is Cisco EPC3925 older modem than the Thompson, Im Fuming

kamin99

vibe666 wrote: »

€70? that's a bit pricy and also unnecessary for a home network. cat5e is more than capable of gigabit speeds at shorter distances (i.e. in a home setting as opposed to longer distances in an office).

I know i only went by the advice of one of the forum members

ED E

kamin99 wrote: »

I know i only went by the advice of one of the forum members

Its actually not that bad a move, 5e is only a small bit cheaper than 6, but 6 is "futureproof". €70 is expensive, but most people dont know Radionics or the like and shops like harvery norman charge crazy prizes for the stuff.

Is not something that'll wear out, so good to have.

I'd go down the phone route and just keep insisting on speaking to a supervisor.

DECEiFER

kamin99, have you gotten any answers from UPC? I'm guessing that the only way you will is if they send out a proper engineer.

But in the meantime, if you know anyone else with a UPC connection in your area, you should bring your modem over to their place and see what's what with the channels and also check their modem to see what's what. You can then deduce whether it's an area problem if both modems are only using 4 channels, your modem's problem if it's just your modem using 4 channels, or if both modems use 8 channels it could be a problem with your feed into your home. Just my two cents!

TCP/IP

My set-up is only using 4 channels as well instead of eight. Would love to know why as well.

DECEiFER

TCP/IP wrote: »

My set-up is only using 4 channels as well instead of eight. Would love to know why as well.

Hmmm... What package are you on and what top speed are you getting via Ethernet?

TCP/IP

DECEiFER wrote: »

Hmmm... What package are you on and what top speed are you getting via Ethernet?

I am on the 120mb package was getting 120mb all day long but over the last week there seems to be a massive problem and I am only getting between 10-30 meg. Called UPC and they cannot figure it out so engineer coming this Saturday.

DECEiFER

It's possible that your 4 channels aren't giving you enough bandwidth. Definitely say it to the engineer but it is something we'll all have to figure out so we can help others in the future. If you've read any of my posts in this thread, I'm using all 8 channels and I'm on the 60Mb pack and so far have never had any real issues to report (since signing up in January this year). If my 60Mb connection is using all 8 channels that the modem is capable of, then surely you'd need all 8 also. But for now, I'm only guessing.

kamin99

DECEiFER wrote: »

kamin99, have you gotten any answers from UPC? I'm guessing that the only way you will is if they send out a proper engineer.

But in the meantime, if you know anyone else with a UPC connection in your area, you should bring your modem over to their place and see what's what with the channels and also check their modem to see what's what. You can then deduce whether it's an area problem if both modems are only using 4 channels, your modem's problem if it's just your modem using 4 channels, or if both modems use 8 channels it could be a problem with your feed into your home. Just my two cents!

I was away in the UK for the day , Just back have serious plans to chase UPC early morning and find a solution will certainly update

kamin99

So I just been to UPC spoke to a supervisor , She said that the 4 or 8 downstream channels are wireless and can only be adjusted from the modem by techie, what she did after talking to a 3rd level support is increase the bandwidth for me and advised me to monitor the line for 24 H and at the same time sending a techie tomorrow PM (again) I mentioned the Buzz words of Node being oversold and congestion , but no comment on that from the support person
so another 24 Hours of watchful waiting!

kamin99

kamin99 wrote: »

So I just been to UPC spoke to a supervisor , She said that the 4 or 8 downstream channels are wireless and can only be adjusted from the modem by techie, what she did after talking to a 3rd level support is increase the bandwidth for me and advised me to monitor the line for 24 H and at the same time sending a techie tomorrow PM (again) I mentioned the Buzz words of Node being oversold and congestion , but no comment on that from the support person
so another 24 Hours of watchful waiting!

The DOCSIS channels are nothing to do with wireless. That's first tier tech support not having a clue again. They tried to say the same thing to me when my modem was losing sync due to a dodgy (outdated) firmware version. I knew exactly what was wrong but the person on the other end was having none of it.

DECEiFER

Hmmm... Wireless she said? I don't know, man.

But if your bandwidth per channel has been increased, how's it working out for you so far? There's you and TCP/IP who have reported only having use of 4 channels, and you both have speed issues. It's got to be more than a coincidence...

You should have them send out a top-level tech (I'm not sure what their job title is) and tell them you're not going to accept anything else, no more half-assed bullsh1t talk, as it hasn't solved anything so far and that won't change.

DECEiFER

DECEiFER wrote: »

Hmmm... Wireless she said? I don't know, man.

But if your bandwidth per channel has been increased, how's it working out for you so far? There's you and TCP/IP who have reported only having use of 4 channels, and you both have speed issues. It's got to be more than a coincidence...

You should have them send out a top-level tech (I'm not sure what their job title is) and tell them you're not going to accept anything else, no more half-assed bullsh1t talk, as it hasn't solved anything so far and that won't change.

It's definitely not wireless channels. That's just what first tier support assume you mean once you mention a "channel." They honestly haven't a breeze.

The whole idea of DOCSIS 3.0 is that it uses channel bonding to deliver higher throughput. These channels are VHF and UHF frequencies, nothing to do with wireless.

Then again, you probably know all this already. :pac:

DECEiFER

Karsini wrote: »

It's definitely not wireless channels. That's just what first tier support assume you mean once you mention a "channel." They honestly haven't a breeze.

Absolutely, that's exactly what I was thinking when I read it. The first-tier most likely get two weeks of training and a crash course in MS Office. It's the same with any ISP. I'd laugh them out of the room (or off the phone, ha) if they tried to pull a fast one on me. I did it with BT Ireland and UTV when they both insisted that my ADSL connection password was entered incorrectly over and over (separate incidents) during a period of downtime. It's just typical half-assery.

Karsini wrote: »

The whole idea of DOCSIS 3.0 is that it uses channel bonding to deliver higher throughput. These channels are VHF and UHF frequencies, nothing to do with wireless.

Then again, you probably know all this already. :pac:

I know the basics (and I know about VHF and UHF) but I've only been a customer of UPC's since January, prior to that I was proficient enough in helping myself and some others here on Boards in the past with their ADSL/Eircom woes. So I have a lot to learn about DOCSIS still, but as I said, I have a grasp on the outline as I've done some light reading recently.

kamin99

Guys she was supposed to be the second tier or at least i was told so by the first person who took my call, when they increased my bandwidth I enjoyed 2 hours of 140-145Mb then comes afternoon/evening/night time and it is down to 50-70 , I was asked to keep a record of times and speed so I did will show to Techie tomorrow and God Help him if he dosent fix it:mad:

DECEiFER

You should really place your emphasis on getting the channel thing sorted. It seems to be the best explanation. If they don't sort that, I don't know if you'll enjoy top consistent speeds.

kamin99

will defo keep this in mind tomorrow pm , and finger crossed I get it sorted , will update ASAP

Thor

kamin99 wrote: »

Guys she was supposed to be the second tier or at least i was told so by the first person who took my call, when they increased my bandwidth I enjoyed 2 hours of 140-145Mb then comes afternoon/evening/night time and it is down to 50-70 , I was asked to keep a record of times and speed so I did will show to Techie tomorrow and God Help him if he doesnt fix it:mad:

I'm in the same position as you, tech guy is suppose to call tomorrow between 1 and 6 to check my line.

I mentioned in the talk to forum for UPC that UPC contacted me again and said their network team may have found an issue with my line but have no other details other than it's under review and that they are still sending out the technician to see if hey notices anything.

Now I have the full 8 channels and have an identical issue as you do. I think they really need to sort this out rapidly. It's going on three weeks now.

I have pretty much had a flawless line since the 100Mb package and never had a single issue. Then I get upgrade to the 150Mb package and my line sucks in the evenings. Now it can't be a coincidence that they launch the newest speed and then make 50Mb their lowest package and at the same time the issues arise.

kamin99

Thor wrote: »

I'm in the same position as you, tech guy is suppose to call tomorrow between 1 and 6 to check my line.

I mentioned in the talk to forum for UPC that UPC contacted me again and said their network team may have found an issue with my line but have no other details other than it's under review and that they are still sending out the technician to see if hey notices anything.

Now I have the full 8 channels and have an identical issue as you do. I think they really need to sort this out rapidly. It's going on three weeks now.

I have pretty much had a flawless line since the 100Mb package and never had a single issue. Then I get upgrade to the 150Mb package and my line sucks in the evenings. Now it can't be a coincidence that they launch the newest speed and then make 50Mb their lowest package and at the same time the issues arise.

That is Very interesting now , You have the 8 Downstream channels and still suffering , It seems UPC have totally missed it up this time round, Keep us updated with your status Please

Thor

kamin99 wrote: »

That is Very interesting now , You have the 8 Downstream channels and still suffering , It seems UPC have totally missed it up this time round, Keep us updated with your status Please

Yeah, the amount of channels I believe comes down to whether there is enough bandwidth on each channel and as fair as I'm aware, there is more than enough with 4 to cover 150Mb, I could be wrong. I think they just have some estates with 8 channels if there is a lot of people with high packages. Again, i could be wrong.

Whatever issue UPC are having, I don't think is related to our connections, but more whatever UPC are doing at their end.

Will of course update tomorrow first thing.

Thor

kamin99 wrote: »

That is Very interesting now , You have the 8 Downstream channels and still suffering , It seems UPC have totally missed it up this time round, Keep us updated with your status Please

So technician came. He saw no real issues with the line other than the signal was a little up and down when it should have been more flat.

Hard to explain, but at the time I was getting perfect speeds. Actually 160Mb/s.

When he saw the speed, he said he never saw speed that fast on their network. He didn't know they had the 150Mb speeds. Didn't think a technician for a company would be shocked about their own products.

Anyway, he agreed that it sounds like an issue on UPC's own network end and moved it to the 2nd line support.

Just tested my speed their and still getting a solid 150Mb/s+, here comes the 6pm speed drop.

kamin99

Thor wrote: »

So technician came. He saw no real issues with the line other than the signal was a little up and down when it should have been more flat.

Hard to explain, but at the time I was getting perfect speeds. Actually 160Mb/s.

When he saw the speed, he said he never saw speed that fast on their network. He didn't know they had the 150Mb speeds. Didn't think a technician for a company would be shocked about their own products.

Anyway, he agreed that it sounds like an issue on UPC's own network end and moved it to the 2nd line support.

Just tested my speed their and still getting a solid 150Mb/s+, here comes the 6pm speed drop.

I also had the Engineer just now , and here is a bit of shocker to me , as you remember I had 2 techie visits before , Guess who were they , they were contacted techies not working directly for UPC ( the third one was) so no wonder they were shocked to see the high speed and also being not aware of it, It seems UPC sends their real people when there is an unsolved problem

So for know The engineer tested the speed and came back as 70Mb and he was also wondering about the missing 4 downstream channels and why are they not active , He made few calls and said I will have to give him a day or two till they get to the bottom of the problem , But the good news is UPC now recognise that there is a problem

Thor

kamin99 wrote: »

I also had the Engineer just now , and here is a bit of shocker to me , as you remember I had 2 techie visits before , Guess who were they , they were contacted techies not working directly for UPC ( the third one was) so no wonder they were shocked to see the high speed and also being not aware of it, It seems UPC sends their real people when there is an unsolved problem

So for know The engineer tested the speed and came back as 70Mb and he was also wondering about the missing 4 downstream channels and why are they not active , He made few calls and said I will have to give him a day or two till they get to the bottom of the problem , But the good news is UPC now recognise that there is a problem

UPC generally always use Integrated systems and that group is hired out to do the work for UPC, but true, they are technically are outsourced contractors.

I did have the manager of the contractors out once, because of countless times they were to replace my router with a a Cisco one. Countless times they would just send me another Thompson router and finally the manager showed up with the right replacement. So it makes sense that after awhile they will send someone higher up.

I'm going to keep testing my speed for the next few hours to see when it drops off. Whatever the issue is, it's definitely 100% on UPC's side and I'm hoping they get it sorted soon or at least figure out what the problem is.

Thor

Just done a few tests and my speed is beginning to drop. Getting just under 100Mb/s on the tests.

DECEiFER

At this point it could be anything from the lack of channels to the contention ratio to a mouse biting into the cables (but only at peak times - mice are clever!). At least it's being looked into for you both and hopefully it'll get resolved and soon.

LiutenantDan

Well I had UPC 25MB broad band for the psat yera with a UPC supplied CISCO EPC2425 Modem. I was mainly using it for gaming but recently I upgraded to Fibre Power 100MB broadband.

They told me I needed a new modem for 49 Euro and sure enough I got a CISCO EPC 3925. Immediately I had slower connection speeds on the wireless which UPC said they didn't support becuase I was getting 100mb with an ethernet cable directly into the modem.

So tech guy told me to buy a wireless N router to fix that which I did. I was dissappointed that this was necessary as like I said EPC2425 was perfect even on wireless. I bough the Wireless N Router and wireless was solved (gettin 75mbs on wireless N),even if it left me disgruntled having to fork out for a new router. Anyway, there was major latency with the new modem. I could no longer play online games due to lagg. I didnt change anything on my pc.

So to test it I
1- tried lan cable direct into pc. great download speeds but major lagg.
2- disabled modem firewall. no joy.
3- phoned UPC tech suport (again). This time they put me through to the home installation guys. They said that they had heard of gaming issues with latency. The guy said he would send me out a thompson modem to replace my EPC3925.

Don't know if this will fix the problem or not but all I know is that with the older modem (the EPC 2425), even though I was on 25MB package, the latency was not an issue.

So it's amazing how even though im paying more for a faster connection, i've ended up worse off in terms of the purpose of buying the better package.

I hope this thompson modem fixes the problem but I feel very worried as it's over 3 weeks since I was promised one and apparently I have to wait 2 more weeks!

Anyway - I will update the thread as soon as I get the new modem. Lets see if the thompson modem has the same latency issue as the EPC3925.
As a last resort, I am prepared to go back to 25mb broadband and hook up the old EPC2425 which worked fine for the past year.

DECEiFER

LiutenantDan wrote: »

Well I had UPC 25MB broad band for the psat yera with a UPC supplied CISCO EPC2425 Modem. I was mainly using it for gaming but recently I upgraded to Fibre Power 100MB broadband.

They told me I needed a new modem for 49 Euro and sure enough I got a CISCO EPC 3925. Immediately I had slower connection speeds on the wireless which UPC said they didn't support becuase I was getting 100mb with an ethernet cable directly into the modem.

So tech guy told me to buy a wireless N router to fix that which I did. I was dissappointed that this was necessary as like I said EPC2425 was perfect even on wireless. I bough the Wireless N Router and wireless was solved (gettin 75mbs on wireless N),even if it left me disgruntled having to fork out for a new router. Anyway, there was major latency with the new modem. I could no longer play online games due to lagg. I didnt change anything on my pc.

So to test it I
1- tried lan cable direct into pc. great download speeds but major lagg.
2- disabled modem firewall. no joy.
3- phoned UPC tech suport (again). This time they put me through to the home installation guys. They said that they had heard of gaming issues with latency. The guy said he would send me out a thompson modem to replace my EPC3925.

Don't know if this will fix the problem or not but all I know is that with the older modem (the EPC 2425), even though I was on 25MB package, the latency was not an issue.

So it's amazing how even though im paying more for a faster connection, i've ended up worse off in terms of the purpose of buying the better package.

I hope this thompson modem fixes the problem but I feel very worried as it's over 3 weeks since I was promised one and apparently I have to wait 2 more weeks!

Anyway - I will update the thread as soon as I get the new modem. Lets see if the thompson modem has the same latency issue as the EPC3925.
As a last resort, I am prepared to go back to 25mb broadband and hook up the old EPC2425 which worked fine for the past year.

The EPC3925 router shouldn't be the cause of your latency issues. It has to be something else, or at worst, you got a damaged device. But under normal circumstances, the EPC3925 would not be at fault. It's not a very good router but it's not THAT bad, especially if you're getting latency issues with a wired connection.

I've been using the EPC3925 for 9 months now without any big issues. Check out my speed tests performed within the last few days:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=81114288&postcount=1046

If you want to bridge the EPC3925 properly with your standalone cable router, check out my guide here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056758726

But even before I bridged it with another router, I had no latency issues. However, by bridging your EPC3925 with another router, you'll be effectively disabling the EPC3925's router and relying 100% on your standalone cable router for NAT'ing and other routing duties as the EPC3925 will merely act as a modem when bridged.

LiutenantDan

DECEiFER wrote: »

The EPC3925 router shouldn't be the cause of your latency issues. It has to be something else, or at worst, you got a damaged device. But under normal circumstances, the EPC3925 would not be at fault. It's not a very good router but it's not THAT bad, especially if you're getting latency issues with a wired connection.

I've been using the EPC3925 for 9 months now without any big issues. Check out my speed tests performed within the last few days:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=81114288&postcount=1046

If you want to bridge the EPC3925 properly with your standalone cable router, check out my guide here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056758726

But even before I bridged it with another router, I had no latency issues. However, by bridging your EPC3925 with another router, you'll be effectively disabling the EPC3925's router and relying 100% on your standalone cable router for NAT'ing and other routing duties as the EPC3925 will merely act as a modem when bridged.

---

Hi DECEiFER,

Thanks for your help.
Ok so right now I have the pc connected to the 3925 directly. The Netgear router I bought makes the wireless work perfectly. But even with ETHERNET Cable in directly to the 3925 my ping goes up in games from 40ms to 100ms. with the 25mb EPC2425 was just getting 40 or below.
I know in online gaming you can be connected to different servers globally but I'familiar with most of the servers in the game I play.

I looked at your bridgin guide but I had a problem with assigning the IP address. I think the router and the modem have the same IP so the router was automatically given a different IP.

is it ok if I pm you?

DECEiFER

LiutenantDan wrote: »

Well I had UPC 25MB broad band for the psat yera with a UPC supplied CISCO EPC2425 Modem. I was mainly using it for gaming but recently I upgraded to Fibre Power 100MB broadband.

They told me I needed a new modem for 49 Euro and sure enough I got a CISCO EPC 3925. Immediately I had slower connection speeds on the wireless which UPC said they didn't support becuase I was getting 100mb with an ethernet cable directly into the modem.

So tech guy told me to buy a wireless N router to fix that which I did. I was dissappointed that this was necessary as like I said EPC2425 was perfect even on wireless. I bough the Wireless N Router and wireless was solved (gettin 75mbs on wireless N),even if it left me disgruntled having to fork out for a new router. Anyway, there was major latency with the new modem. I could no longer play online games due to lagg. I didnt change anything on my pc.

So to test it I
1- tried lan cable direct into pc. great download speeds but major lagg.
2- disabled modem firewall. no joy.
3- phoned UPC tech suport (again). This time they put me through to the home installation guys. They said that they had heard of gaming issues with latency. The guy said he would send me out a thompson modem to replace my EPC3925.

Don't know if this will fix the problem or not but all I know is that with the older modem (the EPC 2425), even though I was on 25MB package, the latency was not an issue.

So it's amazing how even though im paying more for a faster connection, i've ended up worse off in terms of the purpose of buying the better package.

I hope this thompson modem fixes the problem but I feel very worried as it's over 3 weeks since I was promised one and apparently I have to wait 2 more weeks!

Anyway - I will update the thread as soon as I get the new modem. Lets see if the thompson modem has the same latency issue as the EPC3925.
As a last resort, I am prepared to go back to 25mb broadband and hook up the old EPC2425 which worked fine for the past year.

LiutenantDan wrote: »

---

Hi DECEiFER,

Thanks for your help.
Ok so right now I have the pc connected to the 3925 directly. The Netgear router I bought makes the wireless work perfectly. But even with ETHERNET Cable in directly to the 3925 my ping goes up in games from 40ms to 100ms. with the 25mb EPC2425 was just getting 40 or below.
I know in online gaming you can be connected to different servers globally but I'familiar with most of the servers in the game I play.

I looked at your bridgin guide but I had a problem with assigning the IP address. I think the router and the modem have the same IP so the router was automatically given a different IP.

is it ok if I pm you?

Sure. I hope I can help because this issue is definitely not something you should be having with the EPC3925.

Maybe in your first PM, try doing a regular DOS ping to boards.ie or rte.ie, etc. and see if your getting spikes like you would be in your online gaming. I do some gaming myself and am often on European servers with stable pings of between 50-65 on continental servers.

But sure, go ahead and PM me. Include as much information as possible and I'll do what I can to help sort this out before your Thompson arrives. I think you'll be better-off with the EPC3925, if I'm honest. You can't truly bridge the Thompson, it can only be faux bridged by double NAT'ing and DMZ'ing, which is what you've most-likely been doing with the EPC3925 so far. So, unless your particular device is broken in some manner, then your problem should be resolved easily enough.

Thor

Thor wrote: »

there is enough bandwidth on each channel and as fair as I'm aware, there is more than enough with 4 to cover 150Mb

In my case the 4 channels definitely seems to provide enough bandwidth for full speed. Must be dependant on local conditions as to whether the 8 channels are needed or not.

TCP/IP

Well looks like I am sorted had a third engineer who really knew his stuff. Problem was the signal coming into the house from the headend was actually to strong. When he arrived speeds were as low as two meg and pings up in the 400s. He had to calm the signal down and now full speeds all the way. Man it's quick. Never taught I would ever say I connection was to good.