Constant Intermittent Dropouts, Status Shows Partial Service (US Only)

[acha]

Hello, hoping someone can point me in the right direction before I try to get into contact with Virgin, I'd like to avoid a support chat if there is anything I can try myself 🙂

Recently (for the last few months) I have been getting consistent drop outs on my network connection. The dropouts last for 30-60 seconds and happen maybe once an hour, every hour.

So far I have tried a complete factory reset of the router (twice), which did not help the problem, and have confirmed the behaviour is exactly the same on WiFi or ethernet.

I had a look at the advanced router logs but there doesn't seem to be any clearly available guidance on acceptable ranges for Rx power, errors etc. (If anybody from Virgin ends up reading this, it would be useful to provide that information or at the very least have any out of range stuff checked on the automated network diagnostic).

Here is the info from my router:

Upstream bonded channels

Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) Symbol Rate (ksps) Modulation Channel ID

1	43100020	44.5	5120	64 qam	8
2	49600019	44.8	5120	64 qam	7
3	23600044	38.8	5120	64 qam	11
4	30100034	41.8	5120	64 qam	10
5	36600020	39.5	5120	64 qam	9

Upstream bonded channels

Channel Channel Type T1 Timeouts T2 Timeouts T3 Timeouts T4 Timeouts

1	ATDMA	0	0	40	0
2	ATDMA	0	0	56	0
3	ATDMA	0	0	67	0
4	ATDMA	0	0	66	0
5	ATDMA	0	0	56	0

Downstream bonded channels

Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) SNR (dB) Modulation Channel ID

1	234750000	6.8	37	256 qam	13
2	242750000	6.3	37	256 qam	14
3	250750000	6.6	37	256 qam	15
4	258750000	7	37	256 qam	16
5	266750000	7	37	256 qam	17
6	274750000	7	37	256 qam	18
7	282750000	7.4	37	256 qam	19
8	290750000	7.1	37	256 qam	20
9	298750000	6.1	37	256 qam	21
10	306750000	5.5	37	256 qam	22
11	314750000	6.9	37	256 qam	23
12	322750000	7.3	37	256 qam	24
13	330750000	7	37	256 qam	25
14	338750000	7.9	37	256 qam	26
15	346750000	7.5	37	256 qam	27
16	354750000	6.9	37	256 qam	28
17	362750000	7	37	256 qam	29
18	370750000	7.4	37	256 qam	30
19	378750000	6.6	37	256 qam	31
20	386750000	5.5	37	256 qam	32
21	394750000	5.9	36	256 qam	34
22	402750000	7	37	256 qam	35
23	410750000	7	37	256 qam	36
24	418750000	6.5	37	256 qam	37

Downstream bonded channels

Channel Locked Status RxMER (dB) Pre RS Errors Post RS Errors

1	Locked	37.3	3287522	549767
2	Locked	37.6	3062440	224174
3	Locked	37.3	3051644	511475
4	Locked	37.6	2857375	749412
5	Locked	37.6	2553326	726876
6	Locked	37.3	2222322	707204
7	Locked	37.6	2153116	687790
8	Locked	37.6	2157573	662694
9	Locked	37.6	2258451	643993
10	Locked	37.6	2644071	640332
11	Locked	37.3	2351254	609796
12	Locked	37.3	2319495	564021
13	Locked	37.6	2004414	498720
14	Locked	37.3	1782979	444010
15	Locked	37.6	1661384	416488
16	Locked	37.6	1792588	406535
17	Locked	37.6	1932401	395541
18	Locked	37.3	1782792	372410
19	Locked	37.6	1981929	372528
20	Locked	37.6	1882206	348121
21	Locked	36.3	1827290	293702
22	Locked	37.6	1464854	235348
23	Locked	37.6	1418286	199575
24	Locked	37.3	1335132	170415

[acha]

Hi Paul,

No change, constant errors and dropouts once sometimes twice an hour. There is definitely a serious problem. Bare in mind it has been like this for over a month now so I would really appreciate a speedy resolution.

Thanks,

Asli

[fizz]

there will be no speedy resolution.. I have had problems since February and 4 engineer visits and I am at the 'give it a week and see' stage for the 4th time... would be interesting to see what your BQM looks like.

[acha]

In my case it's unbelievably consistent with how broken it is so I'm hoping an engineer can test router/ cable runs at the premises and then go from there. I haven't run BQM but I can tell you that twice an hour or once an hour my latency would spike to 180,000ms never mind 160 haha

[Reece_MH · Accepted solution]

Hi acha 👋

I'm very sorry to hear that the issue is still ongoing. I've had a look at things on our end, and can see that the dropouts you are experiencing are direct to the Hub and can be caused by a cabling/incoming connection issue.

I'm going to send you a private message, so we can look into this further. Please look out for it in the top-right, white envelope.

Cheers,

[acha]

So, an engineer visited today, went for the shotgun blast approach and replaced all internal coax connectors, my router, and external coax junction box thing and mentioned that one of the external connectors had water in it!

One of those things seems to have sorted it! Has been totally solid since he left 🙂 Thanks for the advice and help in this thread all.

P.S. The only problem now is the case of the 'Somebody else is already logged into the router' nonsense which probably wins the award for most abysmal UI blunder that nobody has bothered to address or fix in years. Makes it very frustrating to do any configuration on the router when some actions cause the page to reload itself and then it no longer recognises you. This is absolutely not a case of 'Just make sure you log out' user error nonsense. It is a terrible implementation. There should be a 'Force logout other users' button in the router status or something. Not to worry, I shall shortly be putting it into modem mode and using an actual competent router as soon as is possible 🙃. But it's still annoying!

[acha]

I may have spoken too soon... Dropouts have returned this evening, log is now as error filled as ever 😞 T3 Timeouts seems to have chilled out though so I guess that's good?

Downstream bonded channels

Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) SNR (dB) Modulation Channel ID

1	138750000	8.3	38	256 qam	1
2	146750000	8.9	38	256 qam	2
3	154750000	8.5	38	256 qam	3
4	162750000	9	38	256 qam	4
5	170750000	8.8	38	256 qam	5
6	178750000	8.4	38	256 qam	6
7	186750000	8.5	37	256 qam	7
8	194750000	8.4	38	256 qam	8
9	202750000	8.3	38	256 qam	9
10	210750000	8	37	256 qam	10
11	218750000	7.6	37	256 qam	11
12	226750000	7.9	37	256 qam	12
13	234750000	7.9	37	256 qam	13
14	242750000	7.1	37	256 qam	14
15	250750000	7.6	37	256 qam	15
16	258750000	7.8	37	256 qam	16
17	266750000	7.1	37	256 qam	17
18	274750000	7.5	37	256 qam	18
19	282750000	7.9	37	256 qam	19
20	290750000	7.4	37	256 qam	20
21	298750000	7	37	256 qam	21
22	306750000	7	37	256 qam	22
23	314750000	7.1	37	256 qam	23
24	322750000	7.1	37	256 qam	24

Downstream bonded channels

Channel Locked Status RxMER (dB) Pre RS Errors Post RS Errors

1	Locked	38.6	26152	21450
2	Locked	38.6	25919	21563
3	Locked	38.9	25740	21559
4	Locked	38.9	25108	20831
5	Locked	38.6	25630	21139
6	Locked	38.6	25727	21599
7	Locked	37.6	26367	20977
8	Locked	38.6	26021	20493
9	Locked	38.6	26229	20445
10	Locked	37.6	27143	20791
11	Locked	37.6	27116	20603
12	Locked	37.6	26784	19739
13	Locked	37.6	26186	19682
14	Locked	37.3	26440	20319
15	Locked	37.6	26196	20347
16	Locked	37.6	25716	19755
17	Locked	37.6	25560	19054
18	Locked	37.6	24675	19455
19	Locked	37.6	24663	19120
20	Locked	37.3	24587	18925
21	Locked	37.6	24712	18064
22	Locked	37.6	24632	18814
23	Locked	37.6	24523	19463
24	Locked	37.6	24686	18593

Upstream bonded channels

Channel Frequency (Hz) Power (dBmV) Symbol Rate (ksps) Modulation Channel ID

1	36600000	38	5120	64 qam	9
2	49600000	39.3	5120	64 qam	7
3	23600000	37	5120	32 qam	11
4	43100000	38.8	5120	64 qam	8
5	30100000	37.5	5120	64 qam	10

Upstream bonded channels

Channel Channel Type T1 Timeouts T2 Timeouts T3 Timeouts T4 Timeouts

1	ATDMA	0	0	1	0
2	ATDMA	0	0	0	0
3	ATDMA	0	0	0	0
4	ATDMA	0	0	0	0
5	ATDMA	0	0	0	0

Network Log

Time Priority Description

02/10/2023 16:55:32	notice	LAN login Success;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
02/10/2023 15:59:42	Warning!	RCS Partial Service;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
02/10/2023 15:59:42	critical	SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Loss of Sync;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
02/10/2023 15:51:34	Warning!	RCS Partial Service;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
02/10/2023 15:51:34	critical	SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Loss of Sync;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
02/10/2023 15:50:25	Warning!	RCS Partial Service;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;

[acha]

And nope, T3 timeouts still occurring:

Upstream bonded channels

Channel Channel Type T1 Timeouts T2 Timeouts T3 Timeouts T4 Timeouts

1	ATDMA	0	0	19	0
2	ATDMA	0	0	0	0
3	ATDMA	0	0	0	0
4	ATDMA	0	0	67	0
5	ATDMA	0	0	43	0

I have also decided to start a BQM as previously suggested, ignore the 6-6:20pm 100% packet loss as that was when my router was still ignoring pings. But all the packet loss after is what I have been experiencing, periods of complete loss of service, some for a few seconds, some for a few minutes which causes the router to give up and restart itself.

[acha]

This was the full day yesterday 😞 

[Paul_DN]

Hi acha,

Thank you for reaching back out, sorry to see you have still been facing intermittent connections, I was able to locate you on our system and it does look like there are some issues, so I can run further checks and arrange a technician if required I will invite you into a private chat, please look out for the white envelope to accept.

Regards

Paul.

[Paul_DN]

Hi Acha,

Thank you for joining me in a private chat and for clearing security, as advised a technician has been arranged as your levels are not right, to view or change the appointment, please sign into your Online Account.

If you do need any further help/ support, please do not hesitate to reach back out.

Regards

Paul.