tactix Posted September 21, 2008 Share Posted September 21, 2008 before you take the leap though please read up as im not sure what measure comcast have inplace now to stop uncapping. once you get to grips with the cable network though you will see how flawed it is. think of your local cable network as a bunch of routers with mac filtering. in the uk each area is split into ubr gateways so if you are on ubr gateway 1 and you take a mac address from any of the other 8 ubr's program it into your modem you can log on for free. so once you have a mac address thats on the accepted list your in. then the cable company server checks your mac against its registered speed and sends you the relevent config file wich governs the modems up and down speed. the way round this is to know what config files are used by your isp then you tell your modem to grab what ever config you have selected from th cc's tftpip server. hence why its poss not to pay penny for virgins xxl connection ( not that i condone such theft of service ) ;) and also poss to just change to a different mac addy to get round there speed capping this is for docsis 1 or 2 connections and you need to have a hacked firmware installed on your modem hence getting something like a motorola surfboard sb5100 or sb5101e also in the uk there are 2 different standards euro docsis and international docsis you would need to find out what standard your isp uses and get the relevent modem if you have any q's im sure i can help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chA1nBull3t Posted September 21, 2008 Share Posted September 21, 2008 Thank god I switched to FiOS... I pay my ISP so I can USE MY INTERNET. Not to buy a monthly download limit. Next thing you'll know, they'll be charging for "Unlimited Services" ..Kinda like Texting. <_< Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conor_M Posted September 22, 2008 Share Posted September 22, 2008 Verizon (On FiOS at least) can push their firmware updates as well (Actiontec Gateway).. It really pisses me off, I have to redo all of my port forwarding, and my firewall rules. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted September 23, 2008 Author Share Posted September 23, 2008 Got fed up with the constant power resets to get my cinnectionsback, I called them today. The CS rep has no idea what the hell I was talking about and kept telling me they didn't do that, but I got him to contact a supervisor who is supposed to call me back. Hopefully soon, as I have yet to go to sleep from work and been awake for about 20hours now. I got a reference number and I will be calling them later today if no one calls me. Im about ready to take this to the media and talk to a lawyer. I know its only firmware, but its the principle of the matter. They f'ed with my hardware and installed something without my consent or knowledge, causing the hardware to constantly fail now. To me, it is like me installing a botnet on their network and taking control of their servers. What the F!?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tactix Posted September 23, 2008 Share Posted September 23, 2008 if its hardware you bought then they have no right as you well know. here in the uk though we aint as lucky as all the modems are property of telewest / ntl / cable and wireless who are all now vigin media after the buy out you only rent the modem ( in with the contract deal ) . i used to live by the rule pay a little scam a lot but with the recent speed caps i'm seriously thinking of scraping payment once my contract is out as i have the means to get both there tv service and there internet service for free. i mean over £30 a month for 20Mbit connection that gets dropped to a 5mbit connection if you download over 3 gig ( well thats what they say ) but it drops peak time no matter what you have upped or downed and dont even get me started on there tv service as we no longer get sky one and some other sky sub channels cuz they wasnt happy with sky's prices for the channels. i swear before virgin took over telewest ( the cable company sub in my area ) were great no speed caps reasonable prices and customer support you could actualy understand. but since the take over its got a right sucky service Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RogueHart Posted September 23, 2008 Share Posted September 23, 2008 i dont know if i have a limit or not. if i have ive never hit it. but ive only got a 40gig hd so its not surprising i havent hit one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted September 23, 2008 Author Share Posted September 23, 2008 Well, Finally got through to someoen who knows what they are talking about. I called Linksys and Comcast and everyone tried to tell me that you can't flash the Firmware, that there isn't one available, or that Comast can't do it, only the customer can,etc, etc. I escalated the call several times until I got one of the network engineers who confirmed to me that YES, COMCAST DOES FLASH MODEMS WITH UPDATES! How it works is, if the vendor, or Comcast wants to put out the update, they don't direclty logon to each modem. Instead, when a Modem powers on, it sends and gets a special signal for provisioning rates. What this does is checks with the ISP for any available maintenece updates. If a firmware patch is available, it then pushes it out, or in reality, the modem itself installs it from Comast after it sees an update is available. So, with the problem only happening since last month, and I can pretty much say to the day when it happend, I suspect it was due to a power outage we had that was over 24hours due to bad weather, and when the modem finally was powered off and back on, it took the firmware Comcast had on thei site. Until this happens, it woudl not have changed the firmware in the Modem, as the firmware was not there when I intially bought my modem, and sine I have not had a power outage since then, no reason for it to look for new firmware. Now, he did confirm for me that there are people with the same modem with the same problem, but beleived it to be a power at the pole issue, not so much the firmware. We can't really confirm this until we get a tech out to the pole, but I did switch the modem with one of my older cable modems, and the signal came up normal,as when I plug back in my linksys, my US signal is way over powered. US: Upstream Signal DS: Downstream Signal Normal US is 35-45dB, DS +/-7dB. Mine is currently at US 55dB and DS +2. So, my US signal is way out of wack on the Linksys, which he and I suspect might be the firmware, as the US is form the modem to the pole, not from the Pole to the Modem. he is putting all of this together for me, as well as documenting the problems other people with the same modem are having, and I should here from one of the higher up Engineers who handle the firmware upgrades within the next 3 days. He said if I do not hear from him or them by that time, call back, ask for him(I have his Employee ID to ask for) and we'll go from there. He also gave me an insider tip. Comcast is rolling out 100mbit signals in some areas to compete with Verizons Fios, but the only way to even get these signals is with a newer Motorola Docsis 3.0 modem, model #6120. This newer modem is supported fully by comcast, and without it, you get the normal speeds of their network vs the suped up speeds they offer with this specific modem. I suspect eventually all Docsis 3 modems that they support will get this newer rate, but for now, they only offer it in certain cities and only if you use this brand/docsis revision from their approved list. I guess they have it good with Motorola and theiir firmware settings for their network, so it looks like even after all this gets squared away, I may just go and buy the newer Motorolo 6120 anyway, so I will at least have the faster, more supported device for their network. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tactix Posted September 23, 2008 Share Posted September 23, 2008 nice to see progress bud. just to let you know the docsis 3 modems get that speed due to channel bonding as the limit for docsis 2 is somewhere near 38 mbit ( i may be worng on the docsis 2 speed but its in that ball park ) also you may want to look at ambit modems as they have just released a spec sheet for there new docsis 3 modem. but usualy motorola are first to roll out the hardware before ambit do hence probably why he told you that only motorola would be supported. anyway as stated glad to see some progress keep me posted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digip Posted September 23, 2008 Author Share Posted September 23, 2008 Well they say 100mbit, but you probably get real world speeds of like 30 up and down. The plus side being your upload speed for the newer ones with the faster speeds will really shoot upwards, while the download speeds will increase, you will probably never be able to hit that wall to top out at full speed. I can't really complain with my speeds now, as they arenet my issue. Having to power off/on the modem constantly is really the issue I am having, and a deal breaker for me that the modem now has older, outdated firmware which I suspect is the cause of my problems with the hardware. I still think they shouldn't be able to make the push in this manner, but since this is the only firmware they offer at the moment, every poweoff on will check for the update, and since there isn't a newer one out there, it stays with this older one. Why any company would throw out an older firmware is beyond me, but I guess it gives them better control to throttle their network. Its still a phail for me though. http://www.motorola.com/business/US-EN/Mot...0008406b00aRCRD http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Motorol...30-Modems-92046 http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast...w-Markets-94562 Lock Status Operational Modulation 256QAM Channel ID 80 Provisioned Rate 6600 kbps Symbol Rate 5360.537 Ksym/sec Downstream Power -3.9 dBmV SNR 37.8 dB Lock Status Operational Modulation 16QAM Channel ID 7 Provisioned Rate 1000 kbps Symbol Rate 2560 Ksym/sec Upstream Power 54.8 dBmV This guy "Upstream Power 54.8 dBmV" is my problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tactix Posted September 24, 2008 Share Posted September 24, 2008 Well in the uk a good downstream power level is - 6 to +6 with -2.5 to +2.5 being the ideal power level with snr being 30db or higher. And upstream power of 48 to 52 dbmv being ideal power level. Mines at: Power Level 58 dBmV at the moment so i dont see how that would be giving you problems as your on the docsis 2 standard the same as me. one thing i do know though is that if somebody is trying to clone you mac address into a hacked cable modem and there on the same ubr gateway as you that will cause constant outages as the 2 modems fight for connection but i dont see that being an issue for you either but it may be worth a check to see if your cc logs the nic macs associated with the cable modems mac so you can cross refference just to check that no one is trying to clone you. just hope they get it sorted for you asap though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snakey Posted September 26, 2008 Share Posted September 26, 2008 im 12 gig 1500kb dl 256 up with tesltra bigpond Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Olsen Posted October 2, 2008 Share Posted October 2, 2008 lol, comcast and there power boost. You have like 20mbs for like 30 seconds, then its the advertised speeds. Great for page loads though. As for Bandwidth usage, I would be screwed. August bandwidth usage Aug September Sep July was in the 600's but I can't find the PDF PRTG outputted. Constant 192k shoutcast push. Host my website and a few other things. My own email...ect. Using Bright House Biz cable. Here in central Florida. Advertised speeds are 15/2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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