Intermittent web clogging

Intermittent web clogging
Links: home · search · speed test · login · more ·

Links: Reply New Topic
Forums » US Cable Support » Cox HSI » Intermittent web clogging

khobar @ 4th Nov 07:14PM:
Intermittent web clogging

As per request, I have started a new thread. Here is the relevant info for my issue:

Modem: Motorola Sb6120
Router: Linksys WRT54G (old)
Netgear WNR3500 (new)

Tier speed: Not sure – 7Mb?

Signal levels: 35dB, -3 dBmV (down)
44dBmV (up)

Cable connected directly to modem. There is some splitter type device in the box outside, this was replaced by Cox technician.

Speedtests depend on which one is run and the location I choose. Denver is slower than San Francisco using DSL Reports speedtest (5Mbps versus 13Mbps). Speedtest.net gives completely different numbers again – 20+ Mbps. However, download speed tests suggest excellent throughput even when network is “clogged”.

Upload speed tests are a completely different story. It appears when the network is clogged, upload speed drops to as low as 1Kbps, or nothing at all due to timeout. The upload numbers are erratic – varying from 100Kbps to 4Mbps regardless of network status.

»test.lvcm.com/ gives download speed of 13.5Mbps (of about 17.6Mbps), upload speed of 4.26Mbps.

I have applied no tweaks. Have never needed to.

Connected both wired and wireless. Problem persists either way. Internal connection/transfer is unaffected.

I have no other service.

The issue is random web clogging (as near as I can determine). Email and instant messaging do not appear to be as affected – they certainly don’t behave the same way as web access.

I originally had an SB3100, the same modem I had when I first got HIS back, what, 1998? Every now and then – maybe once in 6 months – 2 years – glitched and caused similar symptoms. On that modem all lights would be on and indicating everything was normal. I’d cycle the power and suddenly the online light would not come on and it would eventually reset. If the problem did not clear up I called Cox. I’d be told nothing was wrong and that I needed a new modem. Within a short time after the call, the network would mysteriously fix itself.

This past time when I was told I needed a new modem, I checked on the forums and people agreed that my modem really was too old to keep up and probably causing the problem. I replaced the 3100 with a 6120 and it did not resolve anything. I replaced the Linksys router with the Netgear router – no change. There does not seem to be any pattern to this either – time of day varies, length of “disruption” varies, time between disruptions varies.

I don’t know if this is a clue or not, but yesterday around 1:30PM the network became unclogged and stayed unclogged until somewhere between 8-9PM? I don’t know for sure because I wasn’t on every minute in between, but when I’d jump on between those times it seemed to be fine. I checked my modem log and found this:

DHCP RENEW sent - No response for IPv;CM-MAC={edited};CMTS-MAC={edited};CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;

Hopefully this will help. Keeping my fingers crossed.

At this exact moment I am NOT experiencing the problem (5:16PM 11/04/09)
reply

khobar @ 5th Nov 09:41AM:
Re: Intermittent web clogging

This morning the net for me is very slow. So I decided to reboot the modem. It rebooted twice and now I have a blue indicator for "Receive" indicating "bonded" channels. This is entirely NEW.

Yesterday, as with most days, my download speed from San Fran using DSLReports speedtest was 12.8Mbps. Today it's dropped down to 4227Kbps with an upload speed of 108Kbps, down from previous numbers.

I re-ran the San Fran test and got 13Mbps download and 56Kbps upload.

Speedtest.net reports 19.73Mbps download, zilch for upload (I presume it cannot connect).

2nd time for Speedtest.net reports 12.91Mbps download, still zilch for upload.

The death of upload speed has got to mean something.
reply

madden2k5 @ 5th Nov 09:59AM:
Re: Intermittent web clogging

Could be possible that its a noise issue causing the slow/no upload speed.

EDIT: another thing you said you are getting bonded channels now also on the downstream. So they could be still doing work with the D3 in your area, and it could be affecting alot of people. But if it continues you should call them and let them know of the problem.
reply

jsmiddleton4 @ 5th Nov 02:26PM:
Re: Intermittent web clogging

kho...

I have had similar symptoms. Choking, lags, packet loss then normal speeds, etc. No pattern. Just happens. And its annoying as crap. Almost impossible to capture. None-the-less it is really happening.

I have no experience with the 6120 and from some of the posts it seems to be a bit different than the non docis 3.0 modems. I have SB510.

Here is what took care of my symptoms. I hesitate using the word "fix" as I do not think Cox fixed some of the infrastructure problems.

1. There was a problem with one of Cox's pieces of equipment, a "board" needed to be replaced. But the problem with the board was not fully discovered until there was a truck roll by a very nice and helpful Cox team, not 3rd party contractors, and a supervisor. They by putting eyes and hands on the system in my neighborhood discovered the there was a problem with equipment, still not sure exactly what, and the node was over utilized. Which leads me to number 2.

2. My node needed splitting. It was over utilized. The determination of such was not diagnosed internally by Cox support. Well intentioned I'm sure but they, the internal Cox folks, got it wrong. By having a truck roll who on-site checked it, the over utilization was found and was pretty bad actually.

As a result I recommend a truck roll, ask for a field supervisor as well. Sorry but that seems to be the best chance for resolution. The supervisor and his team that helped me were great.

3. My router went bad. During the process my router went bad and was part of the problem. Easy to determine by taking it out of the system. I recommend doing so.

4. My modem needed a firmware update.

5. Lastly they put an amp on my hsi side. While I am pleased it alleviated the symptom I am not pleased that why it was suddenly necessary when for over a decade I have not needed one went unanswered. Having to put an amp on when it has never been required before means something. What that meant was not fully explored and by not being explored was not repaired. BUT the symptom went away.

6. Went away until I started having issues with Cox's dns servers. Changing to 4.2.2.1/4.2.2.2/4.2.2.3 has fixed the new symptom.

Just know that you should be prepared to do what I call the Cox dance. Wish it was simple, one call fixes things, we all one big happy family. That is not the case. Hanging in there until you see the fix in place will be on your shoulders.
reply

khobar @ 5th Nov 04:15PM:
Re: Intermittent web clogging

This particular problem has been around for a while. When it got really bad I posted it here - Oct. 9, 2009. I had my old modem then asked if Cox's advice to replace it with a new modem was good advice. I was told it was. So I did.

The problem is so frustrating because of the lack of consistency. Right now the network is running smooth and fast. If it stays this way I'll be happy. Unfortunately, I've been here before, so we'll see.

I don't know if it could be noise - my signals are apparently all good, but without a real-time monitor it's hard to say.

The bonding is completely new. It did not immediately fix the problem, but within about a half hour I think the problem went away, for the time being at least. I don't know if that means anything.

Again, we'll see. Keeping my fingers crossed.
reply

khobar @ 5th Nov 04:26PM:
Re: Intermittent web clogging

I'm working with Cox as best I can, giving them updates with times and speeds as I can.

I did change the DNS servers to .1, .2, and .3 and I don't know if that's resolved anything as I don't think that was my particular problem (though I did have multiple DNS failures through the month so maybe).

About the node being over-utilized, I have to wonder about that. Earlier I had major issues with my wireless network dropping and thought my router was acting up. So I replaced the router and this did NOT help. I wondered if it was interference, so I clicked on "View Wireless Networks" and, at times, there are upwards of 12 or so active in my area. I took my laptop out one morning and walked around and was pretty much able to identify each one. It seems every house in my immediate neighborhood is hot.

Now, oddly, I am not having the same issue with the wireless, and I'm not sure why. I don't see a black cloud or mystical vortex over the house, so I'm at a loss to explain it.

I've had a tech out here who removed a splitter from the box outside and replaced it with some kinda funky looking gizmo. He also adjusted my upstream levels in hopes it was just a splitter/connector failure. It wasn't. I've been in constant contact with that tech who said something about elevating the status so they could monitor???

My router has been replaced - symptoms are the same on both (and they are different routers).

Cox also updated the firmware in my modem, and it was needed. Did not resolve the problem.

Thanks for the input folks!
reply

Graycode @ 5th Nov 07:25PM:
Re: Intermittent web clogging

You've posted quite a bit, but that also makes it a bit harder to wade through.

Have you already tried swapping your ethernet cables? If you don't have a spare, sometimes swapping them around or reversing them might change your symptoms if a cable is flaky. Swap around every cable, router to modem and PC's to router.

Next thing to do is open a DOS command prompt window, then enter this command:
netstat -s
You might copy & paste here either all of it or what's in the "TCP Statistics" section. Specifically the measures of "Failed Connection Attempts", "Reset Connections", and "Segments Retransmitted" as proportions of the other lines may indicate something.

If you haven't already done so, you might check whether you have IPV6 enabled on your computer(s). Checking involves right-clicking on the network connection and choosing Properties. You probably don't want IPV6 enabled until you've resolved the more conventional IPV4 connectivity problems, and even then it's unlikely to be useful.

Good luck with it.
reply

jsmiddleton4 @ 6th Nov 08:45AM:
Re: Intermittent web clogging

"The problem is so frustrating because of the lack of consistency."

Yep.

"I've been in constant contact with that tech who said something about elevating the status so they could monitor???"

Part of what had to be done for my node was the Cox guys parked a truck at one of the taps and monitored it. It sounds to me, sounds mind you, that you have a hardware problem in the Cox infrastructure. Something up stream, or down depending on your point of view, has or is failing. I would ask for a Cox field supervisor and ask that they start checking the equipment in your node.

The other thing is Cox will fix a piece of equipment like that and not tell anyone. You'll never know other than all of the sudden your symptom goes away.
reply

Ender3rd @ 6th Nov 10:49PM:
Re: Intermittent web clogging

I ran into an exasperating issue with symptoms similar to yours. My download/upload speeds were generally quite good, and my signal levels were very good, but randomly, throughout the day, my upload speed would fall to dial-up speeds. At times, my connection would seem to stall, although IM clients would stay connected. Running ping plotter for several days revealed that for periods of time ranging from 3-4 minutes to as long as 10-15 minutes I was experiencing very high packet loss. Cox rolled trucks after it found that it was not just me. My entire node was drifting off into the twilight zone. The issue turned out to be an ingress problem that was causing noise on the upload frequency. They changed our upload channel and eventually tracked down the ingress issue after they brought in a team of techs equipped to find it.

You might want to run ping plotter out to your first hop, configured to take a snapshot once an hour, and see what it looks like over a 24 hour period.
--
My Jeep is not an SUV. Your SUV is not a Jeep.
reply

khobar @ 7th Nov 12:42PM:
Re: Intermittent web clogging

I am downloading ping-plotter now. I'll have to read up on it, but the first run to www.cox.net showed 100% packet loss. That can't be right (ipa's showed as just 100, no dots). ;)

Pinging 68.2.2.5 now which I think is a good number. The 10. number is the IPA of my cable modem on the HSI side, yes?

On the plus side, the system seems to be running well since yesterday.
reply

khobar @ 7th Nov 01:26PM:
Re: Intermittent web clogging

Sorry for the clutter - I just don't know enough to be more specific, so I am blasting whatever I see out there in hopes that somewhere in all of it is THE clue.

Thank you for the netstat suggestion - very interesting results, I think:

IPv4 Statistics

Packets Received = 647215
Received Header Errors = 0
Received Address Errors = 2858
Datagrams Forwarded = 0
Unknown Protocols Received = 0
Received Packets Discarded = 2
Received Packets Delivered = 647147
Output Requests = 440167
Routing Discards = 0
Discarded Output Packets = 0
Output Packet No Route = 0
Reassembly Required = 9
Reassembly Successful = 3
Reassembly Failures = 0
Datagrams Successfully Fragmented = 0
Datagrams Failing Fragmentation = 0
Fragments Created = 0

ICMPv4 Statistics

Received Sent
Messages 160 96
Errors 0 0
Destination Unreachable 98 30
Time Exceeded 11 0
Parameter Problems 0 0
Source Quenches 0 0
Redirects 0 0
Echos 4 62
Echo Replies 47 4
Timestamps 0 0
Timestamp Replies 0 0
Address Masks 0 0
Address Mask Replies 0 0

TCP Statistics for IPv4

Active Opens = 17428
Passive Opens = 63
Failed Connection Attempts = 806
Reset Connections = 1015
Current Connections = 4
Segments Received = 598107
Segments Sent = 378556
Segments Retransmitted = 5269

UDP Statistics for IPv4

Datagrams Received = 48720
No Ports = 392
Receive Errors = 30
Datagrams Sent = 55232
reply

khobar @ 7th Nov 08:10PM:
Re: Intermittent web clogging

Gee, does it mean anything when the plot turns completely red? ;)

Says 10% packet loss.

I just got another sample in - this time 20% packet loss.

Currently sampling every 5 minutes with "Samples to include" set to 10.
reply

CoxTech1 @ 9th Nov 09:21AM:
Re: Intermittent web clogging

If you want to PM me the modem's MAC address I can take a look at things on this end.
reply

khobar @ 9th Nov 11:50AM:
Re: Intermittent web clogging

Here's a snapshot taken a short while ago.

»www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3···58377619

And just a few moments ago:

»www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3···58377619

And it's changed again, I'm watching the connection come back to life.

»www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3···58377619
reply

Ender3rd @ 10th Nov 12:30PM:
Re: Intermittent web clogging

Those pingplots look very much like what I saw with my issue here last spring. CoxTech1 was the first to suspect noise on the upstream signal at my location, and in the end, that was the problem that was affecting my whole node. Once the ingress issue was located and resolved by Cox, the problem ceased.

Hope your situation improves quickly.

Ender
--
My Jeep is not an SUV. Your SUV is not a Jeep.
reply

jsmiddleton4 @ 11th Nov 08:29AM:
Re: Intermittent web clogging

Any progress kh...?
reply