44 replies to this topic

[DirtyLarry]

Well, so far so good.

My Newsgroup connection has gone from 3.3 to 7.8, so I will also take that as well.

So I guess it comes down to how reliable this whole connection winds up being. Turns out they ran a brand new line from the street to my house, so I think that helps.

[SHoTTa35]

There he is, so what modem did they give you? Post some signal levels? http://192.168.100.1

Should be pretty good since both work and residential are run to the same CMTS and over the same lines/nodes. So if work is good then so should be home unless you jynx it or something by say it!

[DirtyLarry]

I guess I have this modem...

Quote

Hardware Information System: ARRIS DOCSIS 3.0 / PacketCable 1.5 Touchstone Telephony Modem
HW_REV: 2
VENDOR: Arris Interactive, L.L.C.
BOOTR: 1.2.1.48
SW_REV: 7.3.123
MODEL: TM802G Serial Number: BAVBPU679273531 Battery Charger FW Rev: 01.91 Options: Firmware Build and Revisions Firmware Name: TS0703123_090611_MODEL_7_8 Firmware Build Time: Tue Sep 6 18:01:19 EDT 2011

Is that good? I truly am asking, I really never knew much about specs of modems, etc., but in the little bit of research I did before making this switch I did find out something called Docsis 3 is good, but not sure why.

And I guess the signals were all that info on the first screen? You can make sense of that stuff? If so here....

Edited by SHoTTa35, 31 August 2012 - 19:25.
since you linked it via dropbox i'll remove the attached one ;)

[DirtyLarry]

So quick question to the Network gurus.
Right now the router I got for free is a Netgear N600, seems decent enough, at least for now.
So my first question is it is Dual Band, I should name both bands the same name, is that correct?
So if my SSID is DLNetwork for the one, it should also be DLNetwork for the other correct? Same security, etc.

Also, should I change DNS Address? Set it to whatever that one free service is I know I am signed up for?

Gonna forward some ports now, may have questions about that, will see.

[SHoTTa35]

Ok few things:

DOCSIS 3.0 is good because it allows channel bonding - Think of it as a 8 lane highway vs 1 lane . If a truck jackknifes in the 1 lane highway nobody is going anywhere. On a 8 lane highway they just push the traffic over to the rest of the unaffected lanes and keep going. This is why there used to be slow downs back in the days because EVERYONE was on the same channel. So when neighborhood kids decide they wanna start raping some torrents everyone would suffer. With D3, you just move over. Right now you (and me) only have 5 active channels but they are moving to 8 channels now. 8 Channels also give you options for more speed (8 x 43Mbps each).

Signals are TERRIBLE!!! Can't believe they left you with that. Obviously it's working but you want to be in the range of -10 to +10, 0 being PERFECT. -13 while can work (up to -15) is bad in general. Since they ran a drop from the pole new to your house, they put splitters on it I would assume but did they put a 4 way or 3 way or what? Remove the splitter and see what signal you get directly connected at the original cable, if it's better (closer to 0) then put a 2 way splitter there, 1 going to the modem and one going to the other splitter which splits to the TVs as they are more easy going with weak signals.

Make sure all the connections are screwed on TIGHT also.

See some FAQs here; http://www.dslreport...m/faq/optonline

DirtyLarry, on 31 August 2012 - 19:13, said:

So quick question to the Network gurus.
Right now the router I got for free is a Netgear N600, seems decent enough, at least for now.
So my first question is it is Dual Band, I should name both bands the same name, is that correct?
So if my SSID is DLNetwork for the one, it should also be DLNetwork for the other correct? Same security, etc.

Also, should I change DNS Address? Set it to whatever that one free service is I know I am signed up for?

Gonna forward some ports now, may have questions about that, will see.

For this part, that netgear should be dual band You can do both as the same or name em different - DLNetwork and DLNetwork-5G if you want to specify. That way you'll know which one is 5G and connect to that one (say Xbox360 and other 5G devices). However if you don't want to bother with all that you can just name them the same and the devices will connect to anyone that's strongest (odds are that will be 2.4Ghz) - my laptop however you can specify which one to make higher priority so that's 5Ghz.

If the same network security so you don't gotta tell people different one based on which they are connecting to. Just say if yous ee DLNetwork-5G choose that one, if not then their laptop doesn't have 5Ghz and they'll just have to take the 2.4Ghz

DNS Address - honestly it doesn't matter so much. OOLs are good, and never have issues. You can however change them to: 4.2.2.1 or 8.8.8.8 or 208.67.222.222 or a combination of all those that way if 1 goes down you have the rest as backup Which one you use as #1 is up to you.

[DirtyLarry]

Thanks Shotta.
I had a funny feeling those negative numbers were not good.

So here is my splitter situation.


I do not think the issue is with the splitter, but the rest of my house. When I tell you there are I believe 5 different coax lines running throughout it to get everything running, I am not kidding. 3 of them happen to be through the crawl space that it literally is probably around 120 degrees in right now. I really do believe the issue probably lies with the cabling within, as it is an absolute mess. I was not the owner of the house when the switch was first made to FIOS from cablevision a few years back, and the FIOS guys truly did a pretty atrocious job with the wiring. So I am only hoping right now those signals do not provide a whole lot of issues, as it is a pretty major project finding the source of the bad wiring I believe.

With that said, if I can call them up and complain, and they will come out and fix it, I will definitely try that.

And actually after I posted my question, I pretty much came to the conclusion you recommended. Just going to throw a 5 after the one SSID and try connecting to it. Like I am sure my Macbook Retina can connect to it. Will just see how things work out from there.

Forwarding ports so far was a breeze, however something funky happened when I opened up TCP Port 53 up for my Apple TV, the router kept reporting to me that "device 192.168.1.6 is controlling this point" and I could not log into the router at all. I am not even sure what device .6 was either, so I typed it into the browser address for the hell of it, and nothing happened. But I do know it is not my 360, PS3, HP Printer, Apple TV, or my Synology NAS DS211j, as they all have assigned static IP's. And it was not my Macbook and iPhone, I did check that. It could have been my Vita, two different iPads, iPod, wifes macbook, my gaming PC, or something else. Just realized perhaps I can go through the logs of the router to get some info. But that was a bit weird losing control of the router like that already and not being able to log in.

[SHoTTa35]

High temps will cause ingress on the lines, that's why you want your number to be closer to 0 because in summertime they'll creep up. Heat causes expansion and attenuates the line or something. The good thing though as I said is -13 is technically within the limit so that's why you are fine. The upstream of 51dBmV also is within the limits as well. I have the same modem as you at work and some bad wiring had it up to 58 before it would drop. Changed that now and we are 48 which is better. Hopefully this is your top end so keep an eye on it. If at night when it cools down (since today is such a scorcher also) your temps looks better then guess you can breathe a little easy. Cables in the attic though definitely push those temps up!

Port 53? Isn't that DNS? Why would you even open that? Oh wait, you said TCP - not UDP

OH and for those Netgear routers, they are a pain in that only 1 person can be "logged in" at a time. SO odds are your machine was .6 and then you or the router changed your IP address then it wont let you in because it stil believes .6 is logged in. You aren't locked out however, just gotta wait for it to timeout which is like 3 mins I think then you can get in again. This is standard on Netgear stuff, dunno why they do that but I guess. You can slap DD-WRT on there though like I mentioned in one of the linked posts Just make sure you download the right version ("CV" version) of the firmware to upgrade it.

OH and hot damn you got a lot of stuff on that network lol... I definitely wouldn't use static for all that stuff - well not manual static anyways - i'd set Static DCHP addresses so that way the it's easier to track, that's just me though. Stuff like the printer and the NAS need that but not the 360 or PS3 unless you are trying to avoid using UPnP or NAT-PMP.

[DirtyLarry]

Cool thanks again for all the help. I will definitely monitor it all and see if things drop, it was hot as hell out today here in Dirty Jersey, so maybe that had something to do with it, but yeah the attic definitely does not help. I recall at work they added a few things to the line to boost the signal strength. They may have even just been called amplifiers but I almost feel as if that is so obviously the name it is dead wrong. But one was just like an added little onnector at the end of the coax, and the other was like a full blown box. I will take a picture of exactly what I mean at the office. My point being is perhaps they could add one or the other on my connection to get the signal a boost and get it closer to 1.

And Ive just always assigned an IP address to my devices and then opened up my ports so they have the best possible connection. If there is an easier way to do it on this router, by all means share. Although everything is now setup.

Also registered the mac addresses for 3 out of the 4 devices I can use on their Wireless service for Auto Login. Really interested to see how that whole thing pans out. That is definitely a nice little feature IMO.

[SHoTTa35]

Usually they'll add an amp (yes that's what they are called) when the signal is bad but at the cost of some return, your return (upstream) is already high so adding a amp will push that over the edge. In your case it's usually either old splitters or loose cables and such. Maybe when it gets cooler in the winter you can head up there and check lines. If your modem is close to that ground block (picture of the outside connection with the green ground cable), you can split there then connect the modem right from there and the other connection continues on.

[DirtyLarry]

Thanks again for the responses/help. As soon as it cools down some (I hate heat), I will investigate all my connections and see if I cannot find the culprits.
Been doing periodic speed tests since I got the install, and all have stayed at...

Amazingly, I get the same results through a wired connection or wireless, that test is from my wireless Macbook, so that seems a bit strange, I have always gotten a bit faster speeds when wired. So not sure what is going on there. I mean I will take it, but it does make me think there is something up if my wireless is as fast as my wired connection. Almost like I am peaking out at the above.

I did have one little hiccup overall, non internet related. The HD DVR I was given was a POS. I moved it to get to a switch I have behind it that is connected to the router, and it just made an incredibly loud whirling noise like it was either a fan scratching against metal or a shot hard drive trying to spin. Image would freeze until I tapped the box again to stop the whirling noise.

I live about 2 miles from an OOL store, so I just drove in and exchanged it. Asked if there was any way I could get a new box since I am after-all a new subscriber, and they said there are no new HD DVR boxes anymore. So yeah, that kind of sucks. First day issues and I had to resolve it (I did call, they were willing to send someone out on Sunday to switch out the box), so hopefully this is the only issue I encounter for awhile.

[SHoTTa35]

With 5Ghz WLAN you should be able to hit 150Mbps on your laptop wirelessly. The problem with older routers is their routing CPUs and software wasn't as good so yeah. I get full 7MB/s downloads wirelessly on my laptop as well when I was downloading Windows 8 from TechNet.

Sucks about the HD DVR but they are trying to get away from those and rather you use Network DVR as I mentioned. TiVo and or other devices like that is where its gonna be from now if you want HDD storage at home.

Keep an eye on the signals too at the modem to see if they fluctuate with the heat which would then give you a better idea if the problem is as a result of heat or instead loose connections or bad wiring. For bad wiring tests connect it closer to the drop to see if signals are good there vs all the way where it's connected now.

[DirtyLarry]

Okay, on to finding one culprit at least. I bypassed the splitter behind my TV, it is needed as one line needs to go into the modem, another into the cable box. Main in coming from the wall (which is I believe coming down from the dreaded crawl space).
So bypassing the splitter completely and going straight from the wall into the modem produces these results.


Definitly still not ideal, but much better than with the splitter.

So question is, how do I fix this? I need the splitter, so is it just a simple fact of I should pick up a new splitter and some new coaxial cable?
The coax cable being used is also unnecessarily long as well.

Believe I am going to take a ride to Radio Shack to pick those things up right now, but will wait to see if anyone replies.

Yeah see, this is the same modem with the splitter.



Off to radio shack to pick up some new (shorter as well) coax cables and a new splitter. I think they should help as i have to imagine the splitter and coax that is there now is also pretty old.

[DirtyLarry]

Brand new splitter and all new coax cables did jack. Same exact numbers. Luckily Radio Shack packaging is easy to put back together.

So obviously any splitter is going to make the numbers go up, so I have to get the numbers down before the line to the splitter. This does mean from the outside of my house through the crawl space though, so this is a project for Cablevision, absolutely. Now, to see if I convince them they have to do it.

[DirtyLarry]

Day 3 Speedtest

Little to no fluctuation in my connection at all. This is a very good sign from my perspective.
When I was a OOL subscriber about 5 years ago, especially on the weekends when everyone was home, the connection would take a HUGE hit.
So very promising it is still working as it should. I think I am more or less comfortable with calling FIOS on Tuesday to cancel my service officially.

[Dane]

Man, I wish we got something more than we do now. We have Blue Ridge Cable, which gives up "fiber optic" internet from Pen Tela Data, depending on who you talk to.

10 Down and 786upload for $57 a month.

This cable company keeps comcast out of the area some how, once you go a few miles down the road, it's comcast. I was always happy with Comcast's internet speeds and price compared to what ****ty service we have now.