[Cialug] OT: Cable Modem troubelshooting

[chris at bynw.com]

David, 

Unfortunately I'm not able to directly look at it like I did before
since I left Mediacom back in August for greener pastures and less
headaches. They must not train the Tier 1 reps like they used to train
them back 14 odd years ago when I was in Tier 1. 

The Mediacom 10dot IP address is an internal IP for the modem and other
back end equipment. The 172dot IP address (if you are getting it as a
public IP) is because the modem isn't currently registered or
provisioned properly. A Tier 1 rep "should" be able to notice that and
fix if that is the case. 

Sometimes modems loose provisioning. No idea why, that question has
never been answered by anyone at Mediacom even up in the IP Operations
group as to why it happens. But any Tier 1 rep should be able to
reprovision the modem if that is the case. 

- Chris 

On 2020-11-02 10:57, David Champion wrote: 

> Resurrecting this thread because... guess what is happening with identical
> symptoms. The MC tier 1 guy wasn't able to fix anything, service call is 8
> days from today. He didn't even know what a "public IP address" is, he said
> the only thing he knows is a 10. for 172. something address, that's all
> they taught him in MC training.
> 
> -dc
> 
> On Fri, May 1, 2020 at 1:32 PM Andrew Denner <linux-list at upeke.com> wrote:
> 
> 960mb/s should be good enough for anyone
> 
> On Fri, May 1, 2020 at 12:40 PM Scott Yates <Scott at yatesframe.com> wrote:
> 
> Ya, i was able to push it to around 960mb/s but no further.  Figured it was reasonable overhead.
> 
> On Fri, May 1, 2020 at 12:37 PM Jeffrey Ollie <jeff at ocjtech.us> wrote:
> 
> I purchased the exact same model. Seems fast enough to me. MediaCom
> _should_ be familiar with it because I'm pretty sure that it's the
 exact 

>> same model that they tried to get me to rent when I signed up.
>> 
>> They may be trying to move DOCSIS 4.0 modems now though. From what I've
>> read DOCSIS 3.1 modems (and/or the upstream head ends) aren't able to
> reach the theoretical 10Gbps speeds that DOCSIS 3.1 is supposed to offer and
> generally can only hit around 950Mbps.
> 
> On Fri, May 1, 2020 at 12:25 PM David Champion <dchamp1337 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> I bought a fairly nice modem since I didn't want it to be instantly
> obsolete, have an Arris SB8200, DOCSIS 3.1 modem with the option of running 2 gigabit ethernet ports. Funny that pretty much all of the MC people would say it's probably not fast enough for the 1gb internet connection I have, I should rent one of their modems, because they aren't familiar with
 it. 

> -dc
> 
> On Fri, May 1, 2020, 12:19 PM Jeffrey Ollie <jeff at ocjtech.us> wrote:
> 
> It's more than just MediaCom wanting to control the firmware, it's
 the 

> whole cable internet industry as it's baked into the DOCSIS
 protocol. 

> On the one hand, if you have an ISP that cares, they can remotely
 update 

> firmware to fix security issues (like for the recent Cable Haunt
> vulnerability). Most end-users probably never heard about Cable
 Haunt 

> and probably wouldn't know how to update the firmware anyway.
> 
> On the other hand, savvy end users like us lose a measure of
 control. 

> Especially if we purchased our own modem to save on rental fees and
 to 

> get a better performing device.
> 
> On Fri, May 1, 2020 at 11:10 AM David Champion <
 dchamp1337 at gmail.com 

> wrote:
> 
> Being a former ISP employee, I get that MC wants to control the
 modems, 

> but a huge nerd I also want to be able to control my network devices.
> 
> They temporarily loaned me one of their combined
 modem/router/phone 

> devices, I was like "uh, no". Took it back to them yesterday.
> 
> -dc
> 
> On Fri, May 1, 2020, 11:05 AM Jared Brees <fromj2sitsme at msn.com>
 wrote: 

> Moost point since it's working now, but side note - you CAN
 mess 

> with firmware, it just (if applicable) either requires soldering
 headers, 

> or spinning up your own equipment, similar to what Mediacom has on
 the 

> other end. Even if you do the 2nd option, that firmware is "gone" as
 soon 

> as it reboots.
> ________________________________
> From: Cialug <cialug-bounces at cialug.org> on behalf of David
 Champion < 

> dchamp1337 at gmail.com>
> Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2020 14:39
> To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group <cialug at cialug.org>
> Subject: Re: [Cialug] OT: Cable Modem troubelshooting
> 
> After a couple more tech support calls and some help from Chris
 (who 

> noticed I was getting a private IP address) I was able to get
 them 

> to register my modem properly and now it works again.
> 
> -dc
> 
> On Thu, Apr 30, 2020 at 12:16 PM David Champion <
 dchamp1337 at gmail.com> 

> wrote:
> 
> I plugged into the Arris modem and it does give me a dhcp
 address, 

> I can get into the modem at 192.168.100.1, I can view the software
 version, 

> and can see the Event Log.
> 
> I may try doing a reset on the modem with the recessed
 pinhole 

> and see if it will work.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> -dc
> 
> On Thu, Apr 30, 2020 at 11:42 AM Jimmy Lela <
 binaryvisionary at gmail.com 

> wrote:
> 
> Dave,
> 
> You're correct about the firmware, Mediacom controls that.
 Last I 

> knew I thought you could still access the modem's admin page and
 see 

> useful things
> like TX power and SNR, but it's been a while, they may have
 locked 

> that down.  Do you get anything if you browse to whatever IP the
 admin 

> page should be at, like 192.168.0.1 or similar?  Actually I just
 tried, 

> and my modem does respond at 192.168.01 but so far any default
 credentials 

> I've tried haven't worked.
> 
> I've been renting a modem/router from Mediacom too but it's
 in 

> bridged mode.  I've been looking to buy my own and am leaning
 towards 

> a new Arris SB, I've had good success with them.
> 
> On Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 11:24 AM David Champion <
 dchamp1337 at gmail.com 

> wrote:
> 
> Off Topic question:
> I have an Arris SB8200 cable modem on Mediacom, it was
 working 

> perfectly fine. Last week I started having flaky internet connection
 issues, 

> it got to the point where if I power cycle the modem, I could
 ping 

> out to the WAN gateway IP address for about 15 to 30 seconds, then it
 would 

> stop. 
> The modem had all 4 of the lights lit up normally, no
 indication 

> of problems.
> 
> After bugging the 1st tier tech support guy at MC he
 finally 

> looked hard enough to confirm that they could see the connection
 dropping, 

> and he claimed they couldn't see the modem at all any more after
 that. 

> Tech came out yesterday, said the modem was bad, they left
 me 

> a modem / router - Ubee 1301 as a loaner and they're charging me $50
 for 

> the service call. I was able to get into the admin on it and turn off
 wifi 

> and change the LAN IP, seem  to be working.
> 
> Question is: is there any troubleshooting I can do on the
 Arris 

> modem? From what I understand there's no way I can access it or update
 firmware, 

> or see if the provider pushed a bad firmware to it, I'm fully at
 their 

> mercy. Is this correct?
> 
> Good thing I still have my old Internetsolver / Aureon DSL
 as 

> a backup. 
> -dc