[To_be_confirmed]

So, I've been looking at a friend's UPC broadband connection where they're having regular problems with the internet disconnecting. Sometimes it's fine for 2 hours, sometimes the internet will be lost 3 times in an hour. It would take 2 minutes to come back online and the lights suggest that the router fully restarted the connection and initiated the internet connection from scratch. Looking at the thomson's webpage, it confirms that the connection is initialising and the wifi connection remains unaffected.

I also notice that the power levels fluctuate a lot for both downstream and particularly upstream, varying from 32 dBm to 51 dBm over the space of a minute or so. The SNR is above 40dB all the time for the downstream signal however so no problems there.
The event log is very busy with this modem and I've attached a picture of it. The disconnections occur after a T3 timeout is reported. UPC's service otherwise works fine!

So basically, a friend's UPC connection is regularly dropping. Modem seems to drop connection and then renegotiate it again (like it's just been turned on). Connection stats seem a bit peculiar. No problems while modem is working. Physical connections to the modem look good. In Killester area. UPC can't be contacted just yet as billpayer isn't around. What will UPC likely do? I've a feeling that they'll just send out a guy in a van who might swap the modem and nothing will change. Oh and the disconnections have been going on for a while, possibly since they got the connection installed. Is there anything that can be done before UPC have a look or is there a way to get the problem fixed by them ASAP?

Thanks for any suggestions!

[To_be_confirmed]

So it's now disconnected 3 times in the last 15 minutes. As it takes a couple of minutes waiting each time it means using the internet is a pain now. Any other people with this problem recently? I see a lot of threads on UPC and the Thompson modem but most are about other issues or modem functionality.

And here's a concerning post from a stateside tech forum: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r26010252-

Not only may the problem be with UPC themselves but it might also require some escalation to get fixed...

[Jiggs]

We have had the same problem in Rathmines area. UPC came and replaced our modem, but it's happening again tonight. It sometimes will work an entire week, and other times it will drop 5 times in an evening. We've even had it drop for an entire night and not come back until the next morning.

Often when it gets dropped, half of the Downstream Channels are greyed out and the modulation is 'unknown'.

[burt]

Same problem in Ringsend area. Works fine for weeks then have weeks of little to no service. It always seems to go down outside of support hours.

[Damo2k]

I'm experiencing connection hangs with this router. I'm still shown as connected to the router, but cannot sent/receive any data to the Internet. Also cannot browse the routers web interface also. Connection just times out. Have to reset the wifi interface to get connection again. This happens about 10 times a day.

Happens on a dell laptop (both Windows & Linux) and an Nexus One phone running Android 2.3.6.

[LoGiE]

I'm having a similar problem and the only thing that works is rebooting the router. Is this a known issue or something?

[disco girl]

I've had this same problem, had 4 UPC techs out, looked at everything and eventually replaced modem. Connections still kept dropping out, the last tech that was out with us had it escalated to network crew, he had replaced all splitters outside the house and in the shore on the road. He said it wasn't a fault within the house so it has to be a network issue.

I rang UPC to see what the status was and was told that the issue had been resolved by the network crew so the case was closed.

Need to ring them again today as the issue is still there, have checked the logs on the modem and it goes off at least a few times during a 24hr period.

5 months this has been going on now....

[Alter-Ego]

Bump.

I'm having some similar problems with my Thomson TWG870U Router/Modem. A few times a day or a few times an hour (it varies) the Internet connection drops. The WiFi connection is fine.

I don't have access to the router all the time as it's in my house mate's room so I just disable my wireless adapter and enable it again to get internet activity, so a full router/modem reboot is not needed to fix the problem.

It also seems to happen more often if I have torrents downloading.

Anybody experienced similar problems and find a solution?

Edit:

It happens on both my desktop and laptop, but not at the same time. I.e. If the desktop connection goes down, the laptop will still have an internet connection. Both systems are windows XP, but it happens a lot less on the Laptop than the Desktop. Only really happens when downloading torrents on the laptop.

[MewashS]

Have the same problem. Dropping internet connection when connected through wireless (remains connected to the WIFI) but never drops when wired.

It is always when watching life video streaming so it must be something to do with excessive data downstream that these routers cannot cope with.
I have IP Flood detection disabled on the router but is didn't help much.

I guess this might be due to low quality routers that UPC provides...

[krish61]

did not have the problem when on Cisco router 25Mbs - switched to 50Mbs - got Thomson modem and have nothing but problems since then. Called UPC many times, reported the problems, i always got stupid bimbo on the phone calling me trying to convince me this is my computer problem. We have 5 laptops in the house, different makes and models, 4 different operating system (Windows 7, Windows Vista, OpenBSD and BackTrack Linux) and they like stubborn donkeys keep telling me, this is computer/laptop related problem. Sometimes it drops few times in 5 minutes, sometimes laptop with BackTrack Linux connects to the modem then it's been disconnected...then it connects again - gets drop off again - and this play lasts for the whole night sometimes. Next day - it is other way: laptop BackTrack Linux keep connected while Windows 7 keeps disconnected. OpenBSD is different since it monitors the connections and when loses the connections it resets the wireless card and ask DHCP for new IP number again, so the only thing you see is the wireless card indictaror blinking sometimes. For me it looks like this is wireless router problem, since it loses the strenght of the signal sometimes down to one bar - even when my laptop is 3 meters away from the router. Then a second later the signals jumps up to 5 bars..

UPC is ignoring the problem all the time. They have stupid bimbos working with them as Customer Service Consultants and they completely ignore what I am saying about the laptops; they keep repeating like a parrots: this is your laptops related problem; when I asked them - you want to tell me, that 5 laptops with 4 different operating systems are having the same problem - they just keep saying: This is problems with your computers not the modem since we did check the modem and it works ok.

Today i lost my temper and wrote them they are stupid thick donkeys and i want to see a technician in my home, someone who knows the stuff. I have network diagnostics files (on Windows so they could not tell me they support only Windows based computers) I want him to look at them (can't send them since they not accept attachments to emails and the files are 250MB one and 250MB another one) both files contain all registered issues with network while it worked, when it stopped, what happened then and what happened when windows was fixing the connection, all this kind of technical stuff.)

As for now it seems like the only solution to this is to turn off and on the wireless card itself (since to be honest this is the only thing that Windows is doing when fixing this problem automatically) or - i f you have a wireless switch beside the keyboard (like my HP has) just press it to disconnect the wireless and press it again to connects it again. It will negotiate the IP address with the modem/router again and it will work...at least for some time. It looks like the modem has problem with lease time for DHCP IP address it sends to the computer and then something is not OK with it when computer tries to renew the lease time...it just got - i do not know to call it - half rejected and wireless connections stalls then.... most of the time with 'Limited Access" information. Sometimes when you open Wireless Center (or something that has similar name) it shows exclamation mark on the connection between the computer and router AND red 'X' mark on the side of router/internet side...sometimes it shows just the 'X' mark on the router/internet side and sometimes just the exclamation mark on the computer/router side..... the side it shows the problems varies. But the outcome is alwas the same: computer can't connect to Internet.

I am tired of UPC and this problem. They just keep ignoring me as a customer and keep lying to me that this is not modem/router related problem but problem with my computers.... yeah, my arse... - 5 of them at random loose connection - every day different one...


And another thing - UPC has new meaning for english word: UNLIMITED which NOW measn UNLIMITED = 250GB For me - technically - it is still LIMITED even while the limit is really high, it still has a cap on it, so it is LIMITED in some way...or maybe I do not know english good enough

Cheers. Keep pushing UPC to fix it or to change modem. When I had Cisco 25Mbs modem - it run like a charm. actually - it was even faster then it is on 50Mbs now (when I am able to connect to the net at all) where I have never had faster speedtest result than 29Mbs... In fact most of the time i have 17Mbs and there are times when i can't even pass the test since the connection just is so slow... And i am paying for 50Mbs.. Someone is make fun of me i guess.

Sorry for mistakes..... English is not my mother language but i hope you can figure out what i am talking/writing about

[mark17j]

Have you tried changing channels on the router, sounds like it could be wireless interference.. I had a similar issue to this last year.

[krish61]

Originally Posted by mark17j

Have you tried changing channels on the router, sounds like it could be wireless interference.. I had a similar issue to this last year.

I have tried everything - believe me. Changing channels does not help in anyway. The only thing I have not tried yet is to pull cables for I do not want to pull cables all around the whole house.... I do not want to be stucked to one place. After all - this is what the wireless is for, right?

And what is the most important : I DID NOT HAVE THAT PROBLEM WITH CISCO MODEM/ROUTER THAT I HAD WHEN I HAD 25Mbs BROADBAND FROM UPC. When I told that to one of UPC customer support people (someone pretending to know the stuff) and I also demanded the Thomson stuff to be changed to Cisco modem/router, I was told by him that 'Thomsons routers are the best ones' .... LOL I don know, but for me Cisco have the best stuff and I know that from experience (not only have experience with the Cisco router I had from UPC but I was system admin (*nix/Novell NetWare network) for 8 years and I never experienced any problems from any Cisco hardware; they are the best ones for sure).

[bealtine]

Originally Posted by krish61

I never experienced any problems from any Cisco hardware; they are the best ones for sure).

I had no end of problems with Cisco kit, I've never seen so many stupid bugs ever in any piece of kit. The Cisco modems are the consumer division not the professional stuff, big difference.

[krish61]

Originally Posted by bealtine

I had no end of problems with Cisco kit, I've never seen so many stupid bugs ever in any piece of kit. The Cisco modems are the consumer division not the professional stuff, big difference.

Actually to be honest - Motorola, Cisco and Zoom are deemed to be the bests modems for house use. I am not talking about professional HW setup, where you also use Cisco different models though. I worked for Cable TV company with Internet access and most of the hardware we used was Ciscos. Seen many setups (some ISPs too) and they used Cisco's hw as well. I have never had problems with Cisco that were properly setup - they worked perfect for me.

The problem is more complex. I used to have linux based router in the house with access to the internet via cable TV company. My linux router was working with no problems at all (all i had to do was just archive and clean log files) for over 3 years! I did not reboot the computer for over 3 years - i did not have to. Not even a single problems with this. But the setup was done properly. I had friends that had problems with same hardware/software configuration and they had heck of problems there... If you know what you do and you know the stuff - it will work great for you. If you try everything by 'lets see what this does' - you will end up in a **** for sure.

[bealtine]

Originally Posted by krish61

Actually to be honest - Motorola, Cisco and Zoom are deemed to be the bests modems for house use. I am not talking about professional HW setup, where you also use Cisco different models though. I worked for Cable TV company with Internet access and most of the hardware we used was Ciscos. Seen many setups (some ISPs too) and they used Cisco's hw as well. I have never had problems with Cisco that were properly setup - they worked perfect for me.

Cisco professional gear is well tested the consumer gear isn't tested at all and if you report bugs they pretend there's no problem