Service is rarely good, new bluecurve modem not working

[Perpetualbuffer]

I've gone through 3 modems now with Shaw and I'm about to lose my mind. I had the hitron modems and the internet 300 service, dealt with constant drops etc and finally canceled when it went down on the morning of my final exams in college during covid. CS talked to me and we agreed to try again and the service "worked" after more troubleshooting, but they wouldn't give me the same pricing I had before because "the plan no longer existed" after I canceled. Whatever. They then offered me a little bit cheaper plan but more speed recently and that I would need the bluecurve modem which they would ship out. I said okay, got the new modem today, took out the old one and put in the bluecurve. And wouldn't you know it! Same issues as before! Flashing green light, "do you have a splitter?" "Do you have a new line?" "is your electrical box good?" "We can send out a tech". I'm at my wits end with these people, if Sasktel weren't so **bleep** awful in pricing and features, I'd go back to them and never look back.

I liberally don't get it. How is that *nobody* can solve this? How many cables, resets, provisioning's, does it take? Both the hitron modems I struggled with before had the exact same problems and the first one always crashed service whenever it wanted. The second one didn't crash services, but took over 2 days before it magically started working. And every time these people tell me "we don't see your modem online" "We see it" "can't communicate with it". And I'm not even blaming the techs or the cs team, I get that it's not their fault; but I'm at my wits end! 

[mdk]

@Perpetualbuffer -- We can send out a tech".

Did they actually book a technician to do a site-visit? Did it help?

> I liberally [literally?] don't get it. How is that *nobody* can solve this? How many cables, resets, provisionings, does it take?

Connecting to the Internet is not easy:

1. assume that the network-adapter card inside your computer is working correctly;
2. assume that you have tried different Ethernet cables (labelled "CAT 5e" or "CAT 6") have been tried, between your computer and the cable-modem;
3. assume that both HITRON modems were functioning correctly;
4. assume that you have no coaxial-splitter between the cable-modem and your wall-socket, or, for testing, that you have bypassed the splitter -- connecting the cable-modem directly to the wall-port;
5. assume that the coaxial-cables are tightly-connected at each end;
6. assume that the coaxial-cables inside your home's walls are good, or that you have tried connecting the cable-modem to a wall-socket in some other room;
7. assume that the coaxial-splitter inside Shaw's "demarcation box" (where all the coaxial cables terminate, and the splitter connects to the coaxial-cable from your home to the nearest telephone-pole) is not failing;
8. assume that the connection on the telephone-pole is OK;
9. assume that Shaw's infrastructure, up-and-down your street, is OK;

> Both the hitron modems I struggled with before

I think that it is doubtful that you have had MORE than one "bad" cable-modem (two HITRONs & one BlueCurve). So, maybe the problem is not "inside" any of those cable-modems.

> And every time these people tell me "we don't see your modem online" "We see it" "can't communicate with it".

The Shaw Agent should be able to remotely logon to your HITRON. If they cannot, you need that "site-visit" from the technician, to check out their hardware on the telephone-pole, and to open-up that demarcation box, and to measure the signal-strength reaching the splitter inside that box, and to measure the signal-strength reaching your HITRON.

[Perpetualbuffer]

The first tech that came gave up and gave me the second modem, told me to wait and see and yes, after two whole days it connected. The new tech is supposed to be on Saturday to figure out what's going on with the new fibre modem.

Literally all I did was unplug the old modem, and connect the coax cable and the power cable to the new fibre modem. I didn't even touch anything else! And now 5 resets and 3 phone calls later, still no dice. I wouldn't even be so frustrated if Shaw didn't pull a fast one on me when they offered me fibre 600. I thought "thank goodness, I can get away from this horrible coach business and have the internet either work or not with fibre", imagine my shock when I opened the new box today and included was yet another coax cable.

This company is so lucky Sasktel abandoned reasonable costs.

[Perpetualbuffer]

Does Shaw provision things at certain times or something? Because I woke up this morning and guess what, the **bleep** thing is working(Same exact thing happened with the 2nd hitron modem). I'm getting the feeling that there's a timing thing, because every time I've tried setting up a new modem, it's been during the day and it never freaking works, but it always works some random morning, 1 day in this case and 2 days in the hitron.

Edit: Nevermind, modem jumped off a cliff again after a few speed tests I ran, although it came back at 599, 579 and 600 on the three tests I ran, so I don't know. Guess we're going to be changing all the cables and drilling in walls again.

[rstra]

@Perpetualbuffer It is probably a signal issue, the technician will have to check the cable outside and back to the modem. Would be interesting to see the signal levels on that modem. Can you go to 10.0.0.1 and click Connection > Shaw Network and screen shot the upstream and downstream?

[Perpetualbuffer]

Sure, here you go.

[mdk]

@Perpetualbuffer -- The new tech is supposed to be on Saturday to figure out what's going on with the new fibre modem. Literally all I did was unplug the old modem, and connect the coax cable and the power cable to the new fibre modem.

As @rstra stated, the problem may not be "inside" any of the cable-modems.

Note that each cable-modem must be "activated" on Shaw's network, by adding its serial-number to your Shaw Account. Maybe, if Shaw shipped you a replacement cable-modem, they had already added that serial-number to your Shaw Account. Maybe not. Maybe, the "add" process happens overnight, unless you contact Shaw, and get them to "manually" add it.

I wonder about "50884 uncorrectable codewords" out of 288 million codewords. @rstra might state that this is "too many" errors.

Note that Shaw Support can remotely logon to your cable-modem, to view the "signal strength" reaching it -- no need to wait for the technician on Saturday.

[rstra]

@Perpetualbuffer Your upstream level is off slightly. Do you have TV too? Are there any visible splitters?

[Perpetualbuffer]

I contacted Shaw about the addon process when I saw the modem working and the rep I spoke to said that activations can happen at any time of the day, and all that is required is that the modem be connected. He wasn't sure why both modems started working in the morning either, but said they don't wait until any specific time. When the modem was working and all that, he couldn't see it on his end as being on though.

[Perpetualbuffer]

There are no visible splitters, I had one with the hitron(s), but even removed it as a troubleshooting step per the Shaw reps and still nothing, but this modem specifically seems to working now without the splitter, although that could just be the timing thing as I mentioned earlier. It's very weird, there seems to be no exact combination that works or doesn't work.