Heading9438
New Around Here
Hey Yall
So I struggled with intermittent drops to my wan connection with Shaw Cable for over a year. The logs would appear as wan connection down with no error or cause. Recently I got an opportunity to sit with some of the network specialists/architects at Shaw for work and I brought up the issue with them. This is what was said:
"We are aware of the behavior and we know the cause of it but it is something we cannot solve directly. The Comcast technicolor routers have a couple of internal modes that the modem/router will switch between depending on the amount of noise present on the coax line. Some 3rd part routers appear to see the mode switching as connection flapping/connection loss and so when the modem switches modes the router doesn't keep up with the change and loses the wan connection. This behavior is internal to the modem and not something that Shaw can control or change, but when you use the modem as a router it is not an issue, however, when you use a third-party router the switching becomes an issue. We discovered this switching by monitoring the workings of the modems output and internal workings."
Of course, I was quite disappointed that there was no fix for the issue... That is until we looked into my account with Shaw that night out of curiosity and discovered that a boost amp had been installed on the line and was hidden behind some paneling. According to the Shaw specialists, the boost amps are notorious for making issues with noise significantly worse, they are installed when the signal coming in is not hot enough for multiple services (cable, phone, internet, security, etc). Recently they switched from using a coax cable box to one that works off wifi, and I had recently canceled my landline, so we disconnected the boost amp, and the internet/wifi tv worked perfectly fine. Here is the thing, without the boost amp, the noise on the coax line was drastically reduced, this meant the modem was rarely (if ever) switching modes from low noise to high noise modes....This meant that the Asus router was no longer randomly losing the wan connection...
I am not sure if the problem can be fixed for an environment that needs a boost amp or has significant fluctuations in noise without switching away from the technicolor modems to one of the older modem offerings (which don't support wifi tv, and several other services). The Shaw guys said that the problem is not just with Asus routers, and not all Asus routers have the issue...
Anyways, I am posting this for the next person who is struggling with the issue and getting no help from tech support at Shaw or customer support at Asus, I hope this helps. I don't think Merlin can fix the issue with his firmware but it may be possible, who knows?
So I struggled with intermittent drops to my wan connection with Shaw Cable for over a year. The logs would appear as wan connection down with no error or cause. Recently I got an opportunity to sit with some of the network specialists/architects at Shaw for work and I brought up the issue with them. This is what was said:
"We are aware of the behavior and we know the cause of it but it is something we cannot solve directly. The Comcast technicolor routers have a couple of internal modes that the modem/router will switch between depending on the amount of noise present on the coax line. Some 3rd part routers appear to see the mode switching as connection flapping/connection loss and so when the modem switches modes the router doesn't keep up with the change and loses the wan connection. This behavior is internal to the modem and not something that Shaw can control or change, but when you use the modem as a router it is not an issue, however, when you use a third-party router the switching becomes an issue. We discovered this switching by monitoring the workings of the modems output and internal workings."
Of course, I was quite disappointed that there was no fix for the issue... That is until we looked into my account with Shaw that night out of curiosity and discovered that a boost amp had been installed on the line and was hidden behind some paneling. According to the Shaw specialists, the boost amps are notorious for making issues with noise significantly worse, they are installed when the signal coming in is not hot enough for multiple services (cable, phone, internet, security, etc). Recently they switched from using a coax cable box to one that works off wifi, and I had recently canceled my landline, so we disconnected the boost amp, and the internet/wifi tv worked perfectly fine. Here is the thing, without the boost amp, the noise on the coax line was drastically reduced, this meant the modem was rarely (if ever) switching modes from low noise to high noise modes....This meant that the Asus router was no longer randomly losing the wan connection...
I am not sure if the problem can be fixed for an environment that needs a boost amp or has significant fluctuations in noise without switching away from the technicolor modems to one of the older modem offerings (which don't support wifi tv, and several other services). The Shaw guys said that the problem is not just with Asus routers, and not all Asus routers have the issue...
Anyways, I am posting this for the next person who is struggling with the issue and getting no help from tech support at Shaw or customer support at Asus, I hope this helps. I don't think Merlin can fix the issue with his firmware but it may be possible, who knows?
