Intermittent System Outage, Little help from customer support. All out of ideas!

[Matt_Is_My_Name]

(HT1100)

For a few weeks now I have been periodically losing service, and it seems to be becoming more frequent as time goes on. At this point in time I am dropping connection about once every 15 minutes, each time lasting for a minute or so. Just enough time to close all open connections I have.. a real headache.

I have called customer support a few times, each time being told to call back when the problem is happening. Since the issue seems to go away after a short time, this is not really feasable. Rebooting the modem does nothing to help the issue. I have taken my router out of service (I do not use it anymore anyway) and have my computer connected directly to the modem. I have tried different ethernet cables. I dug out my old linux laptop and used it instead of my desktop with no change.

When the service goes out I can still access the System Control Center, which will have a red square next to system status. Connectivity tests show 100% loss, but goes back to 0% when service continues. (As I type this, the issue reappeared, giving me an state code of 23.1.4).

The following state codes appear in the SCC: 13.2.2, 13.2.3, 21.1.4, 21.1.5, 23.1.4, 30.1.1.. 13.1.1 is also there, but it seems typical when the computer is off. The hourly history under the diagnostic codes shows a red X for Association about every other hour.

When the system goes through one of its spells, the system light on the front of the modem turns off, but the rest of the lights are on, although solid and not blinking as usual. Between outages the service is as good as ever, which is what is puzzling to me. My reveive signal strength is currently reading 108 with an overcast sky. 

I have done everything I can think to troubleshoot the issue myself, and tech support seems to be unable to assist since I cannot recreate the issue during a phone call.

My current guess is an issue with the modem. I tried recreating the issue by moving it around to see if anything is loose, but this did not cause anything abnormal. It has plenty of ventilation and is barely warm to the touch. I checked the cable going outside for any damage and it is in good shape all the way to the dish.

Those are all the details I can think to give. Anyone have any ideas? I would surely appreciate it since I'm losing my mind not being able to figure this out!

[Matt_Is_My_Name]

Grabbed this from the event log in case it could help. This is what is being produced when the connection goes down, and it's pretty well the same every time.

04/16/2017 03:08:34	23018	4	1	PBP connection 3 restarted/down. No peer reply. CBID 2 Idle Timeout
04/16/2017 03:08:39	101	2	1	System StateCode DOWN | Started at 04/16/2017 03:08:34 | Current State Code is 23.1.4 | SQF=111 Symcod=10
04/16/2017 03:08:54	23018	4	1	PBP connection 2 restarted/down. No peer reply. CBID 1 Idle Timeout
04/16/2017 03:08:59	23017	4	1	PBP connection 1 restarted/down. RST Rxed. CBID 0 Received RST
04/16/2017 03:09:03	21102	2	1	ASSOC: Terminal Dis-Associated Reason=IPGW 'ALB23HNSIGW63G001Adv' not reachable - missed keep alive messages
04/16/2017 03:09:04	23021	4	1	PBP Backbone 3 Retry count: 5
04/16/2017 03:09:09	23005	4	1	PEP: Backbone 1 deleted.
04/16/2017 03:09:14	23005	4	1	PEP: Backbone 2 deleted.
04/16/2017 03:09:19	21101	2	1	ASSOC: Terminal Associated with IPGW ALB23HNSIGW63D002Adv
04/16/2017 03:09:19	25103	3	1	Config change detected for ipv6_lan_parms[CFM_LAN_TYPE_MEDIA]|lan_info|wan_net_info|
04/16/2017 03:09:19	23005	4	1	PEP: Backbone 3 deleted.
04/16/2017 03:09:24	23005	4	1	PEP: Backbone 4 deleted.
04/16/2017 03:09:29	23005	4	1	PEP: Backbone 5 deleted.
04/16/2017 03:09:34	23003	4	2	PEP: Parameter update due to Reassociation
04/16/2017 03:09:39	23015	4	1	PBP connection 3 open/up.
04/16/2017 03:09:40	102	2	1	System StateCode UP | Recovered at 04/16/2017 03:09:34 | Outage Time 000:00:01:00 | Last State Code was 13.1.1 | SQF=110 Symcod=10
04/16/2017 03:09:44	23015	4	1	PBP connection 4 open/up.
04/16/2017 03:09:49	23015	4	1	PBP connection 2 open/up.
04/16/2017 03:09:54	23015	4	1	PBP connection 1 open/up.
04/16/2017 03:09:59	23015	4	1	PBP connection 5 open/up.

[Liz]

Hi Matt,

Thank you so much for this wealth of information, this certainly helps. The state codes you're listing are the usual codes that come up to indicate the different stages when the system is coming back online. I've run diagnostics to see if I can see why the internet keeps going down and there is something I'd like to investigate further so I can determine the next step. I'll keep you posted once I have any news to share. 

Your cooperation, patience, and understanding are much appreciated.
 

[Matt_Is_My_Name]

Reading what those codes say I didn't think they would be the answer to the big question, but I usually find it best to give all the information I got.

Thanks for the reply, I'll be checking back to see what you come up with!

[Liz · Accepted solution]

Hi Matt,

Thank you again for your patience. After running and reviewing your site diagnostics, we have decided as a courtesy to dispatch a technician to do a complete review of your site due to the concerns you've been encountering. Your dispatch is currently scheduled for our earliest available slot: Monday, May 1, 2017 between 8:00 AM-11:00 AM. Call us at 866.347.3292 and reference case #103748888 if you need to reschedule. Please let us know how the site visit goes.

[Matt_Is_My_Name]

The techs just hit the road after being here for about 45 minutes. They replaced the radio and the modem, as well as checked the fittings at the ground block. I was told there was water inside the connector, so he cleaned it out and replaced the fittings. Although it's not clear if the water was the issue, it surely wasn't helping matters at all.

As of right now my signal quality is better with a deep overcast sky than it was on a clear day before. I was told the modem will be rebooting itself and doing various strange things for a couple of hours, so I will update this thread tomorrow with my results, but I will say things are already looking up!

Thanks for the help.

[Liz]

Excellent, thank you for this update, Matt! I hope to hear good news from you upon your next posting. 🙂

[Matt_Is_My_Name]

Southern Ohio's springtime weather is not ideal for testing satellite connections!

I didn't have any issues for the most part of last night, and things still seem stable. There are some disconnects from missing keep-alive messages showing in the logs, but I'm pretty sure it's due to weather. The only outage I saw was during a 15 minute stretch of sustained 50MPH winds and a downpour so heavy I couldn't even see the ground below the window. Been gusting 50-60 for 20 or so hours now!

I am confident all is well, and if I have any issues I'll be sure to come here first.

Thanks again for your help!

[Liz]

Yikes, those winds are crazy, stay safe! Glad to hear that the HughesNet service is doing better after the site visit, thank you for your update. We'll be here if you need us.

[Matt_Is_My_Name]

Is there any news on this? Over the past couple of days a new symptom has popped up where the LAN light on the modem also goes out, and I cannot access the SCC at that time.

Thanks.

[GabeU]

@Matt_Is_My_Name

This will almost certainly be something the reps will need to address, but in the meantime it would be best to leave the modem powered.  When it's unplugged or powered down, the modem loses the logs and it's important that the reps or engineers have those logs to view.  If you are concerned that something might use data through a router while it's powered, just disconnect the router or power it down, but make sure to leave the power on to the modem.   

The reps are on M-F from approximately 8AM to 5PM EST.  

[C0RR0SIVE]

Those logs don't appear to be subscriber end issues...  Would certainly require someone to look at the gateway to see if it's acting up.

[GabeU]

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@C0RR0SIVE wrote:

Those logs don't appear to be subscriber end issues...  Would certainly require someone to look at the gateway to see if it's acting up.

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Being that I don't have much of a clue what any particular code means, though I know that the logs often point to the problem, I figured it would be better to be safe than sorry and save the logs.  

[Matt_Is_My_Name]

Luckily it appears these logs do not get deleted on a system restart. My system has been up for 2 days and I have logs going as far back as 11 days ago. It does seem like the system keeps the 400 most recent evt.csv entries. evt1.csv is 12 pages long for me when I set to show 100 per page, so who knows what the limit is.

I have been keeping the system up for state codes and disagnostic codes, even though one of the reps I spoke to on the phone told me they were worthless... and didn't have an answer when I asked why worthless information is being logged. I'm just trying to give as much information as possible to help get this issue resolved!

[C0RR0SIVE]

The logs aren't worthless, they are actually uploaded during certain events, and on a timed basis back to Hughes, and it allows moderators like @Liz to check history...