UPC techical questions

Fat_Fingers

Hi all,

Got UPC broadband installed last week and it worked ok for a couple hours only. Then numerous calls to their tech support number . Long waiting on hold and conflicting answers got me frustrated. Bottom line now is that it was bad install as “receive power levels” on the cisco router supplied by UPC oscillate wildly between 0 and -23 dbmv and this is the cause for no internet / phone services
Technical support at UPC was unable to tell me what are normal operation “receive power levels”. Answer was I don’t know. I find this bizarre that they don’t know operational parameters of the system they support.
Anyhow , does anyone here know what receive power levels should be?

Guys sending their speedtest , here’s one for you:
Download 0.03Mbps
Upload 0.02Mbps
Ping 240ms

This is when it “works” (on 15Mb BB package)
:eek::eek:

the_law

With a receive power level of -23dBmV you are lucky to have any service at all...

It's either a botched install causing periodic loss of signal (air gap, or shield-conductor short) or an issue with your local trunk cable... the former being much more likely. Or your modem could be faulty. In any case, UPC should send someone out, don't take any of the standard guff off them.

I'm not sure exactly what UPC's own specifications are, but 256QAM networks are commonly in the range -4 to +6 dBmV (or close to it). This is why attenuators are used, basically the signal level on the trunk cable is set so the last house on the line can get a good signal, which results in excessive signal for the first few houses... so an attenuator brings it down to where it should be.

Your transmit power should be under 53dBmV or so, depending on your modem model it can go as high as 61dBmV. If your connection is stable a high transmit power is not a problem, it just indicates that you are at the end of a line and your modem has to work harder to be heard by the local node.

For reference, I'm at the very end of a segment and my transmit power is 40dBmV. It all very much depends on the local network topology... I'm in an area with brand new trunk cable and amps and not many taps.

Fat_Fingers

Thanks very much for detailed explanation. It all makes sense now. My transmit power is 46.2dBmV