House internet issues

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jimim

Bronze Supporter
Jun 20, 2016
3,579
NE/Pa
Holy cow. 5 plus weeks now trying to solve a major internet service issue in my house. We hd an outage 5 weeks ago when they got our neighborhood back up and going I have had service issues since. Comcast is telling me my underground line is crushed cause of a large tree that was a sapling 15 years ago when I built. My electrical and internet runs right under it. I have a 6 db loss over 100 feet which I have found out is a lot from 3 different sources I trust. So I’m waiting on a new line bit in the meantime. I think 1 device in my house is causing some of the issues and I’m thinking it is a device that I can access outside my house via app control. Either cameras, pentair pool app, or my security. I have 65 wired devices running back to my 2 racks in the basement. Plus 3 hardwired access points from grandstream. So last night our IT guy told me take it all offline and start going 1 by 1. Yippie. So as of right now I only have the access points wired in. So only wireless access allowed in the house and things are stable. So deff have 2 issues going on. A ghost device and a busted line. As I type on on net on my iPhone on a 5/2.4 hybrid network. I have music streaming on my iPhone to a wireless nuvo played. It’s not hardwired right now. My kid is on Roblox. My wife is on net. All is perfect. Today I played an online game I like. I literally let it run all day while my kid on on the net in and off. I did paperwork over our server for 3 hours. Zero issues. Past 4 weeks this all has been an nightmare.

Just sharing. Lol. Our IT guy is going to put a hardware packet sniffer before my router once I have the new line so we can see where if loosing packets. I really think it’s my cameras. They are viewable on a static ip over port 80 through a free dns server. I really think this is blocking my packets in and out of the house for internet. I’m not IT guy but a device is deff messing things up along with the “crushed” line. I knew I should have ripped that tree out when I built. But no Jim was trying to nectar nice neighbor. See where that got me. Me and the neighbor need to have a conversation next week about that tree cause he hasn’t even trimmed it in 15 years. I payed to have it trimmed years ago. I’m asking him to rip it down. Split the cost with me. I’ll have my buddy’s company do it. If he won’t pay for half I’ll forcthe bill cause if it does fall over it’s on my house not his. He claims the tree but when it was a sapling it was on my property. Now that it’s huge who knows. Might have to pay for new pins and if it actually mostly on my yard that thing is coming down day later. I hate trees. Always have.

Ok I’m done. Peace out.
 
A lot to unpack there, so I'm gonna leave trees out of it for now :)

You said that this all started when your neighborhood had an outage, presumably prior to this everything was good? Then after service was restored you still had problems, but other customers in the neighborhood were OK? Comcast then attributed a 50% signal loss to crushed cable?

Have you measured what download speed you're currently getting using Speedtest? If you have gigabit internet you should be getting at least 900 Mbps.

To summarize your issue, with everything connected nothing worked (or was super slow), but with just wireless devices it seems OK? 65 wired devices is a lot and would consume a lot of bandwidth. I think it's unlikely that it's a rogue device, but rather you have network congestion from the reduced speed.
 
So I've been out of the game for a while, but seek out your oldest devices. They are only as 'smart' as they could have been at the time, so your router dumbs itself down to transmit slower data to them. It doesn't slow it down for the whole network, but as the older device takes longer to communicate with the router, all the other devices are forced to wait their turn and bottlenecks happen.

With 65 devices there has to be a 3rd Gen Ipod touch or equivalent that was speedy for its time, but is Mr Magoo now.
 
guinness said:
A lot to unpack there, so I'm gonna leave trees out of it for now :)

You said that this all started when your neighborhood had an outage, presumably prior to this everything was good? Then after service was restored you still had problems, but other customers in the neighborhood were OK? Comcast then attributed a 50% signal loss to crushed cable?

Have you measured what download speed you're currently getting using Speedtest? If you have gigabit internet you should be getting at least 900 Mbps.

To summarize your issue, with everything connected nothing worked (or was super slow), but with just wireless devices it seems OK? 65 wired devices is a lot and would consume a lot of bandwidth. I think it's unlikely that it's a rogue device, but rather you have network congestion from the reduced speed.
Click to expand...
Yes everyone else is ok from what I gather. It’s like I went to s&$t after the outage. 20 devices are internal. They are itahes that control my ur signals for all my audio and video in my house so I can control everyrhing on iPads and iPhone. Centro control actually. 10 are nuvo devices that steam audio throughout my home. 3 access points. 5 smart TVs. 2 automation boxes for lights. Few marantz receivers that communicate to Centro control via ip. A few Apple TV’s. Sprinkler automation. Pool. Security. Cameras. Nintendo switch. PS4. Xbox. My recteq grill. That’s wireless. Wireless is all iPads and apple computers. 2 computers. 6 iPads in house. 3 iPhones.

My speeds on speed test are sometimes good. Sometimes bad. It’s up and down. I have Comcast blast. 600 meg per sec. Sometimes my speed are accurate. Sometimes low. I know when on 2.4 wireless it’s much lower and 5 it’s higher. I understand that.

I added a few nuvo players back in tonight. Wired now. Cause wife and kids wanted to swim and I was doing yard work. Im still all good.

Do you think I can actually bring using up all my bandwidth. A lot of the devices don’t even pass data unless being used. Right?
 
Newdude said:
So I've been out of the game for a while, but seek out your oldest devices. They are only as 'smart' as they could have been at the time, so your router dumbs itself down to transmit slower data to them. It doesn't slow it down for the whole network, but as the older device takes longer to communicate with the router, all the other devices are forced to wait their turn and bottlenecks happen.

With 65 devices there has to be a 3rd Gen Ipod touch or equivalent that was speedy for its time, but is Mr Magoo now.
Click to expand...
All access points are brand new. I just chucked my old Netgears. iPads are all 7th gen or newer. Apple computers are m1’s so pretty new. Apple TV’s newer 4K versions. All TVs and marantz receivers are within 5 years. My router is now the Comcast newest gateway. The fastest one they have I was told. Wireless is 6 actually not like I have any 6 devices.

Everyrhing is decently new.
 
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jimim said:
My speeds on speed test are sometimes good. Sometimes bad. It’s up and down. I have Comcast blast. 600 meg per sec. Sometimes my speed are accurate. Sometimes low. I know when on 2.4 wireless it’s much lower and 5 it’s higher. I understand that.
Click to expand...

So I think that plan is now called Superfast, which is 600 Mbps down and 15 Mbps up.

You probably need to look at the diagnostics on the modem (on http://192.168.100.1 or http://10.0.0.1 if Arris SB8200)


If you have high values in the corrected and uncorrectables that means you're getting packet loss which is not good. When are Comcast going to lay a new line for you?
 
jimim said:
Do you think I can actually bring using up all my bandwidth.
Click to expand...
What's the upload ? That's likely your choke point and a far cry from 600Mbps.

If the upload is a download request, you can handle all 65 devices at once. It's like calling the library and asking them to ship you the entire library. The upload (phonecall) is nothing. The download (shipping every library book in one shot) is the hard part that consumes all the effort.

But. We have shifted from a download society to an upload society. Whether its HD cameras, Ring, Zoom meetings, Gaming, TikTok, etc, many people now use far more upload than they have. So you can easily choke your upload capacity and the other 57 devices are unable to request any downloads.

If your signal is weak from the chewed up buried line, that will lower your capacity further.
 
guinness said:
So I think that plan is now called Superfast, which is 600 Mbps down and 15 Mbps up.

You probably need to look at the diagnostics on the modem (on http://192.168.100.1 or http://10.0.0.1 if Arris SB8200)


If you have high values in the corrected and uncorrectables that means you're getting packet loss which is not good. When are Comcast going to lay a new line for you?
Click to expand...
as soon as water company does thier one call. if they don't come today ill have my dad's buddy who is a plumber call his guy at water company cause he got my water line installed the day he called when I built my house. he know someone up in there. ill check that out in gateway. it's still called blast in my area. I didn't know it could sniff packet losses. I really don't trust anything Comcast these days. not like I ever did. the 1 tech. . . first thing he did when he saw my panels (which I did and my buddy who is one of the top ranked installers for various automation companies in the county mind you) said. . . " I don't like this. I don't like this." he said wait what is this. my pentair unit. I said yah? I don't like where that wire goes to. I said really you can trace it. "yah" I traced it. I said show me. he points. I say really so then you traced. the coil up in the ceiling which you can't see? he didn't say a work. I laid into him. 10 mins later. supervisor at my house. I said get this clown out of my house. the supervisor takes over. we talked. I actually like this guy. he has been helpful and texting me to try different things. I asked if he could put a smoke ping on my house. he said lets lay. the line first. I am soooooo fired up. those that know me here know I do. things to the best of my ability and know if I can't I got or find who I need. I don't mess around with clowns.
 

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Newdude said:
What's the upload ? That's likely your choke point and a far cry from 600Mbps.

If the upload is a download request, you can handle all 65 devices at once. It's like calling the library and asking them to ship you the entire library. The upload (phonecall) is nothing. The download (shipping every library book in one shot) is the hard part that consumes all the effort.

But. We have shifted from a download society to an upload society. Whether its HD cameras, Ring, Zoom meetings, Gaming, TikTok, etc, many people now use far more upload than they have. So you can easily choke your upload capacity and the other 57 devices are unable to request any downloads.

If your signal is weak from the chewed up buried line, that will lower your capacity further.
Click to expand...
Ok ok I got cha. Yah mine is usually 15-20. I’ll have to check again tonight.

Thanks guys for the info. I posted this cause no one else gets it. It’s so frustrating and every night my wife thinks I can fix it myself like everything else. Lol.
 
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One of the big national carriers just lowered upload speed across the board to force people to upgrade to the premium package. (Probably the one that rhymes with Momcast. I forget now. Lol) Most people don't come close to reaching their download capacity. Upload is going to be the next consumer battle when everyone else follows suit.
 
guinness said:
So I think that plan is now called Superfast, which is 600 Mbps down and 15 Mbps up.

You probably need to look at the diagnostics on the modem (on http://192.168.100.1 or http://10.0.0.1 if Arris SB8200)


If you have high values in the corrected and uncorrectables that means you're getting packet loss which is not good. When are Comcast going to lay a new line for you?
Click to expand...
where can I get a web based spectrum analyzer like was being used in that thread.
 
RF Explorer. They make reasonably cost Spectrum Analyzers, but I think its overkill for this.
We bought one of their signal generators for work and it works well for what it cost.

We had Comcast for years, when I wife started to WFH she was always complaining about our internet. Then Frontier rolled out FIOs for us, I converted and no more complaints. I know that doesn't help you, except to let you know you might be screwed with Comcast.

Cameras take up a LOT of bandwidth, I can see them being your issue, or at least a contributor. I don't trust them either, they have a history of backdoor access. I have my cameras on VLANs so they can only access the PC I have setup to record, they have no internet access.

Good luck finding your problem.

I wouldn't do things one device at a time, I'd add a bunch of devices (20?), and then see if you have a problem. When the problem starts again, you know to look in the group. Then try 1/2 of the group and see if that's ok, Binary search.

Randy
 
jimim said:
My router is now the Comcast newest gateway. The fastest one they have I was told. Wireless is 6 actually not like I have any 6 devices.
Click to expand...

Assuming you have the xFi Advanced Gateway (XB8) the web interface should be at http://10.0.0.1 and username is admin and password is password.

Out of interest did you get this before the outage 5 weeks ago?
 
randytsuch said:
RF Explorer. They make reasonably cost Spectrum Analyzers, but I think its overkill for this.
We bought one of their signal generators for work and it works well for what it cost.

We had Comcast for years, when I wife started to WFH she was always complaining about our internet. Then Frontier rolled out FIOs for us, I converted and no more complaints. I know that doesn't help you, except to let you know you might be screwed with Comcast.

Cameras take up a LOT of bandwidth, I can see them being your issue, or at least a contributor. I don't trust them either, they have a history of backdoor access. I have my cameras on VLANs so they can only access the PC I have setup to record, they have no internet access.

Good luck finding your problem.

I wouldn't do things one device at a time, I'd add a bunch of devices (20?), and then see if you have a problem. When the problem starts again, you know to look in the group. Then try 1/2 of the group and see if that's ok, Binary search.

Randy
Click to expand...
Right I got cha. We don't have any other solutions where I live. It's Comcast or DSL from Verizon which stinks from what I gather. Our IT head has a hardware packet sniffer he is going to setup for me once I get my new line.
 
guinness said:
Assuming you have the xFi Advanced Gateway (XB8) the web interface should be at http://10.0.0.1 and username is admin and password is password.

Out of interest did you get this before the outage 5 weeks ago?
Click to expand...
no I had an old one. I know how to get in it. Way ahead there. I track every single IP to make sure I know exactly what is goin in and out. I also use the cloud service for my access points so I can monitor anything wireless on my network so I can track bandwidth and which channels are being used.
 
Here is past 2 hours for wireless only access in my house. This doesn’t count for any wired devices which are 3 nuvo players and my pentair module for the pool. The 2 access points are hardwired. Some of that upload is pretty high for what I’m allowed which is 20. So can I be clogging up the pipe when everything is online maybe? This was me doing notes on my Mac. My kid on Roblox. My son on oculus on a server game. Music playing over Spotify.7893FC85-05FC-4F64-AD13-DDEEEF12345E.jpeg
 

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