectables may cause intermittent problems in the future)
Should I escalate to have a senior tech (employed by Rogers and not contractors) be sent out and take a look?
The contractors don't seem to able to figure this one out (in fact, most of these issues should have been caught by the first contractor who came out to do the install. He didn't seem to bother to do any signal tests of the lines, as he should have noticed my drop and household lines were quite old and in need of replacement. He even redirected a line clearly labelled RG59 through my vents to connect to the modem - and also managed to tangle the RG59 with some power cables, which caused issues until I had that replaced with new RG6)
It's definitely not normal - even without fancy scripts, if I just sit and refresh the modem page every few seconds, I see SNR fluctuating between 35db and 39db for quite a few channels (even within a span of a minute). I've heard from others that they mostly see constant 42-43dB (in the best case) or constant 38-39dB (worst case that I've heard), no matter how many times they refresh the page. The forum help post (https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Internet/Troubleshooting-a-Slow-or-Intermittent-Connection-Wir...) says that Rogers expects to see an SNR above 38dB (there's a unit typo in the link) which is clearly not what I'm seeing most of the time. (The stats I posted before was one of the better ones; if I refreshed 10 seconds later, most of it would go down)
The point of graphing it was just so I didn't need to sit around refreshing the modem page (and having to mentally check against what numbers I saw last time). The script I used was a modification of this GitHub repo with code from another repo supporting the XB7. The original version of the script here came with screenshots (of which I presume is their Comcast connection), which shows mostly constant SNR over the displayed 4 hour window:
Since I've heard Comcast infrastructure is generally worse (in terms of maintenance and upgrades) compared to Rogers, I expect Rogers to do just as well if not better. The above is a far cry from what I see over a 4 hour window:
I can try running PingPlotter to the CMTS later; the 1-2% packet loss spikes that I mentioned is monitoring Google's DNS servers by pinging it every second (my Bell backup connection is monitored the same way - though, it's of course not a true comparison since both routes to Google are different. The graph looks like this (for IPv4):
While the packet loss spikes seem to somewhat correlate with the fluctuating signals (though it could also be ICMP being dropped somewhere in the Rogers network - I do need to test CMTS later, but I've heard those deprioritize ICMP requests), for whatever reason, there doesn't always seem to be packet loss when the signal fluctuates to low values. But it does seem like whenever there's packet loss, there's also low SNR values. And zooming in to observe just the latency, I can somewhat confirm that the latency spikes seem to correlate with SNR fluctuation to low values (I checked a couple timestamps manually) - though, I would need to export .csv from both the script and the router to be sure. Then again, the stddev numbers fluctuate around ~1-3ms, which I presume is normal for cable technology.
For contrast, this is what my Bell DSL connection looks like (zero loss; the gap is due to me restarting my router):
What is certainly not normal is getting 200,000-500,000 uncorrectables on multiple channels within 24 hours of doing a restart of the modem. Every technician or tech support agent at least seems to agree that I should be getting zero, or very few (<1000) within a few hours, even if they don't agree on whether I have signal variation or not. (Again, for whatever reason, every person I talk to about this seems to either agree or disagree with me on a random basis)
Periodic speedtests (say every 15 mins) I'm bit hesitant to do as those do cause severe latency spikes (40ms+) while running. When I do run them manually, I see some fluctuation around 900-1170mbps (wired, to the same speedtest server), which doesn't really indicate whether it's a neighbourhood load problem or the fluctuating signals. (Though, I've heard from techs that there aren't many Rogers customers in my neighbourhood. This is a residential household, not an apartment or condo unit. The tap and node also seem to be in the Rogers box right on my lawn)
I mean, this isn't the most pressing issue for Rogers to fix, which is maybe why they only send contractors out (and some support agents being clueless as to what I'm talking about). But I do wish that after 2 tech visits at least something was improved significantly, not just marginally.
Somehow, the first two images aren't showing up when I refresh the page. Here they are uploaded elsewhere:
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@t_kwan fwiw, if you want to run a ping test to the CMTS, run that using the Windows ping command for a first run. The moderators @CommunityHelps will only look at data from a normal ping test. That's unfortunate as it doesn't include time stamps and the upper data will scroll up over the limit of the popup that contains the command prompt. However, as a gauge to determine the overall packet loss, it can be a useful test.
Run a ping test via ethernet to the CMTS:
1. Run a trace to anywhere, google for example: tracert www.google.com
2. If the modem is running in its default Gateway mode, the first IP in the trace should be the modem, the second IP will be the Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS). The neighbourhood node, which is the real target of test does not show up in the trace.
3. Ping the CMTS IP address. Run a long test. Minimum test time is an hour, I recommend a 24 hour test.
ping -n 86400 xxx.xxx.xxx where xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of the CMTS from hop #2 in the trace.
That test will run an automatically terminate at the 24 hour point. Post the bottom rest results which will show the packet loss to the CMTS over the entire day. The path to the CMTS is as follows:
1. PC to modem via ethernet
2. Modem to external demarcation point (Network Interface Device) via RG6 cable;
3. NID to Local Tap via RG6
4. Local Tap to Neighbourhood node via Hard Cable
5. Neighbourhood node to CMTS via Fibre
Anywhere along the path, from items 1 to 4 could cause packet loss. The usual culprit is the external cable that runs from the external NID to the Local Tap. That cable is the Achilles heal of cable systems. It doesn't last forever and requires periodic replacement. But, there could be issues at the Local Tap or beyond, up to and including the neighbouhood node. A problem such as the one that you're seeing requires patience to push Rogers techs to address the situation. The starting point is to quantify the packet loss that you see from the ping test to the CMTS.
Fwiw, Pingplotter is useful for one purpose, hunting for packet loss. The lost packets will show up in red, on the bottom display area, so, its easy to see when that packet loss occurs.
One problem with Pingplotter is that it will display multiple data points on the bottom plot when you either decrease the ping interval down to or below 1 second, or you switch to a high time frame display, such as 24 hours, 48, 72 hours. There are combinations of low pint intervals and selected higher timeframes, less than 24 hours where a single plotted data point will contain more than one captured data point. If you hover your mouse over the lower display, it should show the data point for that particular horizontal pixel. As you either decrease the ping interval or increase the time covered by the display, at some point that horizontal pixel will use more than one data point and it will do so without warning. You will see that on the popup display when your mouse is sitting in the lower display area. The data points will be displayed.
So, the greater impact of multiple data points per individual horizontal pixel is that Pingplotter averages the data points instead of using the higher or lower time values. So, the plot will flatten out and you will lose any high time points from the lower display. The upper data display, if the setting is on auto, will show the correct high and low values for the lower plot. So, if there are high time responses, you will know that they are somewhere in the plot as you can see the times in the upper data display. You won't know where those points are unless you scale down in terms of the plot time and scroll thru the data, looking for those high time values.
I haven't looked at this recently as I use Wireshark to capture and display the data. Wireshark doesn't average the data unless you plot the average times. Pingplotter probably hasn't changed this issue, but, I don't have a recent up to data version loaded.
Fwiw, I wouldn't expect to see large variations in the signal levels or signal to noise ratios after a modem reboot. If there are large variations, that tells me that there's an issue with the external cable, or its connectors or possibly an issue with the local tap that connects you and your immediate neighbours to the hard cable that runs from the neighbouhood node. Here's what a typical tap looks like. Essentially its an overgrown splitter with specs to match the RG6 and Hard Cable impedance:
http://www.acmetronix.com/at/index.php?m=content&c=index&a=show&catid=15&id=53
@t_kwan Just a few additional thoughts/comments:
That you are seeing a high number of uncorrectable codewords errors in your stats is indicative of problems, especially on your downstream D3.1 (OFDM) channel since that's the one that is really carrying your traffic.
You should not be seeing much variation in the SNR, especially over a short period of time. (Over the course of 15 minutes, I saw my SNR stats, across all channels, vary up and down by only 0.1 dB, and a max of 0.4 dB on one channel. I also got only 3 uncorrectable codewords errors on my D3.1 channel over the last 12 hours.)
When the SNR fluctuates, since this literally is the signal-to-noise ratio, one or both of those components is fluctuating, and I'd bet that noise is the culprit. When you call into Rogers, I don't think that the first-level tech vas visibility into these stats in your local node but a higher-level tech will, and can also check to see whether there are any "neighbourhood issues" that could be impacting you.
Within your home, what does the coax path look like from the time it enters your home to where it reaches your modem/gateway? Does the incoming Rogers cable feed connect directly to the coax connecter on the XB7 or do you use an F81 barrel connector to connect a coax cable that leads to a wall plate upstairs, and then to another coax patch cable that connects to your modem? If it's the latter, do you have any other wiring that runs on the same path as your coax cables or that shares the same wall plate? Each coax coupler on the path (including the one in the wall plate) is a point where you could get noise ingress.
Can you also confirm whether or not the coax coming into your home has been grounded?
@t_kwan I looked at your first post again. I see that you're running a router and that you have a signal attenuator installed.
I'm assuming that your modem is running in Bridge mode. In that case, the first IP address in the trace will be the router, the next IP address will be the CMTS. Ping the CMTS.
It would be odd to run a router in full router mode with the modem running in Gateway mode, however, it seems that more Ignite systems users are going that route due to the idiosyncracies of the XB6 or XB7. If thats the case, the first IP address is the router, the second IP address is the modem, the third IP address is the CMTS. Ping the CMTS.
For the attenuator, since the introduction of the Ignite system, I've noticed more users with high downstream signal levels. Don't know why that is, but, in some cases its a real problem. Installing an attenuator will drop the downstream levels, but, it will also push up the upstream levels. There is a real balancing act that occurs when you try to drop the downstream levels without pushing up the upstream levels to the point of failure, where the modem drops upstream channels due to the upstream power limitation of the modem. The DOCSIS spec calls for 51 dBmV max for three or four channel upstream ops. Rogers uses 52 dBmV for some reason. By then I'd expect to see the modem drop one or two upstream channels. There is a power extension up to 56 or 57 dBmV within the DOCSIS spec, but, I don't know if Rogers actually uses it.
I suspect that Rogers still uses a normal attenuator for situations like this, which affects the signal levels in both directions. There are Forward path attenuators which will drop the signal level for the downstream direction only. Here's an example:
https://www.amazon.ca/line-Signal-Forward-Attenuator-FPA6-54/dp/B07882H96R
There are other signal attenuator levels, usually, 3 or 6 or 9 dB attenuators.
I agree with @-G- . Have a look at the signal path from the modem out to the external demarcation point. There shouldn't be any splitter in that path. It should be a single path, where the internal house modem cable and inbound external cable are connected via F-81 connector.
You would have to be able to open the external Network Interface Device to check the ground situation. That requires a tool to open the NID. You can however ensure that there is a ground cable exiting the NID and that the cable is connected to the external power box which contains the electrical meter for your house. That ground cable is usually clamped to the meter box, which is then grounded to a house ground or to the inbound water pipe which serves as a ground point.
@t_kwan All the graphs and troubleshooting that you are doing is great... but I think that you need to change focus a bit with regard to how you get Rogers engaged to fix your signal issues.
The graphs, that you posted here, highlight that your SNR is dancing around and across a wide margin... definitely NOT normal... but as long as the signal levels are within Rogers' acceptable norms, they won't escalate tickets to get this fixed. You need Rogers to see that there is a problem that they think needs to be fixed, and it will help to have all of your equipment is running in a supported, as-installed configuration. Keep things simple, be patient, and let Rogers follow their processes.
First, disable Bridge Mode on your Ignite gateway. Remove your own router, if possible, and ensure that everything is in an as-installed configuration. Next, power-cycle the gateway to reboot it and reset the hardware, and then just leave it running. DO NOT reboot it. Let the Uncorrectable Codewords errors accumulate.
As I said before, if your signal levels are within acceptable norms, the Rogers techs cannot escalate your support ticket. Instead, focus on your error stats, especially on the downstream DOCSIS 3.1 OFDM channel. It's totally normal to have a huge number of correctable codewords on the D3.1 channel but the uncorrectables should be zero, or closer to zero. If you are getting a ton of uncorrectable codeword errors on the D3.1 channel, and on the D3.0 channels as well, that's a problem. That is packet loss. You can then point to the dancing SNR values as further evidence that you have might have a serious noise issue that needs to be addressed.... and all that combined will be enough to get a support ticket escalated and a qualified tech (and possibly a maintenance) crew to get dispatched.
If you don't feel up to talking with Tech Support on the phone all over again, try getting the @CommunityHelps team engaged. Keep Rogers focused on investigating the health of the cable plant in your area -- noise, stats on your local node/CMTS, and checking to see whether any other customers in your immediate area are also seeing a high number of errors.
Regarding other testing, it's good to perform speed tests using a computer connected to the Ignite gateway via Ethernet. You need to confirm whether or not you are getting your advertised speeds. If you are, then that does not necessarily mean that you do not have a problem that needs to be fixed. If you are not getting your advertised speeds, then this is something else that Rogers needs to investigate.
You don't need to run ping tests to confirm packet loss if you are seeing a high number of uncorrectable codewords errors in your stats.
Best of luck with getting your connection stabilized!
@-G- So, I followed your advice and managed to reach the second-level phone support. (Unfortunately, in the process, also had to endure one call with a very unhelpful first-level agent who claimed there was no such thing as second-level, that they never heard of such a thing, and the only person I could speak to was them)
They still couldn't see anything on their end, but dispatched a Rogers in-house technician to come and take a look. He couldn't find anything either, but referred my case to a senior in-house technician who could do a reverse sweep to the first active and call out a line maintenance tech if necessary. He forwarded my contact details to the senior tech and claimed I would be contacted soon.
Unfortunately, that was exactly one week ago (claimed I would receive a callback either last Friday or on Tuesday). Strangely, I also received a robocall last Monday (before the in-house tech visited) that my issue was "fixed" (it wasn't), repeated a case number, and said the case was now closed. I can only assume that somehow my case has been marked closed now in their internal system, and I will have to escalate all over again to get them to reach the same level again.
My issue is definitely not fixed, still seeing 3-5dB swings on several channels within 5-min time intervals (usually at night, when signals are worse). If anything, it has gotten worse as I managed to log the following just this afternoon - multiple swings down to 25-30dB on channel 31 (837MHz) with uncorrectables spikes on most surrounding channels (which has never happened before in the last 2 months that I've observed/logged; does not appear to be maintenance work as that usually impacts all channels).
In the meanwhile, I did manage to speak to a cable engineer (not from Rogers) who confirmed that any fluctuation beyond 0.5dB is indeed abnormal, let alone 3-5dB swings (at least at the ISP they worked at). They claimed my issue is temperature related, given signals are worse at night and the decline correlates with outside temperature change, and likely related to something being wrong with the AGC (automatic gain control) at the first amplifier behind the tap. (Also, I was wrong. There is no fiber at the pedestal and it is indeed a amplifier + tap located there; managed to get a closer look at the internals when the in-house tech visited)
I'm not so sure what to do now, other than wait for this issue to cause the entire neighbourhood problems, given it is near impossible to escalate this through frontline support (and I don't have the time/energy to repeat what I did last time). I've messaged @CommunityHelps already, but either my message didn't get through or no one wants to take a look at my case (received no reply).
Any suggestions, or should I just resign myself to wait for whenever a maintenance tech has to adjust the amplifier due to the seasonal changes (if Rogers even does that for each neighbourhood these days) or whenever this causes catastrophic neighbourhood-wide issues? ( @-G- , @Datalink , @57 ?)
I'm not sure why I keep being asked about speed tests, as that's not the problem here. The problem is stability.
Turns out I was right about fall/winter being a problem, hence why I tried to get this fixed early while it was still in the summer (and this seems to confirm theories I've heard from cable techs/engineers about it being related to a faulty line amplifier adjusting to temperature changes).
I've now completely lost connectivity multiple times in the last few weeks, up to 3 times per day; so far, it's 2-3 mins of outage once it goes down, but it will likely get worse. The modem would abruptly start ranging - during those same times when I usually get uncorrectable spikes (~13:00, 18:00, 04:00, 09:00) - the status LED would flash orange for several seconds, followed by green and then repeating until it turned white again with connectivity restored.
It's not a modem restart as the uptime and CW stats remain unchanged after connectivity is restored, and I'm quite sure it's not a firmware upgrade, as that shouldn't be happening multiple times per day (just today it went down at ~1:23pm and then again at 6:41pm) and multiple times within a week.
Here's the SNR fluctuation graph from today (plotted are the raw difference between last sampled value and the next value). The fluctuation has only gotten worse as the weeks go by, and not better:
Does anyone have any further advice @-G-, @Datalink, @57? And does anyone at Rogers care about my issue @CommunityHelps, @RogersCorey?
I've gotten nothing back from that senior in-house Rogers tech who was supposed to contact me, and no reply from CommunityHelps. Calling into support only leads to me being told that contractor techs need to be sent out to inspect my modem/in-house wiring - starting again from the bottom of the chain - which is ridiculous given 3 contractors + 1 in-house Rogers tech have inspected them multiple times in a span of less than two months.
There's clearly a need for line/maintenance techs to be involved - that was where my case was going before it abruptly and randomly got closed - yet no one I talk to seems to have the ability to escalate it up back there without starting from ground zero.
Does my internet need to go out completely for Rogers to care, or do I need to escalate this to the CCTS?
@t_kwan : You asked for my comments, but I'm not sure if it'll help:
1. In 2020 I had intermittent issues with my Internet where it went down for a minute or two every once in a while. Occasionally it went down for longer - say 20 minutes. This happened 50 times over a period of 3 months. (mainly August to October 2020). I contacted @CommunityHelps and they monitored my internet and the problem went away. I assumed that something in the line to our neighbourhood got fixed. I asked, but no-one knew what the fix actually was.
2. In 2021, about a year later, the same thing started happening. I again had about 50 brief outages over a 3 month period. (mainly August to October 2021). Again, @CommunityHelps monitored my connection, but they could find nothing wrong this time. A (good) technician was dispatched to my house and he found some issues with the main splitter in the grey box outside my home. One side of the splitter went to my modem and one went to another splitter feeding my TV boxes and Home Phone modem. At the time, I was still on Legacy Digital Cable. He replaced that splitter and also replaced some cable ends. The problem has not reoccurred and everything has been fine since October 2021. The interesting thing is that that same splitter had just been replaced a year or two earlier when I was having SDV channel issues. I switched to IgniteTV in late March 2022.
3. In summary, it appears I've had several bad two-way splitters. Perhaps because that splitter was outside in the grey box, caused premature failure. When I switched to IgniteTV, I believe that splitter was removed since I only need one connection to my Gateway.
Good Luck.
@t_kwan wrote:
I've gotten nothing back from that senior in-house Rogers tech who was supposed to contact me, and no reply from CommunityHelps. Calling into support only leads to me being told that contractor techs need to be sent out to inspect my modem/in-house wiring - starting again from the bottom of the chain - which is ridiculous given 3 contractors + 1 in-house Rogers tech have inspected them multiple times in a span of less than two months.
There's clearly a need for line/maintenance techs to be involved - that was where my case was going before it abruptly and randomly got closed - yet no one I talk to seems to have the ability to escalate it up back there without starting from ground zero.
Does my internet need to go out completely for Rogers to care, or do I need to escalate this to the CCTS?
I just had some signal issues of my own; things started to degrade for me back in June and then, slowly, started getting worse and worse. However, if the signal levels are within Rogers' acceptable norms and the issue is not service-impacting, it won't be a high priority for them to fix. It wasn't until my power levels and SNR reached the bottom end of (and dipped below) acceptable levels that I could get the matter investigated. By that time, the @CommunityHelps team was also able to confirm that my neighbours were also impacted and this was grounds to open a ticket. Unfortunately, that ticket got closed without any action being taken... but we escalated again, and my area maintenance tech then finally got dispatched and fixed the problem the next morning. The process took only a few days, and everything got fixed before it seriously impacted service. My neighbours had no clue that there were even any problems in the area.
When you look at your modem's stats, you only see symptoms. We don't even get access to any useful logs on the Ignite gateways... but Rogers has access to a ton of stats and they can very quickly localize problems. HFC infrastructure is tricky to maintain, and if tech support recommends sending another Rogers field tech to your home, then DO THAT. Even if your modem is dropping off the Rogers network and re-registering, it could be completely unrelated to your fluctuating SNR. Tech support will be able to see why. The problem may even be due to noise ingress in your own home, and totally unrelated to any anecdotes about other neighbourhood issues that you may have heard about.
As a next step, I would take the Ignite gateway and connect it at the point-of-entry. Plug the gateway's power adapter directly into a wall outlet, not into a power bar. Do not connect anything else to the gateway other than a computer, then check your stats. If your SNR is still dancing around, call tech support again or send a PM to @CommunityHelps and have them investigate. However, if everything is normal in this standalone, isolated configuration, then you have an in-home issue that you need to troubleshoot.
The @CommunityHelps team should also be able to see whether the SNR on your neighbours' modems are also fluctuating, or if there are any problems with their signal levels as well. However, if Rogers does not see any other affected customers in your area, then the problem is localized to you home and they will not be able to escalate to a maintenance crew. If Rogers does not see any problems at the tap in your pedestal, then they won't be able to escalate to a maintenance crew either.
Lastly, when dealing with tech support, don't fixate on the fluctuating SNR. Don't show them graphs, pingplotter results, or any other tools that Rogers does not endorse or trust. If the signal levels remain within acceptable norms and your modem is not disconnecting due to line conditions, and Speed Tests show that you are attaining your advertised speeds, then Rogers will not take any corrective action. However, if your in-home network is in a Rogers-supported configuration and line conditions drop to a point that is service-impacting, then Rogers will work quickly to remedy the situation... and if Rogers needs to dispatch another tech, then work with them and work within (and do not try to shortcut) their processes.
Hello @t_kwan!
I'd like to run some tests of my own and look into the documented history of this issue on your account. If you've had 4 techs out in the last two months, you may now qualify for a senior tech to come out and continue the investigation.
Feel free to send a private message to @CommunityHelps so we can assist you further. For more information on how our Private Messaging system works, you can find out more here.
Regards,
RogersCorey
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