Critical Errors - ‘No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out‘

[Kevfter]

Hi,

My home Wi-Fi signal keeps dropping intermittently.

I work from home, and I got disconnected from a Microsoft Teams call 3 times. This is a lot as the call was only about 30 minutes in total. When I am disconnected from the Wi-Fi, I get a 'No internet' message on the network icon in the taskbar on my laptop. It takes a few tries to reconnect.

I have tried soft rebooting, switching it off at the power socket, and factory resetting the router several times, but it does not seem to help. We shouldn't have to keep resetting the router so frequently to get back on the wi-fi.

I am getting a Critical Errors - ‘No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out‘, 'DHCP renew' notice errors and a 'RCS partial Service' Warnings showing in the network log on the router. I have provided a screenshot of this and the BQM graph below. I have the VM Hub 3 which is an old router. Is there a way to export or download the network log from these routers so I can share this with you?

DHCP Renew - lease parameters tftp file-cmreg-vmdg505-bbt062+voc-b.cm modified;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;

RCS Partial Service;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;

Please let me know if you need more information form me and if you can investigate and hopefully fix this issue. I have seen others that have posted these errors on this forum already.

Thanks,

Kevin

[Kevfter]

Hi RT123, 

Thanks for getting back to me.

I sent the upstream and downstream logs in a separate replay about 13 mins. Can you see them now?

[RT123]

Hi, 

No worries.

So the number of PostRS errors doesn’t seem to be rising - although the complete disconnection this morning is concerning.  The amount of T3 Timeouts is also concerning.

Could you please call 0800 561 0061 to check for area faults? 

The BQM from today would  also be useful.

[Kevfter]

Yes, I agree the Post RS do not seem to be rising and the fact that the T3 timeout errors are not going away is concerning.

I phoned the Tel no to check for broadband faults or maintenance going on my area and there is not any. I also checked the VM Service online and there is an issue with VM TV just now.

The BQM graph for today should be below hopefully!! There seems to be a lot of latency.

Thanks

[RT123]

Currently I’m not seeing your BQM - did you make sure to edit the IP out?

[Kevfter]

Sorry, Yes, I edited the IP out and pasted it at the bottom of my last post about 26 mins ago. My internet connection is really flakey today, pretty much unuable!! Thanks for reminding me to edit the IP out.

[Sephiroth]

The T3 events as reported are infrequent and don’t matter.  I can’t discount, however, the possibility of that lame Hub 3 discarding some messages.  But if you had 16x T3 events on the trot, a T4 event would occur and the hub would reset.  That hasn’t happened.

But the upstream is what seems to be flakey.  Do you have a forward path attenuator attached to coaxial cable?  If so, what value is it?  From the upstream power level, it looks like you’re very close to the street cabinet.  A tech visit would result in a ‘fat’ attenuator being installed to force the upstream power up though, for what my opinion is worth, the power reaching the VM ensemble will be the same as it is now; built that is what they do.

[Kevfter]

Hi Sephiroh,

Thanks for getting back to me with an honest answer about what the issue could be and what a VM engineer would do.

I am not sure what a forward path attenuator is. I checked all the connectors on the end of the coaxial cables into the back of my router, the power plug for the router and the fibre modem on the wall inside the house and they all seem to have 'Con 3.9' written on on them. Does this mean they are all 3.9dB attenuators as I am not sure?

Thanks.

[Sephiroth]

It would be an attenuator if it had a rectangular barrel and a coax connector at each end.  As it seems that you don't have an attenuator attached, then the upstream power is abnormally low given the 6dBmv of the downstream power.  The power level for upstream is normally commanded by the VM end so that there is enough power for the data to be properly read at the VM end.  Maybe the lame Hub 3 is misbehaving.  The tech, when he/she attends, should swap that out.   Don't let the tech go unless the connection is stable or he/she has escalated the matter to the Network Team.

[Kevfter]

Thanks have you already referred this onto VM Tech Support for them to book an technical engineer visit with me? Do you send on this thread so they see router logs and information provided on here, or do I need to call them? If so do I need to give them a reference number? 

[RT123]

Hi,

So how it works usually is that you wait a few days for the forum team to respond to the thread. They should see the logs you’ve provided (though sometimes they do like to ignore that the logs show issues) 

It may be quicker to contact Virgin on X/Facebook (with the useful insights provided by Seph) - as a response from the forum team can take at least a few days (and potentially up to a week)