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Intermittent dropouts and very busy omnibox?

David192
On our wavelength

Good morning!

Not really sure where to start with this, but just after some advice.

I'm on a Gig1 package from VM. Currently having constant intermittent dropouts every so often (these are so severe that they're affecting online gaming, getting kicked back to the lobby etc.). See attached photo of one of the many dropouts.

Working in IT, I have my own setup. It's a basic network that pretty much goes like this: Hub 4 (modem mode) > Unifi Security Gateway > Switch > PC. I prefer to wire all of my equipment when possible. Wi-fi is managed by 2x Ubiquiti AP's. VM will often try to tell me that my network is configured incorrectly etc. I'm 99% sure I've configured my network correctly. It's a basic network without any VLAN's and the most 'advanced' thing on it is a L2TP VPN that I set up.

Taking a peek at the omnibox outside the house, I have noticed another connection has been added. We're now on 1 in and 3 out on this line, is this normal?

I've reset the hub 4 back to default factory settings as advised, but this hasn't helped. All Ubiquiti updates applied. I have a replacement hub 5 coming on Saturday but just wondered if it's normal to have such a busy omnibox?

I'm not able to view the signal strength of the line as my Hub 4 doesn't allow me to log into the web management page. To get into this, I'll need to reboot the hub and quickly try to log into the hub when it comes back on. Even after rebooting the hub, the web management page will only work for 5 minutes before dying and refusing to load anything else... something on the backend isn't playing nicely.

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22 REPLIES 22

David192
On our wavelength

From what I can see as a layman, The downstream power levels in dBmV seem to be significantly high for most channels, especially in the first downstream channel. Could indicate potential signal quality issues or signal leakage in the line?

Upstream seems within spec, but I'm no expert and briefly went over Sephiroth's "POWER LEVELS & SNR: A TECHNICAL PRIMER (updated October 2016)" thread.

IPFreely
Fibre optic

Downstream power is fine. Upstream is unacceptably high. You need a technician visit. If that splitter can be replaced with a 2-way that'd help. 

Sephiroth
Alessandro Volta

As IP Freely says, your upstream power levels are too high and the hub will be doing soft resets because it cannot adequately communicate with the VM end.   That could mean noise ingress, either from you home, or from a neighbour or, indeed, somewhere in VM's plant.

The most you can do is to tighten all the coax cables and put a 75 ohm terminator into your unused upstairs coax socket so that there is no noise ingress from your side (albeit that is unlikely anyway).

Checking with neighbours adds to your information bank and if they are having the same high power level, it would be for VM's network team to sort out after the field engineers have done their bit

Seph - ( DEFROCKED - My advice is at your risk)

David192
On our wavelength

Thanks for your replies, all. I do remember putting a 75 ohm terminator cap on upstairs when we cancelled our tv subscriptions.

I'll go around and tighten all the coax connections (if needed) and look at getting an engineer booked if I don't see any improvement 👍

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Sephiroth
Alessandro Volta

It looks like you've taken all the necessary steps.  Now to the neighbours.  You do need to know the fullest picture possible - which isn't exactly what you get from VM.  If your neighbours don't have the same high upstream power, then, at least in terms of my knowledge, the problem lies in your Hub.   If there was noise generated in your home, it would propagate to other homes on the same cabinet .

Seph - ( DEFROCKED - My advice is at your risk)

Sephiroth
Alessandro Volta

Oh - I forgot to say - the splitter might be duff and not passing upstream properly, in which case the associated neighbour will be suffering the same as you.

Seph - ( DEFROCKED - My advice is at your risk)

David192
On our wavelength

All coax's checked and tightened but no improvement, still getting intermittent dropouts unfortunately (albeit not as often, compared to the hub 4). Neighbor is away and no idea when he'll return as he does a lot of travelling.

Engineer booked for Wednesday.

Sephiroth
Alessandro Volta

So, you know what to keep your eyes pen for when the tech arrives.  It's an explanation for the possible noise that is plaguing your upstream.  As it might also be a faulty Hub, he should put a Hub 5 on as a cross-check against noise; if the upstream levels are fine, then it was the Hub 4 that was faulty.

If there is still poor upstream power after trying a different Hub, then the tech should change out the splitter.

If it's still poor upstream, then he can change the tap point in the street cabinet.

One final thing that I haven't mentioned, the drop point outside your house:  tech should check that it's not waterlogged which is a reasonably well known source of issues.

Seph - ( DEFROCKED - My advice is at your risk)

Thanks for all your help, you've helped me gather a plethora of information to give to the engineer. Will keep the thread updated with what the engineer has done.

Interestingly enough, the corrected error count on the new Hub 5 is already sitting at 2,294,325,139 (this was only set up on Saturday)… I wonder if this affected my Hub 4 and integer overflow caused it to die 🤔

David192_1-1712581275369.png

 

David192
On our wavelength

Update: Engineer attended. Replaced splitter for 3 way to 2 way. Replaced copper cable from omnibox to router/modem, as he wasn't too happy with how the old cable looked. He spent a good amount of time fine tuning the power on the line. Checked for water ingress in the "T"/drop point but he was happy it was clear. All good so far.

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