Shaw Fibre+ Gig modem issue

[LKYeLKYe]

I don’t normally post on the forum but just like to provide my experience on recent upgrade from Internet 600 to Fibre+ Gig plan.

My previous XB6 “Technicolor” was stuck around 600mbps download after upgrade to Gigabit plan for several days; multiple check on modem provisions, RF signal looks good, Cat6 Ethernet, Gigabit Network Card, tested both router/bridged, direct/wifi, the tech gave up and issued replacement of XB6.

The new XB6 arrived today, it’s the “Arris” version, reprovision and running in bridge mode now, download is now at 900mbps.

Maybe bad luck with the Technicolor XB6.

[mdk]

> multiple check on modem provisions

Good.

Did you completely power-off/power-on that able-modem, to ensure that it restarts with the newest provisioning?

Of course, the first time that you power-on the replacement modem, it will start with the newest provisioning, namely Gigabit.

[LKYeLKYe]

Numerous power cycles, Shaw tech also reprovision the modem multiple times. 
Not sure if it’s faulty modem or actual chipset difference.

Guess we’ll see when more people sign on the new Gigabit.

[rickatk]

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@LKYeLKYe wrote:

I don’t normally post on the forum but just like to provide my experience on recent upgrade from Internet 600 to Fibre+ Gig plan.

My previous XB6 “Technicolor” was stuck around 600mbps download after upgrade to Gigabit plan for several days; multiple check on modem provisions, RF signal looks good, Cat6 Ethernet, Gigabit Network Card, tested both router/bridged, direct/wifi, the tech gave up and issued replacement of XB6.

The new XB6 arrived today, it’s the “Arris” version, reprovision and running in bridge mode now, download is now at 900mbps.

Maybe bad luck with the Technicolor XB6.

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Nope, I think I am running into the same problem...Technicolour XB6 won’t  work at gigabit speeds. Just waiting on tech support right now.

[rickatk]

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@LKYeLKYe wrote:

Numerous power cycles, Shaw tech also reprovision the modem multiple times. 
Not sure if it’s faulty modem or actual chipset difference.

Guess we’ll see when more people sign on the new Gigabit.

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I have been told wait 15 min, 24hrs and now likely won’t see a speed increase just better distributed wifi service. I am seeing increased upload speeds and slightly faster download speeds.

“...this speed plan is not all about the speeds, as it is more about network health.”

Indeed if this is the case I can expect even more stable connection of my 27 wifi devices around my house and in particular XB6 wireless TV Players. 

Do you concur?

[Corbio]

I just got off the phone with tech support about the same thing, letting them know that there is a bug in the firmware (asked to get an older BOOT file pushed as well).

I don't understand why I can't just pick up my own DOCSIS 3.1 modem that isn't a gateway and go about my business. If I have to pay a little extra for unlimited data if it means being able to use what I want, so be it. ISPs in the US allow this, why can't our ISPs do the same.

I get near Fibre+ Gig plan speeds if I'm directly connected with the XB6 Technicolor CGM4140COM gateway, but the moment I put it into bridge mode and it power cycles, my speedtests drop significantly down to 300-500Mbps (been like this for days). I've tested everything from resetting the modem back to factory settings, multiple reprovisionings, disabling as much as possible once in the modem GUI (10.0.0.1) before enabling bridge mode again, to using "Associating Ethernet Port 2 to HOME SECURITY network will remove the port from your home network" which just uses yet another DHCP IP range pool instead (even with bridge mode enabled), changing firmware with my routers, change network settings, cables etc. Anything and everything!

The tech support person said everything looks great on their side, so nothing that indicates a problem connection/performance wise was found. I used to be on the 600 plan, with same modem and the speedtests were right where they should be. Strangely enough, because of the speed grade change to the Fibre+ Gig plan, I can no longer hit near 600Mbps anymore under the same bridge mode configuration as once before. Everything so far has been pointing to the Technicolor modem!

One thing I forgot to point out, the modem WIFI if I'm connected after a factory reset, will work near the Fibre+ Gig plan speeds 700-900Mbps. Directly connected through Ethernet, it's nearly there around 600-800Mbps. So there is definitely a problem with the Technicolor modems and the Fibre+ Gig plans when using bridge mode.

Here's hoping for a resolve!

[LKYeLKYe]

Well, so far the replacement Arris modem I received works either gateway/bridge mode. It’s probably faster to have Shaw mail replacement instead of waiting for new Firmware.

[Corbio]

I got good news!

I didn't give up on trying things out. I FINALLY got it working! It's so stupid doing it this way, but it works!

So I turned off bridge mode again, then once back into the modem GUI, I disabled WiFi 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands. Then disabled the firewall for both IPv4 and IPv6. Also disabled UPnP. The DHCP lease times for IPv4, I set to "Forever" and then for IPv6, set to "Stateless" only (save all changes of course) and then reboot the modem within the GUI.

Afterwards, my AX11000 and AC5300 with QoS disabled, finally gets me 900Mbps+ in every speedtest now.

The routing with my AX11000 and AC5300 to several devices still shows the correct LAN IP range from the router and is still working as intended for various port fowarding applications, etc. The gateway DHCP had assigned my main router part of it's own IP range pool: 10.0.x.x and now WAN IP shows as the same now instead of having 2 different ones when bridge mode was enabled on the modem.

Definitely a PITA workaround, but I'm happy to be getting my Fibre+ Gig plan speeds with the Technicolor modem! Unfortunate that it is not working with bridge mode enabled, but everything else is finally working as it should!

[TSR-Ali]

Thanks for posting this,

That is an interesting issue, I tested at home here tonight, put my XB6 Technicolor in bridge mode and connected it direct to a Windows 10 PC over ethernet - so that I was getting the public IP direct to my PC - when I was running the speedtest in bridge mode direct to the PC with ethernet I was getting 941 Mbps download. With no router connected in between. 

Just curious were your routers QOS settings disabled previously - when you were trying the XB6 Technicolor in bridge mode previously?

I have seen QOS settings affect the overall throughput on 3rd party routers.

I will have to see if I can find a 3rd party router with Gigabit ports to test with at home here, as my test was done with no router in between. 

Cheers,
Ali

[Corbio]

Similar findings!

The routers QoS had been disabled previously even before all my testing (need hwnat) since I had gone through multiple router firmware updates during the whole process. Resetting to factory defaults and then configuring everything back toward a working network again.

It was recently I had tried enabling QoS with the use of Gear Accelerator for prioritizing specific devices. Even after disabling QoS again, the speedtests never went above the range of 300-500Mbps. So more router reboots and modem reboots ensued. I probably should have noted too that I also did a timely power down with the devices as another troubleshooting measure yesterday, still to no avail.

It was only when I disabled bridge mode and made changes to the rest of the mentioned settings, that everything immediately took effect and began working properly after the modem rebooted, all while still continuing to use my routers as intended for. I think perhaps bridge mode as we've known it to be in the past, as an IP passthrough is not how the XB6 modems function with it enabled. It is for WIFI APs only, which would make a whole lot of sense as to why it's not required at all when using your own router setups.

In the beginning with the Internet 600 plan I had, I've had nothing but problems in the past with my ASUS routers and this message: "Your ISP's DHCP does not function correctly" with numerous and completely random micro-disconnects, even with Extend the TTL value enabled and set the DHCP Query frequency to Normal instead of Aggressive. The mirco-disconnects weren't as frequent, but they still existed, all while in bridge mode and QoS disabled back then. Now with everything the way it's configured, no such messages appeared.

What a weird day