Internet regularly drops out

[t2southi]

Hi, I live in WD3 and I've had 14 days of internet dropping out in the last month.  Sometimes it's out for a few minutes in a day, sometimes for hours. Overall this has probably been an issue for about 3 months or so.

We had a TV engineer here the other week to replace a faulty V6 box and he said the internet looked fine, which it was at that point.

There was some scheduled maintenance in the area recently that I hoped would fix it, but it didn't.

I'm assuming the issue is at the Virgin end of things and is probably due to things being overloaded in the local area.  Would that make sense?  Is there anything they can do to fix things?  It's getting so annoying that my family now want to move to another supplier.

Here is a snapshot of my broadband quality monitor for the month.  The Red lines are where we have no internet.

As I write this it's just gone again 🙄.  Makes working from home a nightmare!

Sat 2nd July:

Sun 3rd July:

Wed 6th July:

Thurs 7th July:

Sat 9th July:

Tue 12th July:

Sat 16th July:

Sun 17th July:

Sun 24th July:

Mon 25th July:

Thurs 28th July:

Sat 30th July:

Sun 31st July:

Mon 1st August:

[DGC2021]

I had a similar issue when I first joined Virgin, the only thing that worked was to split the wifi into 5 Ghz and 2,4 Ghz.

The third post explains how: https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Networking-and-WiFi/hub-3-5ghz-and-2-4ghz/td-p/3956495

[t2southi]

Thanks, but I'm not using the wifi from the Hub.  I have it disabled and have my own access points and controller for wifi.  These dropouts are happening on devices connected over ethernet.

[t2southi]

Internet has been stable for 90mins.  Here is the router status if it helps:

Cable Modem Status
Item	Status	Comments
Acquired Downstream Channel (Hz)	202750000	Locked
Ranged Upstream Channel (Hz)	60300000	Locked
Provisioning State	Online

Downstream bonded channels

Channel	Frequency (Hz)	Power (dBmV)	SNR (dB)	Modulation	Channel ID
1	202750000	0	40	256 qam	9
2	210750000	0	40	256 qam	10
3	218750000	0	40	256 qam	11
4	226750000	0	40	256 qam	12
5	234750000	0	40	256 qam	13
6	242750000	0	40	256 qam	14
7	250750000	-0.2	40	256 qam	15
8	258750000	-0.2	40	256 qam	16
9	266750000	0	40	256 qam	17
10	274750000	-0.2	40	256 qam	18
11	282750000	-0.4	40	256 qam	19
12	290750000	-0.5	40	256 qam	20
13	298750000	-0.4	40	256 qam	21
14	306750000	-0.2	40	256 qam	22
15	314750000	-0.5	40	256 qam	23
16	322750000	-0.2	40	256 qam	24
17	330750000	-0.4	40	256 qam	25
18	338750000	-0.2	40	256 qam	26
19	346750000	0	40	256 qam	27
20	354750000	0	40	256 qam	28
21	362750000	0	40	256 qam	29
22	370750000	-0.2	40	256 qam	30
23	378750000	-0.2	40	256 qam	31
24	386750000	-0.4	40	256 qam	32

Downstream bonded channels

Channel	Locked Status	RxMER (dB)	Pre RS Errors	Post RS Errors
1	Locked	40.9	107	191
2	Locked	40.9	117	204
3	Locked	40.9	110	193
4	Locked	40.3	89	227
5	Locked	40.9	111	175
6	Locked	40.3	103	219
7	Locked	40.3	97	178
8	Locked	40.3	99	161
9	Locked	40.9	113	138
10	Locked	40.9	94	229
11	Locked	40.3	75	163
12	Locked	40.3	89	183
13	Locked	40.9	95	163
14	Locked	40.3	77	146
15	Locked	40.3	85	164
16	Locked	40.3	74	134
17	Locked	40.3	73	119
18	Locked	40.9	80	156
19	Locked	40.9	103	186
20	Locked	40.9	89	150
21	Locked	40.9	102	160
22	Locked	40.3	90	124
23	Locked	40.3	74	98
24	Locked	40.3	88	124

Upstream bonded channels

Channel	Frequency (Hz)	Power (dBmV)	Symbol Rate (ksps)	Modulation	Channel ID
1	60300000	48.8	5120	64 qam	1
2	53700000	49	5120	64 qam	2
3	39400000	49.3	5120	64 qam	4
4	46200000	49.3	5120	64 qam	3

Upstream bonded channels

Channel	Channel Type	T1 Timeouts	T2 Timeouts	T3 Timeouts	T4 Timeouts
1	ATDMA	0	0	0	0
2	ATDMA	0	0	0	0
3	ATDMA	0	0	0	0
4	ATDMA	0	0	0	0

[Martin_N]

Hi t2southi,

Thank you for your post. I'm very sorry to hear about the broadband issues you've been having. 

I have taken a look on our system and I am unable to see anything that could be affecting this. 

Can you confirm if the service is still stable?

^Martin

[t2southi]

It’s been stable since the last red line on the graph today. So I assume it’ll have another drop out in the next day or so.

That’s the problem. When it’s ok it seems fine but when it’s bad I can be without internet for hours a day.

[t2southi]

As suspected it only took a couple of days to go again.  I've just been without internet for 23 mins.  It went right in the middle of an important Teams call which didn't help.

It went went about 9:53, then the status page showed the channels locking back up and internet briefly came back at 10:06.

Then it went again straight away at 10:07, but the router status page wasn't responding this time.  Back working again at 10:16.

Here are the logs from the router during todays outage (obviously the time is in GMT not BST)

Time	Priority	Description
03/08/2022 09:01:43	notice	NOTICE ATOM is restarted due to RPC timeout as part of Self Healing Mechanism;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
03/08/2022 08:59:29	critical	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
03/08/2022 08:58:52	critical	TFTP Request Retries exceeded, CM unable to register
03/08/2022 08:58:52	critical	TFTP failed - Request sent - No Response;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
03/08/2022 08:53:11	critical	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
03/08/2022 08:52:32	critical	REG RSP not received;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
03/08/2022 08:52:32	Error	T6 Timeout and retries exceeded;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
03/08/2022 08:52:32	critical	Registration RSP rejected unspecified reason;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
03/08/2022 08:52:32	critical	Registration RSP rejected message syntax error;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
03/08/2022 08:50:40	critical	Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
03/08/2022 08:46:1	Warning!	RCS Partial Service;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;

[t2southi]

And again this morning:

Time Priority Description

04/08/2022 06:58:1	Warning!	RCS Partial Service;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
04/08/2022 06:56:33	critical	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
04/08/2022 06:31:50	Warning!	RCS Partial Service;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
04/08/2022 06:31:7	critical	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
04/08/2022 06:29:8	Warning!	TCS Partial Service;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
04/08/2022 06:29:8	Warning!	Initializing Channel Timeout Expires - Time the CM can perform initial ranging on all upstream channels in the TCS has expired;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
04/08/2022 06:26:37	critical	Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
04/08/2022 06:22:36	critical	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
04/08/2022 06:21:53	Warning!	RCS Partial Service;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
04/08/2022 06:19:27	critical	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
04/08/2022 06:18:54	critical	REG RSP not received;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
04/08/2022 06:18:54	Error	T6 Timeout and retries exceeded;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
04/08/2022 06:18:54	critical	Registration RSP rejected unspecified reason;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
04/08/2022 06:18:54	critical	Registration RSP rejected message syntax error;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
04/08/2022 06:17:25	critical	Received Response to Broadcast Maintenance Request, But no Unicast Maintenance opportunities received - T4 time out;CM-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CMTS-MAC=**:**:**:**:**:**;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;

[t2southi]

Another big outage this morning, luckily before I got up.  Interestingly the quality monitor is showing it still down, but the internet is working:

It was working from about 7am this morning.

I've noticed that the upstream channels are only showing 2, but there were 4 yesterday.

Upstream bonded channels

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

1	53700054	49.5	5120	64 qam	2
2	39400000	50	5120	64 qam	4

Upstream bonded channels

Channel Channel Type T1 Timeouts T2 Timeouts T3 Timeouts T4 Timeouts

1	ATDMA	0	0	0	0
2	ATDMA	0	0	2	0

I'm seeing T3 timeout in the logs too for the time of the outage.

[John_GS]

Hi @t2southi

Thanks for coming back to the thread. I am sorry to hear it's not fixed for you, You do need a tech visit as you only have two upstream channels showing plus they're on the verge of being maxed out. I shall send you a PM now, get the details and then book a tech visit in 🙂

Best,