Internet drops w\ TimeWarner cable modem -they claim it's the wireless router

[mulevad]

Hi, everyone.

I have Time Warner Cable and they provide me with a Scientific-Atlanta Cable Modem (Model: SA DPC2203).
I am using a brand new Netgear N600 Wireless Dual Band Router (Model: WNDR3400v2).

I don't think I have a problem with the wireless connection. However, several times a day the internet becomes unavailable.
If I wait for a while, sometimes 5 mins, it rights itself and everything is fine. Other times I have to power cycle the modem and the router to restore internet access.

When the internet goes down I can ping both the router and the modem and log into both. The router shows no internet connection.
I don't really understand the modem info, but everything I look at says it is running fine. I found a "log" page on the modem that says
DOCSIS (CM) Events:
Time   ID   Level   Description
 Sat Feb 09 15:49:58 2013      73040100     Notice (6)     TLV-11 - unrecognized OID
 Sat Feb 09 15:49:41 2013      82000200     Critical (3)     No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out
 Sat Feb 09 15:49:34 2013      84000100     Critical (3)     SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire QAM/Q...
 Sat Feb 09 15:49:32 2013      82000400     Critical (3)     Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Un...
 Sat Feb 09 12:40:27 2013      73040100     Notice (6)     TLV-11 - unrecognized OID
 Sat Feb 09 12:40:17 2013      2436694060     Critical (3)     Booting up the cable modem

and things of this nature. I haven't been able to correlate the downtime with the log messages, but I see the "T3 time-out" a lot around the time things seem to go south. "TLV-11 - unrecognized OID" happens too. But right now I have internet access.

I usually have 8 or 9 devices connected to the wireless router and I never lose the wireless connection.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can convince the cable people they have a problem on their end?

They tell me the problem is the router, and ask that I connect a PC to the modem to prove there is no problem. This is not really practical since there are so many devices using the internet in my home.

I tried running a wscript that just pings and ran that for about 4 hours. With the PC connected directly to the modem I got:
2/9/2013 4:29:05 PM Ping statistics for 74.125.225.72:
2/9/2013 4:29:05 PM     Packets: Sent = 10605, Received = 10529, Lost = 76 (0% loss),
2/9/2013 4:29:05 PM Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
2/9/2013 4:29:05 PM     Minimum = 31ms, Maximum = 100ms, Average = 36ms

There were 76 of these: "2/9/2013 3:50:12 PM Request timed out." in my output.

I ran again for about an hour using the router and got:
2/9/2013 5:55:40 PM Ping statistics for 74.125.225.3:
2/9/2013 5:55:40 PM     Packets: Sent = 3832, Received = 3765, Lost = 67 (1% loss),
2/9/2013 5:55:40 PM Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
2/9/2013 5:55:40 PM     Minimum = 33ms, Maximum = 396ms, Average = 47ms

There were 67 of these: "2/9/2013 5:51:48 PM Request timed out." in my output.

Help!!! Does anyone have any idea what I can do ? Is it the router or the modem?

Thanks,
Dave Lum

[Geek-9pm]

You wrote...

I usually have 8 or 9 devices connected to the wireless router and I never lose the wireless connection.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can convince the cable people they have a problem on their end?

First, ruining n8 devices on wireless is pushing the envelope.  Just one faulty device in the wireless system can cause a dropout for all other wireless clients.

Next , you need to ask your ISP what they consider prof of bad service. Myself, I have dropout at least once a day, but the modem recovers in less that 60 seconds. So I do not even report it.

Understandable your ISP is doing to blame your other devices. Statistically they are right. You need to run a test for at least 8 hours using only the modem. Rather that do pings, I would recommend  you try downloading large files. Or watch Netflix  or Hulu for hours at a time. If a dropout happens during a video stream, you will notice it. And it will show in the error log.

EDIT: When you have a Tcpip event, it looks like this in event viewer.

But first you must clear the event viewer, otherwise you find too much stuff. Above you see two events tat came when I cut power to my ATT modem.

[mulevad]

I'll try running something overnight, or while I'm at work and the kids are at school. I ran the ping test last night (7:23 pm to 10:13 am) and we lost internet for about 11 minutes and it recovered. There were 203 failures through the night. Only about 40 of them over 30 seconds. Only the 11 minute failure was over 1 minute.

Unfortunately, I didn't run it connected directly to the cable modem as I didn't get your suggestion until today. I'll try direct connection tonight.

How could 1 bad device connected via wireless connection to the router affect the connection from the router/modem combination to the internet?

btw: our wireless devices consist of:
 3 iPods
 1 net-book
 1 tablet
 5 cell phones + more w/ guests
 3 PCs + more w/ guests
 1 TV
 1 blue-ray device
 1 WiFi router
 1 WiFi extender
 
I don't consider that too much bandwidth for my provider. They are seldom all in use.

Also, I can filter the event log and there was only 1 event that had source in {Tcpip, TCPIP, Tcpip6, Tcpip-SQM-Provider}. It was a IP address conflict during a time when internet access was fully functional.

[Geek-9pm]

If you want your provider to listen, stop using ping testing. They are more impressed with TCP/IP errors in the log.

Just one  IP conflict indicates something is not working. You should never have a conflict.  This kind of error is not a bandwidth issues,. it is about things working right.  DHCP is a low-level thing. If it fails, some hardware is acting bad.

[mulevad]

Is there something else I should use instead of ping testing?
I don't have any TCPIP errors to impress anyone with. I just know that I lose DNS, and the router doesn't have internet access.

The IP address conflict was weeks ago. I'm losing internet several times daily.

[Geek-9pm]

I am using a brand new Netgear N600 Wireless Dual Band Router (Model: WNDR3400v2).

You have the manual, -Right? I think that router has a way of logging failures with the internet connection. If so,  take a look and see if the errors on with the internet or will local traffic. And find the error code number.
You can not use ping to verify the kind of error your have. You have to find a log from neither your Windows system or the internal log of the router. The log should have a code that enumerates the error type.

ftp://downloads.netgear.com/files/WNDR3300_SM_12Nov07.pdf

[BC_Programmer]

SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire QAM/Q...

I honestly cannot figure out how this could <not> be a problem on their end. This is the modem quite literally saying it cannot connect to the ISP network. (I guess is could be the cable wiring)

The problem is you have to get to a level of support where the people actually know things, rather than just following a script. Otherwise, no matter what you say they are just going to be following the script before they give up.

[mulevad]

Ok, thanks guys.

I'll look into reviewing the manual thing to find some kind of router logging. Although the NETGEAR tech support team told me to just use ping. The guy didn't sound like a NETGEAR expert so much as a 3rd party PC support salesman.

@Mastermind - I totally agree. We've called them 4 times. They sent out a guy who came out once and replaced the modem, some of the cable connections, and some of the cable he said was old. It was actually worse after he did that. Each time we call them we end up with a connect the modem directly to a PC and watch it for 4 hours.

This may take a couple of days.

[mulevad]

I ran the first overnight with a direct connection from the PC to the Modem. There were 3 significant disconnects of 6.8, 3.8, and 1.8 minutes during which times the internet was unavailable. (The disconnects started at 11:54:56 PM, 2:45:25 AM, and 3:16:09 AM respectively.)

There were no TCPIP type events in my event log. I did identify several event logs with source "DNS Client Event", but they didn't seem to correspond to the timeouts.

The manual was a bust. There was no information about event logs for the router. I will contact NETGEAR again too, and see what they have to say.

I'm still looking for help.

 

[Computer_Commando]

What do the modem signals look like?

• Downstream Power Level
• Upstream Power Level
• Downstream Signal to Noise Ratio

The symptoms you describe can be due to one or more of these values being out of range or borderline.

[Geek-9pm]

The modem should have a diagnostic that give s the info Computer_Commando named in his post above.
What was the model of the Modem? It is a Scientific Atlantic, -- Right? But what model number.

[mulevad]

Here's some of the info from the modems web page. I got the information on how to log into it from here: http://forums.cable-modem.net/index.php?action=vthread&forum=2&topic=1001

System Tab
Name - SA DPC2203
Hardware Version - 1.1
Receive Power Level - 0.6 dBmV
Transmit Power Level - 47.5 dBmV
Cable Modem Status - Operational
Vendor - Scientific-Atlanta, Inc.
Boot Revision - 2.1.6lR7

Signal Tab
Downstream Status - Operational
Channel ID - 2
Downstream Frequency - 111000000 Hz
Modulation - 256QAM
Bit Rate - 42884296 bits/sec
Power Level - 1.1 dBmV
Signal to Noise Ratio - 38.1 dBmV

Upstream Status - Operational
Channel ID - 6
Upstream Frequency - 32000000 Hz
Modulation - 64QAM
Symbol Rate - 2560 Ksym/sec
Power Level - 47.2 dBmV

Let me know if you think the power signals are ok.

Here is also a look at part of the configuration file for the modem, according to...
Config Tab
CM Configuration File
NetworkAccessControl = 1
UpstreamServiceFlow =
ServiceFlowReference = 1
QualityofServiceParameterSetType = 7
ServiceClassName = 'us_hsd_res'
ServiceFlow SchedulingType = 2
UpstreamMaximumSustainedTrafficRate = 1024000
MaximumTrafficBurst = 6144
MaximumconcatenatedBurst = 6144
IPTypeofServiceOverwrite = 0x0000
DownstreamServiceFlow =
ServiceFlowReference = 5
QualityofServiceParameterSetType = 7
ServiceClassName = 'ds_hsd_res'
UpstreamMaximumSustainedTrafficRate = 15360000
MaximumTrafficBurst = 10000000
PrivacyEnable = 1
<there was more, but it was pretty cryptic>

I don't know how to change the settings, but if it can help anyone determine anything....

Thanks in advance

[mulevad]

 
So - I don't know why no one has any other ideas.

What is a good way to monitor an internet connection?

[mulevad]

Well, I called the Cable Company again and told them that I had bypassed my router and connected directly to the modem.
They are sending a "Supervisor" out to see what is wrong with my connection.

Thanks everyone.

btw: I think it depends a lot on who answers the call.

I'm still curious what else to use besides a ping test.
I used the windows scripting host with the following network_ping.vbs file contents:

Code: [Select]

hostIp      = wscript.arguments(0)
logfilename = wscript.arguments(1)
Set fso     = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set Shell   = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
' OpenTextFile Method requires a Const value
' (Over)Write = 2  Append = 8   
Set logfile = fso.OpenTextFile(logfilename, 8, True)
shellstring = "%comspec% /c ping -t " & hostIP
Set oExec   = Shell.Exec(shellstring)
wscript.echo "Ping Error log With Timestamp - Ctrl + C to halt"
Do While oExec.StdOut.AtEndOfStream <> True
      pingline = Date & " " & Time & " " & oExec.StdOut.ReadLine
      logfile.WriteLine(pingline)
      If InStr(pingline, "TTL=") = 0 Then
         logfile.WriteLine("-----------------")
      End If
Loop

I run it at the command line like this: wscript network_ping.vbs google.com fileout.txt

Then I review the txt file for disconnects. I can drop it into Excel and generate a graph of when I have disconnects.



The left hand (vertical) scale is number of ping failures. It's about 5 seconds between ping failures.


[recovering disk space, attachment deleted by admin]

[Geek-9pm]

You could do more research on this, but here is the nutshell.
Ping is used simply to confirm the network in usable at the present moment. Constant pings annoy some server administrators, so they will stop responding to t a stream of pings. In short, pings are a form of intrusive testing. Administrators don't like it. So you don't want to do 24 hours of one ping  per second o yahoo or somebody else.

There are a number of software p[products to monitor actual network performance. Normally there are a few errors from time to time. These are corrected 'on the fly' and the user may not be aware of it. The monitor software collects the error reports and builds a report with  a statistical study of failure rates and severity.  Errors easily recovered are  'soft errors' and are a lessor component of the report.

The reports must be based on real data transfers, and not just ping tests.

Of course this is not new information. But many of us just don't work full-time in network management and are not aware of what tools are used.

Here is a free program you might like to try:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Network-Tools/Network-Monitoring/Server-Monitor.shtml

Yeah, the name is Roadkil's Server Monitor, but it is a serious program.

[mulevad]

Thanks. That makes sense.

The network guy came out. Apparently they keep historical status records for the networks in 15 minute intervals. He could go back and see the larger time outs, but not my smaller ones.
He told me he would have "The Engineers" take a look at our network and answered questions. If I want to ping someone, I should ping rr.com which is their internal server. He said they don't mind that. He also explained that pinging yahoo is a slow ping because they delay the response. rr.com is 30ms and yahoo is 300-400ms.

He DID accept that it was their signal, not the modem, nor my router. So this thread's title is answered as far as that is concerned.
They still haven't fixed the problem though. I have to wait until the end of next week for a call back.

[Genjienyc]

DO YOU HAVE AN UPDATE ON YOUR PROBLEM? I HAVE BEEN EXPERIENCING THE EXACT SAME THING SINCE FEB AS WELL, AND OUT OF MY MIND!!!!

YOUR POST REFLECTS EVERYTHING WE ARE EXPERIENCING. 

EVERYONE WHO HAS HAD THEIR HANDS IN THE PIE HAS HAD US GET A NEW NETWORK SWITCH, ALL NEW APPLE AIRPORT EXTREMES, AND OUTRAGEOUS BILLIABLE HOURS FROM ALL THE REPAIR GUYS WHO ARE NOW SCRATCHING THEIR HEADS.

SPENT OVER $2500 WITH EVERYONE'S SUGGESTIONS AND FED UP.  AFTER NUMEROUS INEFFECTIVE I.T. GUYS (3) AND TIME WARNER TECHNICIANS (4) I AM TRYING TO JUST SOLVE IT MYSELF.

YET SIGNS ARE BACK POINTING TO TIME WARNER.

GOD FORBID ANY OF THEM SHOULD PUT IN SOME TIME DOING THIS SORT OF RESEARCH.

THE DIALOGUE BETWEEN YOU AND GEEK-9PM HAS BEEN THE MOST HELPFUL. I WILL BE TRYING THAT SOFTWARE HE/SHE SUGGESTED IN A FEW HOURS.

WAS HAVING A SUPERVISOR FROM TW HELPFUL? ARE YOU IN NYC AND HAVE ANY I.T. GUY SUGGESTIONS WHO WERE HELPFUL IN SOLVING THIS?

I WOULD REALLY LOVE TO HEAR HOW YOUR PROBLEMS WERE RESOLVED...EVEN IF IT WAS CANCELING YOUR TIME WARNER ACCOUNT AND SWITCHING TO FIOS OR SOMEONE ELSE.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

[Geek-9pm]

They tell me the problem is the router, and ask that I connect a PC to the modem to prove there is no problem. This is not really practical since there are so many devices using the internet in my home.

You are not going to win the argument until you do  this.

Seven devices on a wireless is very likely to be the problem. And you have data that goes in that direction. If you can not duplicate the failure  with a single PC, you lose the debate. Give in. They are right, you're wrong.

[mulevad]

I never received a call back.  I plan to call them back.  The problem still exists.

[Jamion]

I have been having this issue as well.  My internet is my lifeline, without it I can't do business or entertain myself.  This is my story:

Although the issue began roughly 2 weeks before this.  Issues weren’t severe enough for me to be concerned with.  There was occasional latency, that was annoying; but nothing extreme.  There was also an outage in my area.  I know this because I contacted someone else in my area who has TWC and asked about their connection and it was out as well.  I usually attempt to contact other TWC customers by text message whenever I have an issue.  Usually my issue precedes them having an issue by at least a couple of hours.  Their issues also tend to be less severe than mine, although this is not always the case.

May 23 is when I reported the first major issue.  It isn’t a disconnect from the TWC service it is more of a slowing down.  My Internet speeds usually stand at about 20 Mbps download and 2 Mbps upload (this is what it should be).  This would drop drastically, but not completely disconnect.  This is also when I became aware of the standard procedure of attempting to fix it.  Which involves rebooting the modem. If that doesn’t work rebooting the modem and the router at the same time. If that does not work plugging a computer directly into the box via RJ-45, and then rebooting the modem a third time.  I believe the last one is to make sure that there isn’t an issue with the router, which in my case there is not.  Along with direct plug in I even replaced the router, just in case, and the issue persists.

Now in the first couple days, they insisted that my modem had been one for over 24 hrs. This was not true, I had rebooted it several times and had even left it unplugged for 15 minutes.  Whatever system was being used to monitor it was apparently not reporting correctly.  This went on for three days before TWC reported that they were having area issues.  They apologized for the inconvenience and next day it seemed to be back to its former self.

The next set of issues began July 5.  I again went through the same procedures and contacted TWC.  They asked me the same set of questions again.  I answered them and they again reported that this issue was area wide.  They let me know this immediately this time without a three day wait.

July 24 began the pain.  It was at this point, being ready this time, that my connection began to bog down again. I also began more attentively tracking the issue.  The upload speed was the primary thing to drop.  First to 600 kbps then to 40kbps and eventually down to 8 bits per second. (I took these reading using a desktop widget that was designed to measure speeds through wifi). It does not stay at these low speeds.  It bounces back up for a little while and then back down.  Almost as if it were a wave cresting and then crashing.  Once this bottomed out at 8 bits per second I began the procedure.  I rebooted my modem, modem and router, and went to direct plug in. All to no avail and then reported it to TWC at 8:40pm Eastern.  They suggested scheduling an appointment to come and look at it.  At this point I was used to being informed that my suffering was do to an area outage and was expecting to be told the same.  In fact I let TWC know that this sort of issue usually begins right before there is a reported area outage.

A Technician was promptly dispatched for the following morning, July 25 at approximately 10:30am.  As the issue comes and goes it was not present while he was there.  However, he did take a thorough look through my equipment and at the pole.  He blamed it on bad connections at the pole.  He said that the connection where operating on two different frequencies: a higher mhz frequency for the download and a lower mhz frequency for the upload, and the bad connectors were prevents the lower frequency from getting through with any sort of regularity.  He replaced them and said it should be fine.  It wasn’t.

July 27 the issue began again.  By this point I was frustrated and furious.  July 30 it happened again.  Now at this point I began to take note of exactly what was going on.  When connected to an external server my latency is usually around 32 ms (ranges from about 25 to 80 with the average being 32). That is good for standard response time between my input and server response.  When the issue starts up my latency begins first to jump to about 3500 ms (roughly 3.5 seconds between when information is transmitted and I receive viable info back from the server).  Now that will bounce back to up 32ms.  It will then bounce to around 7000 ms (7 second delay). Then back to 32ms.  Then to around 15000 ms, and then back again. Then up 60000 ms (A full minute between when I transmit info and when I the server responds that it got it). Then back down, then up higher then the server will register a connection (I get DCed from said server).  Now I have tried this with a variety of programs to a variety of servers and they are all about roughly the same information.  The speeds don’t drop continuously, but seem to bounce between high speed and almost no speed. Download speeds seems mainly unaffected.  I say this because although there is a drop on the download speeds when this gets going it only drops to a max of 2 mbps. This is slow, but watching a movie or receiving input is largely unaffected.  I also started to try and locate a pattern, however this has proven futile the time this starts seems to be as random as the wind.  As I do not get off work till 8pm Eastern I can only report what I notice between then and when I go to bed. July 24 this issue began at 8:40pm. July 27 is began at 10:00 pm. July 30 I submitted a picture of my modem displaying 0 connection to their end at 11:35pm.  July 31st this happened again shortly before 9:00pm.

They set up an appointment for August 3, a Saturday, at 4:00 pm.  I scheduled that time off work so I could be home.  After the appointment was scheduled I had a couple day reprieve from what it had been.  August 2 it went out again at 9:00 pm.  They reassured me that my appointment was still on for the following day.

The day of the appointment came, needless to say it was working fine when the technician was there. The techs name on his card was Anthony (Tech #52471).  He redid the connections inside the house and even replaced the modem.  He was very thorough as well making sure everything was working by the time he left.  He said he couldn’t locate an issue, but that without being there when it acted up it would be very hard to determine a cause. He also mentioned that chances are if replacing the modem didn’t fix the issue it was something “down the line” that was causing the problem.  This got me thinking back to the original installation.  No cable line had been hooked up this house in over 30 years.  Yet when the installer had arrived he insisted on hooking up to the 30 year old cable.  Stating that it would be fine despite having been abandon before TWC even offered internet through their cable service.  That night the connection was fine. I hoped that was the end of it. 

The following night on August 5 at around 1:30 am it started having issues.  I did a speed test through my router and it came back with a download speed of .44 mbps and an upload speed so slow it timed out before registering anything.  I sent a picture of the speed test to TWC.  TWC responded at about 3:19 am to the information, stating that there was an area problem that they were looking into.  I let them know that this problem had persisted for a while and if there was an area issue that I had let them know that my issue usually precedes an outage.  Thus the area issue probably could have been avoided if TWC had more closely looked into my issue.

I feel at this point that my home connection has been gone over thoroughly by myself and both of the technicians.  To which no issue was found.  Thus, as the one tech put it, it is probably down the line.  Somewhere between my residence and TWC.  I don’t know what the issue is, but I need it fixed.  I feel trapped. As for what I do.  TWC is the only viable option in our small town.  I am frustrated and I feel that I am losing money to a service that isn’t delivering on what it promised.  I am not entirely sure where to go from here.

I have started talking to other people in my community and quickly become aware that this isn’t an isolated incident.  Most people, including other family members, in the area have been having this issue to some degree.  Their internet will go out for no reason, it will fade and come back.  I even talked to business owner that said the issue had gotten so severe for him had to drop TWC because he could no longer run credit cards through his system during these time frames.  That was losing him more money then the service was worth.  Most people in my area still consider internet access to be a luxury rather than a necessity.  Thus they have accepted these modulations as a fact of life and don’t vocalize their concerns to TWC.  This is not something that I can do.

This issue persists on August 7th and then begins to clear.  I am hopeful that this is the end of it.  This hope though is dashed.  Monday August 12th I experience packet loss and increased latency.  Nothing to severe. Tuesday August 13th it increases in severity and I again raise my concern online to TWC as this issue began persisting into Wednesday. They again have me plug directly in and reboot my router.  The issue continues to modulate in and out regardless of this.  My complaints to TWC give me the runaround.  They do call the following morning.  The person I talked to (I did not get the name of because they called while I was asleep and woke me up) blamed my router.  Of course.  When I explained that the issue persisted even if I bypassed the router, in fact it got worse, he then blamed the website I was looking at for going down.  He asked if I ran a tracert, a process I thought had died in Windows XP. I told him no, since I was connected to several different servers simultaneously and unless they all went down at the exact same time as well as every other website on the internet this was unlikely other sites fault.  He then insisted it was on my end and no one else was having issues.  A blatant lie.  He then proceeded to blame my system and suggest scheduling an appointment for a time when no one was available to be there.  When I told him the times we were he claimed no one was available to come.  He then said he would just kick this to another department so no one had to come.  This was very obviously blowing me off.

At this point I feel abused. TWC knows they are my only option.  They know I have no other choice and they appear to be perfectly happy to sit back and do nothing.  I feel toyed with, I have suffered financial loss to their service.  I don’t know where else to turn.

This is what I submitted to the BBB I am also looking into filing a complaint with the FCC and anywhere else to anyone else.  There is no resolution.  Either TWC doesn't know what it is, or they are unwilling to fix it.  If anyone knows a way to have TWC fix the issue let us know.  Likewise if you have this issue talk to your neighbors.  I am betting its area wide.

I am in the process of setting up recording equipment and fraps to video record the issue when it occurs.  I plan to go after TWC until they fix it.  I would suggest you do the same.

Good luck and god speed.

[RoyalWulff]

I see it's been a little bit since the last post in this thread but though I'd check in to see if anyone has this issue resolved. 

Short story I'm experiencing what I believe to be the same problem with Time Warner here in Lincoln, NE.  My drop-outs always happen when it's 90+ degrees and continue for hours until it cools down.  I can't guarantee its the heat but it's one heck of a coincidence.  I've also been calling and having tech visit to no avail.  As mentioned in other replies having a tech onsite when the problem happens is near impossible due to current tech wait times of 4-7 days.  BTW, my issues have been occurring for at least two years, only in the heat of summer.

[Geek-9pm]

So now we have two poster on one thread that think that have the same problem.   

This is for the benefit for anybody having trouble with any ISP.
First, do testing without wireless and only one PC.  That eliminates the wireless and the other PC being the cause. If the problem goes away, likely it was the wireless and the other PCs.

But if the problem persists, you have to use another PC directly on the  modem, not on wireless. Then if the  problem shows again, you have some reasonable  proof the ISP is at fault.

The service technicians have received  tracing to recognize the problems the stat happen  statistically. Studies have shown that wireless and multiple users are the most common problem. The ISP is not under contract to maintain your LAN. It is your job to make sure the problem is not in your equipment. 

If you think heat is the problem, document it well.

Of  course, CH wants to help.  But t his thread is overloaded. 

[truNEET]

Hey everyone, hate to necro a thread but... holy misinformation. I just got here from Googling some problems with TWC internet and this is like the third result, so a lot of people are coming to this topic looking for answers. A few things need to be cleared up.

Seven devices on a wireless is very likely to be the problem.

The modems they ship can handle a full default DHCP lease of 232 clients per network. That's IPv4 of course, and since a lot of them are IPv6 capable now they are going to be able to handle a lot more concurrent traffic than even that with default configuration. I have easily ~20 clients on my home network (hooray for children) and our internet has been fine until a few weeks ago.

Even if it were true that one "faulty" device could hang up all the others, all you'd have to do is enable No-Ack. (This didn't fix my ongoing internet issues.)

In short, pings are a form of intrusive testing. Administrators don't like it. So you don't want to do 24 hours of one ping  per second o yahoo or somebody else.

That's really not true at all. Pinging once a second is a literally unmeasurable amount of traffic. 74 bytes * 60 seconds * 60 minutes * 24 hours = 6MB of traffic a day, roughly the size of a .png or ~8 seconds of Netflix. Please don't ping me 1000 times per second, but with the script you posted it would be impossible for anyone to even register that you're using them as a benchmark.

Really not trying to be mean, but... c'mon, man.

[Geek-9pm]

Thanks for the input.
The technicians used bu the telecoms are taught dialogue for customers. Statistically, the wireless is more often the culprit. Even if not, they have been told to zero in on the customers equipment.

So if you want attention, you have to have some profs that it  is not your equipment. It is not a matter of who is more likely to be fright, it is what they respond to. The tech support people are told to use a formula dictated by the company. They must put the blase on you. Their logic is monetary. When it is their fault, they loose money.  If they make you think it is your fault, they make money by charging you for a service call. They are trained to do this.

As for ping tests, yes it is a valid test. But more meaning full if you watch the tech do it and he tries to explain why 3% failure is normal.

In any case, you have to really insist that they do tests on their equipment. Never agree to pay for troubles they say are in our stuff. That opens to door for a tech to come out and find a bad connection or telecom device and then make it sound like it was your fault. Understand, I am not going to offer proof of these statements. Not my job. But there are hundreds, thousand of customers that will tell you the same thing.  Check it out.
Comcast has a support forum:
http://forums.comcast.com/t5/Basic-Internet-Connectivity-And/CONSTANT-Intermittent-Internet-Dropouts-with-Motorola-SB6141/td-p/1777338

...The old 5100 modem works FLAWLESSLY, but of course caps out in speed (but at least the darn thing is stable).  This new SB6141 drops the connection and restarts itself intermittently, like literally powers off and goes through the whole process again.

Yes, that was about Comcast. But the policies hay have may be similar to other companies.They all are after a easy profit. Similar complaints can be found about AT&T, Time-Warner and most of the big guys.

EDIT: Up Date. A lot of people are complaining. Here is just one of many.
Report: Vt broadband service falling short
Please read.