-- I never have worked for Shaw, and I never have been em...

[mdk]

@Hesscham -- I never have worked for Shaw, and I never have been employed by Shaw.

I envision a technician as one who has some certification in a trade, such as "A+" for electronic technology. That's not me. Give me a computer's motherboard with a blown capacitor, AT YOUR OWN RISK -- I don't have the correct tools & knowledge  & fine-motor-skills to successfully replace it.

However, I am a computerphile with university-taught skills in multiple programming languages and operating systems, and self-taught knowledge and experience in computer hardware and computer networking, and competence in several application software packages, e.g., Microsoft Office. Also, I have been a newsletter editor & contributor.

Note that the "8 points" I noted, above, apply to any cable-modem, especially in the last 2 years, when there have been many people on this discussion forum who have had networking issues -- well before this week's announcement by Shaw of a system-wide issue.

[rickatk]

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@Hesscham wrote:

@mdk  do you work for Shaw or something? Are you a technician? 

---

@mdk participates quite regularly and has certainly been very helpful to me and others. I too have noticed the freezing and dropped audio which was particularly bad on CNN today. I finally hard rebooted my Gateway. That seems to clear reception and audio for the time being. 

I have been busy with work and the BC election so not much spare time for TV. It was my wife who alerted me to the freezing and audio drops over the past week. I will keep an eye on things and report back. 

[Hesscham]

@mdk Good to know! You are very knowledgeable and I thank you for your help on this forum. It is much appreciated that people take the time to try and help others with technical issues. Very cool.

[nikinjeszmom]

Every evening, once 5 people are done on the internet with work and school.  When only 2 TV's and one computer are running, instead of 2 TV's and 5 computers running on the internet, we get stop and start tv.  It is beyond infuriating.  Paying almost 300 a month for tv and internet and spend more time on hold with tech support than I do at work.  Nothing is ever resolved.  They come out and tell you there are issues in the neighborhood.  Test everything and resolve nothing.  Can't have coaxil, because our house is finished and it isn't installed in the upstairs, or man floor or our new house.  I guess the previous owners felt TV was only for the rec room.  And I am not paying to demo and rebuild the ceilings and walls, to run cable throughout the house.  Shouldn't have to pay thousands to have cable tv installed.  Furious and incredibly dissatisfied.  Problems started 2 days after we signed a 2 year contract.  25 years with Shaw and have never been unhappier.

[nikinjeszmom]

And when they did all that and shrug there shoulders and tell you it's a neigborhood issue, then what?

[mdk]

@nikinjeszmom -- I am not paying to demo and rebuild the ceilings and walls, to run cable throughout the house. 

Years ago, when a Shaw technician rewired my single-family, residential, house, they started at their "demarcation box" on the outside of my house, and ran 3 cables up the outside wall, into my attic. From the attic, they pushed one cable downward, inside an interior wall, and "fished" it through a small hole they made in the drywall, and installed a wall-plate in the kitchen. The other 2 cables crossed the attic, down the outside wall, and they bored two holes in the outside wall, and pushed a cable through each hole -- one into the main-floor living-room, and one into a basement room.  Then, they added wall-plates for each of the 2 cables. Not "neat-and-tidy" to expose those "runs" along the two side-walls, but invisible from the street.

They did not charge "thousands" to do the rewiring.

> tell you it's a neighborhood issue

They should have filed a report for their "line technicians" to open a work-order to investigate.  Did they? Have you talked to your neighbours who have Shaw TV, to see if they are experiencing the same symptoms?

[nikinjeszmom]

The thousands is to redo the ceiling and walls, after they install the cable.  We have to open up the ceilings and the walls, as the basement and main floor are completely  finished.  They can't run a line, without access to the basement ceiling and walls.  As this has to go 2 floor ups, they also have to open up on the main floor.  The cost from Shaw is 150.00.  The cost to redo the 1200 square foot basement ceiling and the walls is where the thousands come into play,  as you can't just do one little corner, as the 18 year old paint won't match.  They then won't guarantee it will improve anything.  Won't even waive the 150.00 bill, if it doesn't change the problem.  The Technician says it's a neighborhood problem and shrugged his shoulders.  That was the end of it.  They offer to send another technician, but to what end?  If the tech's they have sent state it isn't an issue in our home, but with the cable in the neighborhood.  Shaw is doing nothing else.  They aren't fixing the issue in the neighborhood.  So what do I do then?

[Phatbouy]

I had same issues but had tec here earlier, checked signal with meter & added a booster onto cable as signal was low. Prob seems 2 b resolved. If your in the interior just know they lost a lot of fibre lines in the areas of fires recently especially interior, so it's a lot of  service trying 2 squeeze through less cables...

[mdk]

@Phatbouy --  it's a lot of  service trying 2 squeeze through less cables.

Good point. But, Shaw's "backbone" is all fiber-optic cable. So, adding more traffic through those cables is much less than the capacity of those cables.  However, given that the cables connect one router to another router, it could be those routers who are struggling when presented with "double" or "triple" the level of traffic. The solution, although very expensive, is for Shaw to buy higher-performance routers.

Think back a few months, when one of the routers on the Calgary-Edmonton segment went down. All the traffic from Edmonton to the USA could not be sent to Calgary, to cross the 49th Parallel. Instead, that traffic was diverted to the Edmonton-Winnipeg segment, before crossing  the 49th. The routers on that Calgary-Winnipeg segment were "doubly" busy, and it showed, especially to "Internet-gamers" in Edmonton trying to connect to the game-servers in California or Chicago.  They reported, and sometimes ranted, about large "lag" times.

[gliverpool]

I have been having the same problem with the main PVR (XG1v4). It was installed on February 18th, 2023 then we had no sound around late February arranged for a tech to come then sound came back on while the tech was here. Now on Good Friday: April 7th, 2023 same old problems and have a tech to come out Tuesday Morning April 11th, 2023.