Unstable 500u internet

[kevinspacey]

It is been 1 month of Rogers 500u internet and it has been a very frustrating experience. Had 3 modem changes and 4 tech visits. First 2 times the modem probably was a refurbished modem and finally after demanding a new one they gave a brand new modem.

The less the said about the technicians the better. All they did was check signal strenght and add Spliterrs and atenuators. None of them were capable of resolving the issue.

Finally after some analysis of what the techs we're trying I moved the modem from basement close to fibre point to upper level in the house and internet has been steady for last 24 hrs. I am wondering does having the modem too close to fibre outlet could be the cause of instability?

*Edited Labels*

[RogersMoin]

Hello, @kevinspacey.

Welcome to the Rogers Community Forums! 🙂

Thank you for sharing your Internet experience with the Community. Unstable Internet can surely be bothersome. Were you experiencing unstable Internet over a WiFi connection?

The modem being in the basement may result in poor WiFi experience due to various reasons in the top floors of the house. 

Please provide us with more details about the issue so that the Community can chime in.

Cheers,

RogersMoin

[kevinspacey]

The WIFI coverage was good, however, the modem would lose internet connection ever so often from the basement location. So far after moving the modem upstairs , the internet has not disconnected.

Does the distance from fibre outlet have something to do with the unstable connection. Thats the only meaningful change i have done since the last tech visit and replace of modem.

[RogersYasmine]

Hi @kevinspacey!

Although I'm disappointed to hear that your experience with us started off poorly, I am glad to hear that moving the modem to a higher floor seems to have stabilized it for the time being. Hopefully, we don't see any further issues going forward!

Typically, having your modem in close proximity to a fibre outlet should not cause any disruption to your internet signal. It could be as RogersMoin suggested, something environmental that is interfering with the signal from the basement to the other areas of your home. For example, electronic devices emitting their own signals or even certain building materials or furniture can sometimes be a factor in signal loss or disruption. 

If you can please keep an eye on things for now and let the Community know if anything changes, that would be great!

Kind regards!

RogersLaura

[kevinspacey]

The internet was stable for 2 days and since the weekend the problems have restarted.

Every few hours or so i lose internet connection. All lights on the modem are they way they are supposed to be when the connection is good.

When i  restart of the modem it takes a long while for WAN DHCP initialization process. This sometimes takes 15 to 20 min before internet is back

@Rogers Please provide guidance on how my issue can be resolved. I am pretty close to moving to another provider unless my internet is more stable.

[RogersTony]

Hello @kevinspacey,

Oh no! We were hoping the modem re-location to a more central area in the home would help to resolve this issue. Since that is not the case we'll really need to investigate further to see what is going on and review the notes on your file to see what has been done by the technicians on site.

Please send us a Private Message to @CommunityHelps so we can gather your information and get started on this for you. If you are not familiar with our Private Messaging system please check out our Blog.

We look forward to your message!

RogersTony

[Elestriel]

Terrible first hop connectivity ruining all online experiences

We have the 500u package. We moved into our place in June, and since then we've been seeing lag and rubberbanding in online games. Usually it's just a small hiccup and doesn't last, so we shrug it off, but for the last month or so now, we've been seeing absolutely terrible connectivity to basically every service we use.

Games, including Final Fantasy XIV, Path of Exile, Destiny 2, RIFT, Overcooked 2.

Streaming services such as YouTube and Netflix.

Teleconferencing services such as WebEx, Microsoft Teams, and Skype for Business.

All of these have become pretty much unusable in the last month or so, which has led to some serious difficulties as I'm a consultant who works from home. Not being able to take conference calls isn't exactly great for my career.

Anyway, moving on. The first hop out of my house has the IP 174.115.50.1. As far as I can tell, it's a Casa CMTS. This node likes to either drop packets (on really bad days) or simply take its sweet time responding. In online games, this gives me lag spikes lasting up to five seconds or even leading to disconnects. In streaming services - particularly Netflix - this means dropping from 1080p to potato quality repeatedly in the span of even a 20 minute show. In Skype, it means not hearing people, or hearing people chopped up and robotic-sounding.

So, what have we done about it? I've contacted Rogers a few times. They always say signal strength looks good and nothing is wrong. That's as far as it ever goes. They sent a tech out two weeks who slapped a Return Path Attenuator on the connection to my modem (which isn't where that should go, by the way - it should be at the tap) to bring down my upstream signal strength. Signals on my downlink connections run from about 3.5 to 8 dBmV, and before the attenuator, about 36-37 dBmV upstream, which is now down to about 27-29. Needless to say, none of this has helped. In fact, this week has been worst of all. Signal-to-Noise ratios always seem to be pretty good, hovering around 36-37.

I spoke with a Rogers tech today, and their recommendation was to get a new modem. I went out and picked up another one, same as my previous model (CODA-4582U). This modem, after I factory reset it and switched it into Bridged mode, is just as bad as the previous one. It doesn't seem worse, but it's not better, either.

I have tried running in Bridged and in Router mode. I have tried connecting directly to my PC (Win10), my work laptop (Win7), my personal laptop (Kubuntu), and my wife's PC (Win10) in both of these modes. I've tried wireless and wired, but mostly wired.

The tap in my back yard is rickety and beat up. It's a 4-port tap, which was completely consumed by unmarked connections when the tech came to set us up. He threw a splitter on to one of the connections, and connected us to that. I was worried about this from the get-go, but he told me that if there were connection issues, Rogers would send a team out to replace the 4-port tap with an 8-port tap, but it seems Rogers is rather hesitant to do this. I don't know what the lines on that tap are doing; perhaps one of them is what's causing interference for my line. Who knows?

Here's a PingPlotter diagram of me hitting the CMTS as I write this post. You can see an almost rhythmic pattern to the ping spikes, and I've been seeing this pattern for the last month. https://imgur.com/xEnZYau

What do I do from here? I like the service Rogers offers, and I'd really like to get back to actually being able to use said service.

[Datalink]

@Elestriel, I don't have much time tonight to address this, but, just to point out, your pingplot is not an issue.  Those high return times from the CMTS are only from the CMTS and do not affect anything beyond the CMTS.  That issue of high return times was introduced in firmware version 2.0.10.27, and its remained ever since.  We're now on version 2.0.10.36T6.  

What those high return times do is ruin a very simple latency test, modem to CMTS and back again. Don't know if its ever going to be fixed.  What doesn't change is packet loss.  If you have packet loss issues, that is how you detect it.  Run a ping test to the CMTS.  In this case you can drop the time down to 1 second or less.  Pingplotter allows you to overwrite the ping interval in the upper right hand corner.  The normal response time from the CMTS is in the 10 to 13 milli-second range.  If you drop the ping interval down to 0.1 seconds or less, you will see more high time returns.  

So, since you're on an unlimited account, I'd recommend running a ping test at 1 second intervals or less, to the CMTS.  Let that run for 24 hours.  With Pingplotter, you will probably see packet loss in the 0.1 to 0.3 % range.  Running a command line test should result in losses in the 0.1 % range or less.  The packet losses will show up in red. 

As for actual latency, with the CMTS out of the running for test purposes, the next best target is Rogers DNS.  Ping one of the following IPV4 and IPV6 addresses for latency test purposes.  I'd recommend 1 second intervals for now.  

Rogers IPV4 DNS:

Primary:           64.71.255.204
Secondary:     64.71.255.198

Rogers IPV6 DNS

Primary IPv6 DNS:

2607:f798:18:10:0:640:7125:5204

Secondary IPv6 DNS:

2607:f798:18:10:0:640:7125:5198

Packet Loss:

Pingplotter and the 4582 modem don't play nice together.  As a result, Pingplotter will display false packet loss indications:

1. If you ping the modem, you should not see any packet loss; and

2.  If you ping the CMTS, Pingplotter will display false packet loss from the modem; and

3.  If you ping some target beyond the CMTS, Pingplotter will display false packet loss from both Modem and CMTS.  

4.  To confirm any packet loss that is observed with Pingplotter for the end target, run a command line ping test.  If you don't see any packet loss with a command line ping test, then Pingplotter's packet loss was a false indication.

To run any test looking for packet loss and latency, the order that I recommend is:

1.  Ping the modem at a high rate looking for latency and packet loss.  Don't be afraid to ping the modem at a very high rate, drop the interval down to 0.05 seconds or so.  The data on the plot will be averaged when you use higher plot times, 5 min or above.  See the linked post below regarding this issue.  Ping the modem for at least an hour, preferably when their isn't anything going on with the ethernet or wifi networks.  You can use both IPV4 and IPV6 addresses for the modem. 

2.  Ping the CMTS at 1 second intervals, looking for packet loss.  Ignore the high return times as their meaningless.  You can use both IPV4 and IPV6 addresses for the CMTS.

3.  Ping the DNS with 1 second intervals, looking for both latency and packet loss.  The typical response time will be in the 10 to 13 milli-second range and your packet loss with Pingplotter should be in the 0.1 to 0.2 % range.  

Pinging the DNS allows you to look beyond the CMTS and stay within the Rogers network, where you'll see the lowest return times and packet loss numbers.  When you go beyond the Rogers network, all bets are off as you cross ISP boundaries and run into congestion on other networks.  But, by running testing internally within the Rogers network, that allows users to understand what the modem and Rogers network is capable of.  

What this doesn't cover is the issue of peering with and routing to other networks, both of which are black holes as far as I'm concerned.  There has never been any discussion in the forum regarding either subject, which is unfortunate as it would probably generate much discussion between the customers and the network engineering staff.  

Lastly, before you launch off for any test sessions with Pingplotter, for additional comments on Pingplotter, can you please read thru the following post and the linked post that it contains.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r32225577-

[Elestriel]

I'll leave this running for 24 hours, like you said, but so far it's not looking good. https://imgur.com/VlvvAqE

[Datalink]

@Elestriel this testing should be done via ethernet.  Your plot indicates a wifi connection.  That's looking pretty ugly.  If this is via wifi, can you run that via ethernet please.  If it turns out the same way, I wouldn't bother running it for an extended period as it indicates that there is some problem with the response from the Domain Name Server.  

Can you run the same test to the primary IPV6 DNS address, just to see what turns up.

[Elestriel]

@Datalink

It would kind of defeat the purpose if I was doing performance testing over wifi! This is most definitely over a wired connection. That's just how bad it's been for me. testwifi.here is just Google Wifi's name.

I've just run this for a couple minutes on IPv6 address 2607:f798:18:10:0:640:7125:5204, which I believe is their primary DNS, and I'm seeing the same pattern of spikes on the CMTS, but otherwise pretty good pings and no packet loss down the line. https://imgur.com/shMz4Hk

[Meppo]

I just had my Ignite 500 Mbps installed. This is a replacement for my Bell Fibe (25 Mbps) which was starting to get slow by today’s standards. The tech tested everything as good before he left, but there MUST be something wrong because websites like google take up to 10 seconds to load. Sometimes I get an error on my device saying I’m not connected to the internet. I do the Roger Speed Test and get 50 down and 20 up (slow but I could live with it). Whatever the problem may be, it has nothing to do with my end devices because they all have the same symptoms and they all worked fine on the old Bell Fibe system. I call to complain but all they do is “refresh my modem’s settings” and then ask me to cycle the power. If I escalate this, I’m sure I can get the tech back to change the modem, but I’ve been down this road when Rogers before. They come by, change the equipment, it works fine while the tech is there and then the problem resurfaces shortly after he leaves. I believe it to most likely be a configuration issue - or an intermittent coax signal problem.
Anyone have any ideas before I cancel and go back to Bell?

[Meppo]

My post was pigeonholed into this thread but I don’t see any relevant solutions here. There is a LOT of technical jargon here. It’s not lost on me but I’m not willing to waste a single second of my time to diagnose this problem as it is not my job. I’m paying top dollar for a service that does not work. Why am I not having this problem fixed for me?
If I’m left to diagnose the problem myself, I would say it lies in Roger’s system or my physical connection to it (buried coax). I’m not willing to waste my time doing modem swaps. As I’ve said, I’ve been down this toad before s few years ago and Rogers ultimately lost my business.
Basically, if I don’t get a quick resolution now, it’ll be cancelled. Bell Fibe was slow but it never ever failed to provide service.

[Elestriel]

My post was pigeonholed into this thread, too, so I feel your pain. Seems they like to hide issues under other issues. 😞

[RogersMoin]

Hello, Meppo.

Thank you for joining Rogers Community Forums, a peer-to-peer Community and for sharing your Internet service experience. Getting only 50 Mbps download speed on a 500 Mbps can be disappointing. There are many variables here as to why getting such low speeds; you certainly don't have to diagnose the issue yourself. Please continue to reach out to your Concierge support agent until the issue is resolved to your satisfaction. 

Thank you for understanding!

Cheers,

RogersMoin

[Meppo]

RogersMoin,

Thank you for your response. My issue is not the slow speeds, I could live with that. My issue is that simple, basic functions like browsing internet websites are not adequate. As I mentioned, and I’ll use google as a benchmark, it takes 5+ seconds to load google.ca, if it doesn’t timeout while trying.
Any Roger’s support agent I’ve spoken with either finds no problem, or opts for the easy answer to make me go away for a little while - which is: swap my brand new modem at a Rogers store for a refurbished one. I’ve done this before, years ago, when I was a Rogers customer. They had me swap it out 4 times before I got fed up and canceled.
I would like to see the coax that runs from my home out to the street box replaced. It has been there for at least 20 years, it’s pretty dinged up. I know because my landscaper hit it a few times while working on my property. I believe this cable is causing intermittent signal loss.

[RogersMoin]

Hello, @Meppo.

Thank you for your continued patience while we work to find a solution for you. It should not take more than five seconds to load google.ca. Can you confirm if you have the Ignite TV service? Your modem should be Arris XB6. Since it's a new installation, the Concierge team should be able to find a satisfactory resolution for you. The visiting techs can determine the root cause of the issue and take necessary decisions to either replace the cable or any other components. 

Please keep us posted. 

Cheers,

RogersMoin

[Meppo]

I do have the Rogers Ignite TV as well. It too has its moments of freezing, audio that cuts out, or just flat out signal loss - caused by the poor quality internet I’m sure.
I’m out of the country for a while. I will reach out to the concierge when I return. I only posted in here in the hopes that it was a common problem solved by something as simple as using a different DNS server.

[Elestriel]

Just checked again today, and I'm seeing 18-20% packet loss to the Rogers DNS and to the node before it., 64.71.255.204 and 10.202.47.161 respectively. That 10.x one is confusing, since 10.0.0.0/8 is a reserved internal block, so it's probably masquerading something. Here's another screenshot, for the heck of it. https://i.imgur.com/03nvQQk.png

Anyway, I'm not going to let this issue get buried, no matter how many other threads get mashed into this one.

[RogersAndy]

Hey @Elestriel,

Definitely not going to get buried and seeing packet loss is no doubt incredibly concerning especially if it's within the Rogers network. I know first hand how difficult it can be to isolate the cause of what your experiencing and I've had a lot of success seeing network level issues to resolution. Given that it does seem to be appearing within the Rogers network, and if during testing it's visible, and it can be replicated, we can look into having this addressed for you. Reach out to us at your leisure and I'll be happy to go over this with you. To do so, send us a private message @CommunityHelps and we'll have the ability to determine next steps. For more information on our Private Messaging system, please click here.

RogersAndy

[Meppo]

Update:
I contacted a Rogers Ignite concierge who passed me off to tech support, then tier 2 tech support, who observed intermittent package loss during a period of time when my service was exceptionaly poor. They scheduled a tech to come and take some local signal strength measurements and replace my modem.
The tech came, didn’t replace my modem, and said he had found the problem: A “dirty” connection in the box attached to my house which was causing a -2db drop. Now, as an electronics engineer, I know this to be a line of nonsense. This level of signal drop is insignificant, and unmeasurable. I suspect he couldn’t find any problems and didn’t have a spare modem with him.
A few hours later the TV was unwatchable again and the Internet was useless.
I called tech support again and then they wanted to schedule another tech to come to do the same thing. I said I was not willing to give any more of my time to this issue. At that point, they changed their story. Now they say that the problem is due to a known, ongoing problem that should be resolved in a few days. Their solution is for me, the customer, to unplug power and coax from my modem every few hours in order to stabilize my service. Wow! just wow...
I will give Rogers a week to get me the service that I’ve been paying for. If not, I’m cancelling snd I want every cent I’ve paid for the last two months, plus all the overage charges on my cell because my phone always switching to LTE while I’m at home. I think it should all be refunded even if they get it working.