Connection dropping since free upgrade to 300

[thund3rbolt]

Thanks for your reply Jack_81. I'm still having intermittent lock ups and have not received a replacement hitron to test if it's a flakey modem. It's been over 10 days and I'm now thinking I will have to call again, sit on hold and once more to request a replacement that was supposed to be shipped.  That said, I suspect replacing the modem will most likely do nothing to fix the problem. Frankly, at this point it could be a long time before shaw resolves this problem for some clients. 

[#2]

Hi Gulbransen.

If you are only using the Shaw provided equipment (no personal router involved), maybe with the service upgrade in early December, the Xb6 got reset by Shaw to pretty much default settings. Maybe the wifi channel the Xb6 got reset to (default) is causing the speed slow down? I would call Shaw and see what's up with that?

Good luck resolving your issues.

Regards: Jack

[#3]

Hi Thun3rbolt.

For myself it was easy to exchange Hitron modem since I live in the city (Calgary) and just went to a Shaw store.

If still using the Hitron in "Bridge Mode", I'd be surprised if a different Hitron would resolve the internet freeze issues, it didn't help me until I got Shaw to put the Hitron in "Gateway" mode. As it stands now, I've not had a single internet freeze since going to "Gateway mode", I've set the Hitron to basically be nothing more than a DHCP reciever (get ip from shaw) and DHCP server to my personal router (give ip's to my wifi devices). My personal router is set as a AP (Access Point) for both my wired and wifi devices, the only thing plugged into the Hitron is a CAT5e cable from my personal router (AP). Everything is working like a charm this way.

I hope you get your problem resolved soon, I know the frustration when things don't work as they should.

Personally I miss the days on my old Motorola cable modem, no router, just a modem, last time I used that was with Shaw-50. The thing I liked about my old Motorola....... it just worked! lol

Take care

Regards: Jack

[thund3rbolt]

I wish going into a gateway mode was an option for me as well. I have a linux box running through ip passthrough and the IoT/untrusted devices on the gateway. My linux server needs to be front facing. Still waiting for the modem replacement 12 days later and although I suspect as well that it won't help I need to eliminate it as the problem.. so I'm probably going to have to call them once again and find out where it is or if shipped at all.

[#5]

Hi Thund3rbolt. I hope your issues will be resolved with a different cable modem/router once you get one.

For myself, It's been a month since going into "Gateway" mode and everything has been rock solid since, I do understand those that do need to be in "Bridge" mode (I prefer that myself), but I just wanted the thing to work. lol

Take care

Regards: Jack

[thund3rbolt]

Thanks @jack_81... I'm going to keep this thread open for others that are having the same issue and reading this to find a solution.

I have an update. I was concerned why it was taking so long for the replacement Hitron to arrive so I called tech support once again. They were not able to provide me a tracking number but this time I was able to get the tech to upgrade the modem to an XB6 for FREE and that is now being shipped in place of the Hitron. No contract, no additional charges and if it works out I can upgrade to 600 for $20.00 less a month if I go contract for 2 years. So... if that improves or eliminates the lockups I can decide to do the upgrade and if not... it cost me nothing . 

Updates to follow once XB6 arrives.

cheers 

[#7]

Hi Thund3rbolt. That is great news. I'm looking forward to hearing from you regarding your thoughts, experiments and results with the XB6, keeping my fingers crossed for you that it cures the problems you've been having. I wonder if Motorola got out of the cable modem business? I've had a few Motorola cable modems over the years and they were rock solid for their time including the very first CyberSurfer (10 mbps) modem when Shaw first offered broadband internet. The last Motorola we used was with Shaw 50, we had purchased that modem.

Let us know how the XB6 performs in comparison to the Hitron.

Take care

Regards: Jack

[thund3rbolt]

Update --- 

xb6 installed. There was a 3 minute outage for some reason after 5 hours of uptime. I'm not sure if shaw was maybe updating the modem. I didn't get a chance to record the software version after installing... so can't be sure on that one. It's not freezing like the Hitron was tho so that's good. 

What I find a bit strange tho is prior to installing the xb6 and just after requesting shaw send it out the tech "updated my software package" and in that time ( 5 days ) the Hitron stayed solid... no freezes. I can't say it wouldn't have happened but I can attest to the fact that it was the longest uptime I had with the hitron. 

Lastly, I'm not enamoured with the xb6. It has a fan in it and it's loud imo. I can imagine that will only get worse when it starts filling up with dust. Fans are moving parts and moving parts always fail. It also has one light that glows a steady white when connected and red when it's disconnected and blue when it's connecting. I would prefer it have all the LEDS instead of rotating between. Not a big thing but seems kind of weak in the information department. The hitron would flash on lan activity. The xb6 only has 2 ports and once it's bridged it essentially only has 1 port with no wifi and although you can work around that with switches and wireless routers I did like the Hitron and being able to have those 4 ports with a secondary ip you could split the network for IoT and wireless clients while keeping your trusted devices safer. All complaints aside if it's stable compared to the Hitron I can live with the caveats.

More updates to follow as I test...

[#9]

Hi Thun3rbolt.

I looked up the XB6 on shaw's hardware site and agreed, it's a strange looking thing, and with it having a fan would be prone to noise and possible fan failure depending on the quality of the fan. I didn't realize but Amazon sell cable modems/routers, they do sell the Hitron and other Arris modems but couldn't find the XB6.

I wonder what Shaw did to get the Hitron to be reliable for 5 days in "Bridge" mode, maybe some kind of signalling modification at their end? I would like to go back to "Bridge" mode on mine but don't want to have the headaches I had before. Also agreed with having the status LED's of the Hitron, it can come in very handy when trouble shooting connection problems. I'm hoping the XB6 cures the problems you were having and that it stays strong and reliable for you.

So far, my Hitron (in gateway mode) has been flawless, my old Hitron when I was on Shaw 150 had a tendency of slowing down over time (couple of months), I needed to power cycle it every so often to get it back to 150 speeds, otherwise it would slow down to 70 to 80 mbps over time. So far, this Hitron has been running at 300 rock solid with no spiraling speed death syndrome lol.

Take care

Regards: Jack

[thund3rbolt]

Still not sure if it was just pure coincidence that the Hitron lasted 4 days after the software change. Here's the software info page. I wonder if it's anything to do with how the packets are sent from the loop.  

I was in passthrough mode on the Hitron which is similar to Bridge... except you can still use the wireless and ports ie the gateway side of the modem. It's strange how some of the Hitrons still have bridge mode on the menu. Mine didn't have it and only had the option to use IP passthrough. Maybe you should see if you could get the passthrough option and a second ip? Then again you might not want to chance fate and have issues again  It's been my feeling the less these crappy modems have to do the better. It's too bad shaw won't let you supply your own modem. The Netgear Nighthawk AC1900 would be a nice modem... it uses a broadcom chipset instead of the dreaded (flawed) puma from intel. 

Edit:  Great news... 2 days running, no freeze. A double check on modem turns out it's an xb6 but a different model than they were using before. This one is a Technicolor CGM4140COM... which uses a Broadcom BCM3390 chipset. I wonder if this is what shaw will be using now and retiring the modems plagued with the flawed Puma chipsets.

Final edit: Day 7 and internet is rock solid. There was a minor interruption early morning as shaw was updating the firmware. Looks like my problems have been finally resolved.