Hi,
I'm signed up for 40/5 FTTN service with CenturyLink. So far I've had nothing but trouble. The modem will constantly retrain tens of times a day. My speeds will jump all over the place as a result. Currently it's impossible to maintain the 40/5 speed for more than a day. And with all the disconnections the experience is frustrating.
I originally started with the rented Actiontec C1000A. I then purchased a ZyXEL Q1000Z myself which I'm currently using. Both modems have had the same problems.
Originally, I could only establish about a 32/4 connection speed. CL sent out a tech, who identified a problem with the line, and supposedly they fixed something. After that, I could get 40/5 speeds but I still had disconnections and speed changes several times a day. CL sent another tech afterwards to take a look (sent via TalkToUs), and he couldn't find any problems. He replaced my wall jack and said the levels at the NID were 9 dB, which meet the minimum requirements. Measuring inside the house at the jack at my wall, I was only getting 7.5/6.0 dB downstream/upstream. Somehow, there is a 3 dB drop in the cat5e I installed myself (how?). Unfortunately, when the tech was there I didn't connect the modem directly into the NID to see what it said. But as of now, the modem is connected directly to the NID and according to the modem status when it *was* connect @ 40/5 speeds the max SNR I observed was 7.5/6.0 dB, well below the minimum required.
Below are some recent modem stats. The modem retrained four times while I was typing this (so +4 to the retrains in last 24 hrs). It was connected at 15325/2047 Kbps. The modem is running in bridged mode, plugged in directly to the NID outside. The cable is a 15ft. Belkin DSL modem cable. I should probably try the standard variety, but I'd be surprised if that made any difference.
DSL Link
Broadband Mode Setting: Multimode
Broadband Mode Auto-Detected: VDSL2 - 8A
DSL Link Uptime: 3M:51S
Retrains: 32
Retrains in Current 24 Hours: 10
Retrains in Previous 24 Hours: 22
Loss of Power Link Failures: 0
Loss of Signal Link Failure: 14
Loss of Margin Link Failure: 7
Link Train Errors: 0
Unavailable Seconds: 802
Channel Type: N/A
Near End CRC Errors: 3479
Far End CRC: 0
30 Minute Near End CRC: 11169
30 Minute Far End CRC: 0
Near End RS FEC: 413107
Far End RS FEC: 0
30 Minute Near End FEC: 9200570
30 Minute Far End FEC: 0
Levels Downstream Upstream
SNR 7.8 dB 9.7 dB
Attenuation 16.1 dB 8.5 dB
Power 16.4 dBm 8.8 dBm
A few questions:
* Why does my modem report different SNR values than what the tech said? At 40/5 speeds, it reported a max of 7.5/6.0 dB, well below the minimum 9.0 dB. With SNR levels like that, I wouldn't expect a stable connection.
* Even at lower speeds, why does the SNR fluctuate so much? When the modem retrains to something like 10/2, it still isn't stable. I can watch as the SNR eventually degrades from +10 dB down to 0-4 dB, and then the modem retrains.
* Any possibility I have a bad modem? I already sent the Actiontec back to CL so I can't do a side-by-side comparison anymore. I think the chance the modem being bad is low, but you never know.
* Any advice on what to do next? I'll be happy to provide any more info for anyone who's trying to help. I've already gone through TalkToUs@CenturyLink.com (they sent out the second tech to look at the line), but they don't return my voice mails since then. So I'm not sure how to get additional help since the standard tech support will just ask me to reset the modem and run speed tests. Maybe I should try email again?
Thanks.
↧