| Just got Charter, question about modem signals I just got Charter installed and my modem is dropping at night and almost all times, I cannot achieve my full 30Mbit speeds - I get around 25-30 to close servers, but only around 10-15 to far servers. I pulled my levels and they are:
Downstream Channels
Power Level: Signal to Noise Ratio:
Channel 1: -6.7 dBmV 40.2 dB
Channel 2: -6.5 dBmV 40.4 dB
Channel 3: -6.6 dBmV 39.8 dB
Channel 4: -6.8 dBmV 40.3 dB
Channel 5: 0.0 dBmV 0.0 dB
Channel 6: 0.0 dBmV 0.0 dB
Channel 7: 0.0 dBmV 0.0 dB
Channel 8: 0.0 dBmV 0.0 dB
Upstream Channels
Power Level:
Channel 1: 49.5 dBmV
Channel 2: 0.0 dBmV
Channel 3: 0.0 dBmV
Channel 4: 0.0 dBmV
Should I have Charter come to look at it?
This only started after I moved the modem to another room - before, the upstream power was around 45 and the downstream channels were all around -2.5 (sometimes) to 0 (sometimes) with similar SNR as they are now..
The connection works, but these numbers bother me.
My line monitor seems to display some packet loss at times, too.
Thanks |
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| This is a DSLR speedtest:
TestMy.net:
:::.. Combined Test Results ..:::
Download Connection:: 4582 Kbps or 4.5 Mbps
Download Test Size:: 3 MB or 3072 kB or 3145728 bytes
Download Speed:: 573 kB/s
Upload Connection:: 2024 Kbps or 2 Mbps
Upload Test Size:: 1013 kB or 1013 kB or 1037610 bytes
Upload Speed:: 253 kB/s
Tested At:: »TestMy.net version:12
Test Time:: 2012-08-04 12:55:22 Local Time
Validation:: »testmy.net/db/jm43pGJ.X4SQKbH
User Agent:: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.8; rv:13.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/13.0.1 [!] |
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Reviews:
 ·Frontier Communi..
 ·WildBlue
| reply to SleeplessOPL
Looks like you are on the 30/3 plan.
Yes the new location is not as good as the previous one but not bad enough to affect your speed.
If you were on the 100Mbit plan you MIGHT see a difference and not be able to connect at max speed. For the 30Mbit plan you are perfectly fine. |
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| Yeah, I'm on 30/4. Why would my test results be so poor? Why would my downloads flake between 1.9MBps and 4.5MBps during downloads? |
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bdnhsv
join:2012-01-20
Huntsville, AL | reply to SleeplessOPL
When you say it's dropping are you talking about speeds or is the modem rebooting? If it's rebooting I'd suggest looking in your modem logs for T3/T4 timeouts. |
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| Usually speeds but I have seen the modem rebooting. How do I access the logs? I've got a Charter-issued Cisco DPC3010. |
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bdnhsv
join:2012-01-20
Huntsville, AL | 192.168.100.1 should get you into the modem diags, and then there should be a tab for log or logs. |
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Reviews:
 ·Charter
| reply to SleeplessOPL
run a better speedtest. The testmy speedtests are a bit slow now, and are not able to cope with faster speeds as well. I have the ultra100 tier, and can never get a speedtest to show faster than 10mbps. Try speedtest.charter.com before you assume your connection is crap. Your signals look fine, really, you should be able to get the 30mbps at least. As for the dropping, are you sure that the room you moved it to doesnt have a different dbA splitter? In my mother in laws house, the line they ran to her room with the modem and then line they ran to the other rooms with just TVs had different(more high loss ends of the splitter) signal levels, and she could not move the modem without accessing the main box. |
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| The location where your modem was originally installed was optimized for your data connection through splitter configuration to get the best signal. You should never move your modem without a calibrated signal meter to verify signal levels. The levels you posted are borderline especially the TX at 49.5dBmv it is .5 db above spec. And remember that the modem is not a calibrated measurement device. You can try and locate the line the modem was originally installed on at the splitter and swap it with the line it is now at depending on length of cable you should get back close to original levels but you may require a visit to repair what you fixed. |
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| The wiring from Charter's box is all new and directly run to each room.
It's also labeled from the box.
There aren't any splitters.
The line the modem is on now is where it was supposed to go (and where it was put) originally, moved it after the fact.
The signals were much better when it was first put here.
I will work with it more in the morning. |
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| reply to InTheKnow
I meant no splitters as, there are no splitters in the home, the only splitter is the one inside Charter's box. |
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| reply to SleeplessOPL
Can you post a pic of inside the box?
Need to know what kind of splitter is in there. If it's a 3 way then two outputs are -7db and 1 is -3.5db. The cable modem must be connected to the -3.5db output.
If it's just a two-way you're fine as far as the box goes, might be the wiring then.
I hope no one was dumb enough to use a 4-way. If more than 3 outputs are needed I usually use a initial two-way to give the modem a line then split whatever is needed for TV's off the other side of the initial two-way.
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CompTIA Network+ Certified |
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kherrPremium
join:2000-09-04
Collinsville, IL | I have an 8 way splitter with 11db markings at each port, and haven't had a problem ??? |
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| reply to InTheKnow
said by InTheKnow :The levels you posted are borderline especially the TX at 49.5dBmv it is .5 db above spec.
It's .5 dB below max spec. |
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| reply to kherr
said by kherr:I have an 8 way splitter with 11db markings at each port, and haven't had a problem ???
Could be out of spec and you just are not experiencing the typical problems. Or you're at an end of line tap where reverse tends to be hot and wouldn't notice anything out of the ordinary on your TX levels. |
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3 edits | reply to kherr
said by kherr:I have an 8 way splitter with 11db markings at each port, and haven't had a problem ???
There could be plenty of signal coming in so it's not a problem. For example, my modem shows all four downstream channels roughly +7.5dB, and that is considering -3.5dB from the splitter. So, if you add them up, my incoming is roughly +11dB. If I had your 8-way splitter with -11dB, I'd be right smack in the middle of the range at about 0dB...pretty much spot on ideal.
Also, bear in mind there is some tolerance to this stuff. It's not like a dB or two or maybe even more outside the optimum range is assured to cause a problem. |
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kherrPremium
join:2000-09-04
Collinsville, IL Reviews:
·Charter
| said by whoaru99:said by kherr:I have an 8 way splitter with 11db markings at each port, and haven't had a problem ???
There could be plenty of signal coming in so it's not a problem. For example, my modem shows all four downstream channels roughly +7.5dB, and that is considering -3.5dB from the splitter. So, if you add them up, my incoming is roughly +11dB. If I had your 8-way splitter with -11dB, I'd be right smack in the middle of the range at about 0dB...pretty much spot on ideal. Also, bear in mind there is some tolerance to this stuff. It's not like a dB or two or maybe even more outside the optimum range is assured to cause a problem. .... good to know that I have a good signal coming in.  |
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| Look at your modem page and see what you have...typ. 192.168.100.1.
Here's mine a minute or two ago. |
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kherrPremium
join:2000-09-04
Collinsville, IL Reviews:
·Charter
| For what it's worth here's mine. It's all Greek to me ....
Model: Cisco DPC3010
Vendor: Cisco
Hardware Revision: 1.0
MAC Address: bc:c8:10:2e:38:c0
Bootloader Revision: 2.3.0_R1
Current Software Revision: DPC3010-v302r12901-110714a-CHR
Firmware Name: dpc3010-v302r12901-110714a-CHR.bin
Firmware Build Time: Jul 14 10:56:53 2011
Cable Modem Status: Operational
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Downstream Channels
Power Level: Signal to Noise Ratio:
Channel 1: -3.8 dBmV 39.8 dB
Channel 2: -3.6 dBmV 39.7 dB
Channel 3: -3.7 dBmV 39.1 dB
Channel 4: -3.6 dBmV 39.7 dB
Channel 5: 0.0 dBmV 0.0 dB
Channel 6: 0.0 dBmV 0.0 dB
Channel 7: 0.0 dBmV 0.0 dB
Channel 8: 0.0 dBmV 0.0 dB
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Upstream Channels
Power Level:
Channel 1: 57.0 dBmV
Channel 2: 0.0 dBmV
Channel 3: 0.0 dBmV
Channel 4: 0.0 dBmV
It's the only readings that my moden gives(Cisco). They were here a couple of weeks ago because things weren't all that stable. It turned out that when they installed the multi-room DVR, the tech forgot to put a filter on the modem's coax lead. I noticed that the SNR changed for the 4's and 5's to what it is now. |
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| reply to SleeplessOPL
Here are mine FWIW.
Downstream Receive Power Level : -2.0 dBmV
Downstream SNR : 37.5 dB
Upstream transmit Power Level : 41.2 dBmV
Now mine changes with the outside temp. Right now it's the heat of the day and over 100 deg out, in the middle of the night it's about 0.0
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CompTIA Network+ Certified |
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