Badmovies.org Forum

For the past 3 weeks, I've had constant Internet dropouts.
When I say "dropout" I mean that my internet freezes up and I'm forced to unplug the power from the back of my cable modem, wait 30 seconds, plug it back in and wait for the modem to sync back up with the Internet.

Imagine having to do that 20-30 times per day.
I'm not exaggerating that number.

I called my internet company and yesterday, they sent a tech guy out to my place to fix it.
Imagine my surprise when the tech guy turned out to be an old friend from high school that I hadn't seen since 1992!
My old buddy Tony Slick! 

He did the usual tests and of course, everything checked out OK.
I said to him, "As soon as you leave, it'll start messing up.
Sure enough, it did.

Tony informed me that he thought it was probably a "contention issue".
Meaning, there are too many people on one node and because of the overload, people get dropped.

It has dropped out on me twice while typing this very thread.
And in the last 3 hours, it's dropped out on me 16 times.
I kept count by making hash marks on a slip of paper.

He told me not to mention the phrase "contention issue" when calling tech support because that's an "inside phrase" used by the tech people at the cable company.
He could get into trouble for telling a customer that.

Why?

Because the cable company is well aware of this problem and they don't want their customers to know about it.
It's something that they know about but don't fix because it's cheaper if their customers are oblivious.

I've ran through every possible troubleshooting solution and I've come to the conclusion that Tony was right.
It IS a contention issue.

What would you do if you were in my position?
How would you approach this corrupt internet company and what would you say?

I can't even imagine how frustrated you must be right now!   :bluesad:

Without saying anything too blatant that will get your friend in trouble, when you call to complain, say something like "If I didn't know better, I would think I was accessing an overcrowded line or hub or something."  Maybe if you complain enough, they'll at least compensate you for the lost time. 

Other companies do this crap too, they know the lines can't support more traffic yet they keep selling their access anyway. 

Egad, that's rough!

Now I do not mean to be insulting, but you do not have a router between your computer and the modem, right?  Like Linksys wireless, etc?  They have a tendency to cache gateway settings, thus providing your computer with outdated (and invalid) paths to the internet.

Sadly, this seems to me like an example of "you can't fight city hall."  Contention issues are usually the result of antiquated load balancers, which typically only exist in rural areas and smaller communities.  And those same areas, unfortunately, usually only have one (if any) service provider.  So you don't exactly have a choice, right?

If you call, you'll reach some nontechnical, underpaid sales rep.  If you mention anything of a technical nature, you'll be transferred to another branch staffed with identical personnel, only these people will have a small binder of "helpful" fixes, none of which will apply to your situation.  Eventually you may reach a supervisor, who may authorize a discount on your monthly bill, but will do nothing to solve the problem.

Not the most helpful response, but I fully empathize with your situation.   :bluesad:

No.
I don't have a router.
The cable comes out of the wall, goes into a splitter which sends one cable to the back of my modem and the other to the TV.

I don't live in a rural area.
Matter of fact, I live downtown in the second most populated city in Iowa.

Mediacom already gave me $20 off next month's bill.
A paltry sum if I do say so myself.
They should give me an entire month free for all the headaches I've had to experience with this crappy connection.

I've never cared for cable internet access.  I used Time Warner's "Road Runner" service for about two years at my previous location and it was trash.  It would constantly cut out and towards the end of my service, I was having the exact same problem as you.  The connection would drop, I would powercycle the modem and it would come back up.  I'm going to guess but I bet you have one of those black Motorola "surfboard" modems that looks like a shark's fin.  I ended up b***hing enough to the company and they replaced the modem, and it fixed that problem.

I moved about two years ago and got DSL through the local phone provider.  It's half the price I paid for RR but it's only 1.5mbps compared to 3.0 w/ RR.  Still, I can't complain.  It's worked flawlessly for me since day one.

I say get in touch with the company and switch modems.  There may be too many people on a piece of equipment in their area, as was indicated to you by the repair guy, but I don't see how powercycling your modem would cause it to come back online for a short period of time if that was the case.

Call another tech guy to come out and after he's gone (provided) you don't know him call the company and start griping about a contention problem, that way the innocent guy is framed, it's the American way!!

Seriously, if their aware, let them on you're aware of it and it[s not what you are paying for, I'd take them to small claims and sue for free service until the problem is resolved. If you buy a gallon of milk you want a gallon not a half gallon, why pay for what you aren't getting?

Thanks for the advice.
I swapped out my old modem for a new one and it works perfectly.
No internet dropouts!

And yes, it was one of those Motorola Surfboards.

That's what I like to hear.  I figured if it was an issue with too many people using the service on one node in the area, you would most likely experience slow speeds instead of complete drops.  It sounded to me like the modem was dropping authentication, if your cable provider does authentication...not sure, they might be using the modems as bridges.

Anyway, I'm glad it's working now.  Maybe you'll start showing up on DOD:S more often.  LOL

Skaboi,

What would make a modem "go bad" like that?

I had that modem for over two years with no problems and then all of a sudden, "Bang!"
Dropout after dropout.

Any thoughts?

I'm not certain exactly what causes it, but the same type of thing happens with actual network routers.  We refer to it as the router is "cycling."  It will open and drop connections over and over.  I've never seen our local electronics repair, even the ELMACO which can do micro repairs, fix them.  We replace the entire unit.

This is after we do normal troubleshooting:  cleaning contacts, resetting to defaults and reconfiguring, etc.