only one locked upstream channel?

[gittist]

Please let me know where to look if this is the wrong forum.

I just purchased an Arriss SB6190 modem to replace the SB6141 which hasn't been supported by Xfinity for quite some time.

Up front, when I do a Speedtest.net or use the Xfinity speed check everything is within my speed range that I pay for.

Now the question has to do with the downstream and upstream locked channels.

The modem is 32 down and 8 up.

When I go into the modem status page I see all 32 down are locked but only one locked upstream. Adding to my confusion is that only 4 upstream channels show instead of 8??

Is this common?

Do I have something to be fixed?

Thanks

 

[arlo]

Depends on your data plan. Mine is 100mbps so I'm getting more than I pay for.
On the 50mbps plan I only had 8 down/ 1 up.
Of course you can call your ISP and make sure they provisioned the modem correctly and verify your down/up slots.

 

[gittist]

Both my down and upload speeds exceed my plan speed by about 10% so on that point I'm happy. This is the upload even after pulling the plug on the router, waiting a few minutes and plugging it back in.

Channel	Lock Status	US Channel Type	Channel ID	Symbol Rate	Frequency	Power
1	Locked	ATDMA	1	5120 kSym/s	35.60 MHz	39.50 dBmV
2	----	----	4	----	16.30 MHz	----
3	----	----	3	----	22.80 MHz	----
4	----	----	2	----	29.20 MHz	----

I also get this on the event log window:

Time	Priority	Description
Sat May 06 09:01:50 2023	3	Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=b0:da:f9:ed:d1:3d;CMTS-MAC=00:01:5c:96:6e:50;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat May 06 09:03:02 2023	3	Ranging Request Retries exhausted;CM-MAC=b0:da:f9:ed:d1:3d;CMTS-MAC=00:01:5c:96:6e:50;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;

Getting ahold of a real person when I installed the modem was a bleeping nightmare and I wonder if it got screwed up when I finally was able to 'chat' with a real person.

The Xfinity app shows that the SB6190 is installed.

Since the internet works and I get the speeds I should I don't know if I have a problem to fix. It just looks like it??

 

[harshness]

Up front, when I do a Speedtest.net or use the Xfinity speed check everything is within my speed range that I pay for.
Do I have something to be fixed?

If it ain't broke...

This also applies to replacing a working modem. I use a 6141 and it is doing what it is supposed to do.

You didn't say what speed tier you subscribed to but since you're getting what you pay for, how it is partitioned on the upstream side of your modem is of no consequence. A single channel is good for 42.88Mbps.

 

[gittist]

If it ain't broke...

This also applies to replacing a working modem. I use a 6141 and it is doing what it is supposed to do.

You didn't say what speed tier you subscribed to but since you're getting what you pay for, how it is partitioned on the upstream side of your modem is of no consequence. A single channel is good for 42.88Mbps.

The SB6141 wasn't broken (yet) but whenever my wife says something along the lines of shouldn't you....and I don't... guess what? She mentioned the modem so I replaced it. The SB6190 is faster but with what I do it's just a 'feel good'.

Anyways my plan is up to 200 downstream and up to 10 upstream. 10 is less than 42.88 so why should they give me the extra 7 channels does make sense but how about the download side? Did they need to give me 32 channels to download 200 Mbps?

I'm not arguing, I'm just trying to make sense of it, if there is any .

 

[harshness]

I'd imagine that this is because the amount of data that most people send is few and far between compared to downstream. I wouldn't waste my time trying to understand how it works from Comcast's perspective unless it stops working.

 

[gittist]

Ok, so not to worry about the channels. How theses that appear every 3 or 4 minutes?

Time	Priority	Description
Thu Jan 01 00:26:36 1970	3	No Ranging Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=b0:da:f9:ed:d1:3d;CMTS-MAC=00:01:5c:96:6e:50;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat May 06 17:53:58 2023	6	TLV-11 - unrecognized OID;CM-MAC=b0:da:f9:ed:d1:3d;CMTS-MAC=00:01:5c:96:6e:50;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;
Sat May 06 17:54:00 2023	3	Started Unicast Maintenance Ranging - No Response received - T3 time-out;CM-MAC=b0:da:f9:ed:d1:3d;CMTS-MAC=00:01:5c:96:6e:50;CM-QOS=1.1;CM-VER=3.0;

When I was trying to get my modem activated Comcast said that there was a line issue and wanted to send a tech out $$$. Once I got the modem going I cancelled the appointment.

Since then I cleaned the connectors with alcohol. I decided to see was was in the outside cable box and found material in the bottom that reminds me of an ant hill which is easy to believe because I've been trying to kill any hills in the vicinity. Will ants chew through coax?

 

[arlo]

Not sure why Comcast would feel the need to charge for a service call. Since they are responsible for signal to your modem. Whether you own it or they do. I own mine.
Main thing to remember is no splitters in between the cable and the modem. If a splitter has to be used it needs to be one that is bidirectional, 1 Ghz minimum frequency, and unequal power (dB) division. More commonly known as a cable modem splitter.
Kind of easy to identify. You will see the In port and two Out ports. One port out will show something like 2.5 dB and the other showing 3.5. I don't have one to verify the numbers right now. The lower dB port will go to the modem obviously because it will have less signal attenuation.
The first thing most any field tech will do is cut and splice in new connectors. Their field equipment would be able to test signal and dB of each u/d channel. For your cable pedestal to have ants and anthills in it is not uncommon.
As long as the cable jacket is good, you're good. Ants are nasty and love electricity for some reason.
If Comcast techs aren't willing to dig the crud out then you should and wipe the cable clean. Look for damage.
Or try dousing it with the hose and see if your signal goes south. Right?
One thing to look for also is in the modem management screen. After a reset. Look for uncorrectables that increment in huge amounts on one or more channels after a screen refresh (F5 or the reload icon).
If you see some channels steady and one or more incrementing in huge numbers. It could be the CMTS at the headend is flaky. I learned that from my higher lever cable engineer.
Mine would go 224, 700, 998, 1500, 1900, 2450, 2470, 3500. Just an example of course. Every time I refreshed my screen as often as I could. The tech saw it looking at the modem stats at the headend. Swapped a CMTS card in a rack and it was fixed. All day long and maybe 50 uncorrectables. Sorta'. Not 100% full of bs, but it's a good description
Crappy cable or coax connection will increment uncorrectables across all channels. Could be a bad line amplifier.
Could be a poor connection on an F connector. A bit tighter than finger tight will do.
But why they would charge for a service call is plain nuts. Even if you do have 47 splitters. Its their job to find and provide a fix.
All of the errors are covered in web searches like this one:

Comcast Xfinity No Ranging Response Received-T3 Time-Out: How to Fix - Robot Powered Home

We are no strangers to the occasional network disconnection in the middle of a work call or a high ping on a Warzone server.

robotpoweredhome.com

 

[harshness]

Will ants chew through coax?

While they can, they typically won't. The sheath isn't particularly tasty and the shield is just plain nasty.

 

[harshness]

Since they are responsible for signal to your modem.

Cable companies have taken the telco approach in recent years and if you have an outdoor box, they'll only warrant the connection to that point. Any wiring downstream from that box may well be the customer's problem in their mind.

 

[arlo]

Cable companies have taken the telco approach in recent years and if you have an outdoor box, they'll only warrant the connection to that point. Any wiring downstream from that box may well be the customer's problem in their mind.

Well harsh-style. I can kinda' buy that if it''s an apartment, condo, or a home with pre installed cable to each room. Worse yet if there's a 1X8 splitter in the garage branching off to every room. But still. The modem SHOULD get as strong a signal as it can with an unequal output bidirectional splitter, the higher attenuation output then going to the 1X8.
A distrubition amp could be run off of that 3.5 dB higher attenuation port on the 1X2 modem splitter to the 1X8 to the rest of the house. Si??
Another consideration to assure a good signal is to use terminators on any unconnected coax feeds. Cheap and effective.

 

[gittist]

Cable companies have taken the telco approach in recent years and if you have an outdoor box, they'll only warrant the connection to that point. Any wiring downstream from that box may well be the customer's problem in their mind.

That's what I figured I'd be told so that's why I did what I did by connecting my modem directly to the cable box .

Thank you to everyone that’s been offering advice to this amateur and his perceived problem.

In regards to the channel issue, someone earlier pointed out that in spite of the fact that my modem can handle 8 upstream channels, I simply don’t need more than one bonded channel. Only one of the four that show on the status page is bonded; where oh where are the other four (for a total of 8)? I guess we’ll never know.

On to the no response to the ‘Unicast Maintenance Ranging.’

I’m unaware of any ‘drops’ but do notice that I get buffering while streaming every once in a while.

I don’t know if these are germane to the above issue or not but the distance from my outside cable box/tower is approximately 1200 feet to the pole and about 320 feet to the neighbors box that my cable may be split off of. Also the big green electrical transformer is about 6 feet away from the cable box and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the internet cable ran under it since everything was in one trench when the house was built.

In my amateurish attempt to isolate the problem, I attached the modem using a 6 inch cable directly into the cable box. I still received the no response to the Unicast Maintenance after the modem did the long boot up and attaching the modem to my laptop via ethernet cable.

I never paid any attention to the Surfboard access and event log on the SB6141 but I started looking after installing the SB6190.

We don’t have a land line phone and the cell signal isn’t very good here so internet & wifi is pretty close to an absolute requirement so we don’t want to wait until it’s totally broken, if it’s broken at all to start with.

Maybe I just need a signal amplifier like is in the link that was at the end of Arlo’s response?

I have some pics if anyone needs or wants to see them...

Thanks again!

 

[harshness]

The modem SHOULD get as strong a signal as it can with an unequal output bidirectional splitter, the higher attenuation output then going to the 1X8.

What is needed is no longer the problem of the cable company when the home builder or the homeowner has provided a pre-wire. This is especially important in an environment where the option of customer-provided equipment is allowed by government mandate.

I'm sure the cable companies (like the telcos) have little objection to be able to offer "line-backer" service contracts for the downstream cabling.