How to Read Arris Router System Logs
Although unknown to and ignored by about people, cablevision modems have a diagnostic that can help you troubleshoot connection problems.
What Diagnostic Folio?
Unbeknownst to most people, cable modems (and other broadband modems) have diagnostic and logging functions built in, just like routers. While some people do occasionally peek at the command console of their router, very few people ever wait at their modems–or even realize they can practice so.
RELATED: How to Troubleshoot Your Internet Connexion, Layer-Past-Layer
So why look at the diagnostic folio and logs of your cable modem in the first place? Think of this familiar scene: something weird is going on with your net access, so y'all dutifully unplug your modem and router, start them support, and things work well again…for a spell. Or possibly your cyberspace connectivity drops out intermittently and no amount of tinkering with your router has solved your problems.
While we all tend to over-focus on the router as the source of potential problems, often the modem (or the line it's connected to) tin exist at mistake. In those cases, you demand to peek into the modem to meet what's going on. By accessing the tiny little web server subconscious within your modem and reading the diagnostic pages, you tin acquire a ton of things well-nigh your modem and connection like general status, signal forcefulness, and event history via the organisation log.
Armed with that information you can then say something like "Okay, it's not the modem or a signal strength issue, so I'll focus on the router and other elements of my network" or "Something is conspicuously going on with the modem and so I'll call the cable company."
We want to emphasize that last part. Even if the diagnostic command console in your modem does have user-editable settings (which is very rare), you shouldn't mess around with that stuff unless expressly instructed to do and then by your isp. While it's unlikely you'll really break anything if you exercise wipe your modem in a fit of frustration, you might end upward spending the next 60 minutes getting it reprovisioned. This is intended to help you detect the trouble, not necessarily set up information technology.
With that in mind, let'due south have a wait at how y'all can access the diagnostic page and what to do with the information you discover therein. For sit-in purposes, we will be using the using the diagnostic interface of the incredibly common Motorola/Arris Surfboard 6141 broadband cable modem, but the general layout will be similar beyond modems.
How to Access Your Modem'due south Diagnostic Page
In club to not interfere with the common accost pools that are doled out by residential routers (such as x.0.0.X and 192.168.1.X), virtually modems use an address subnet that falls outside the most commonly used address pools.
Not all modems apply the exact aforementioned accost, but many practice. Attempt typing 192.168.100.ane into your address bar and pressing Enter. If that doesn't immediately pull upward a diagnostic page, you lot should consult the extensive list of broadband hardware at SpeedGuide.net. There yous can narrow your search down past brand and model number to detect the address of your modem (and any default login data you may need).
What to Wait For
Once you lot take access to the diagnostic panel, there are some basic things you desire to expect at: the modem condition, point strength, and the activity log. While there may be boosted pages to investigate (like the general configuration of the modem), these settings are by and large not user-editable. And even if they were, the settings are so arcane and ISP specific that they are of very little diagnostic employ to most users.
Modem Status
At the very minimum, this is the page yous desire to check if you're having connectivity troubles. Everything on the general status folio should look positive. You desire to meet lots of entries that say things like "Washed", "Operational", and "OK". Yous don't desire to run across entries for things like "Failed" or "Offline". Many modems, the Surfboard series included, will allow you lot to click directly on a failed/negative entry to access a help file about what that failure means.
The other very important thing to expect at on the main status folio is the system up fourth dimension. The up time should reflect your experience with the modem. If you reset the modem by power cycling information technology four days agone, then the up time should reverberate four days and alter worth of operation. If you haven't reset your modem recently and the up time is a few days (or less) then information technology's time to dig a piffling deeper.
In the screenshot above, you tin see the general status folio for our modem. Everything looks great and the upwards time, although curt, does reflect our interactions with the modem: afterward this new modem was provisioned a day ago we ability cycled the device.
Logs
Modem logs are pretty arcane (similar most logs). Your goal in examining the log is non to have a perfect agreement of every single code, but to have a full general understanding of what is going on. You lot tin e'er search online for specifics codes to get a clearer understanding of what is going on if demand be.
If we look at the log of our modem, shown above, we tin encounter that everything is currently super smooth sailing. Don't be alarmed by the odd "January 01 1970" date–on almost devices, the log function activates faster than the time-sync function, so the default hardware date is used during things like reboots.
The log clearly shows that roughly a mean solar day and a half ago, the modem was restarted practice to a power reset (which nosotros initiated by physically unplugging it), after which in that location is a MIMO Event (which looks scary because the priority code is "warning" but it'south actually just our modem talking to the cable provider as role of a IP configuration/provisioning routine).
What you don't want to see in this log is a bunch of error codes that don't brand sense. If you come across power resets that weren't caused by yous physically resetting the device, that's a problem. If y'all see a lot of timeout-related errors where the log indicated that the modem has lost connection (oft called T3 and T4 errors), that'due south a problem. Ideally, your log should be tedious and you should run into very piffling activeness other than the time it boots up, a rare error here or there (because no organization is perfect and your modem will occasionally fail to connect), or a rare bit of reanimation because your ISP pushed out new firmware.
If your log is packed full of errors and timeouts (and you're experiencing temporary or extended loss of Internet connectivity that represent with the timestamps of these errors) you'll probably demand to contact your internet service provider.
Signal Strength
Barring a lacking modem (or issues with your router), the biggest source of broadband connectivity bug is out-of-spec signal strength. Notice that nosotros didn't say "poor" signal strength. It isn't but a weak signal that tin can cause a trouble, just overly strong signals, too. If a bad connection, splitters on the coaxial lines, or even old television amplifiers are dropping the signal beneath or pushing the signal above the operating range, and then you may experience a connection problem.
Information technology's of import that you consult with your individual service provider to encounter what the acceptable range of indicate strengths are for your particular service and device. But as a general rule, consider the following values when debating whether or not your concrete lines and the connection to the provider are a problem.
The "Downstream Power" reading should be between -xv dBmV to +15 dBmV and, ideally, should exist closer to +8dBmV and -8dBmV. In the screenshot in a higher place you tin can encounter that the individual channels in our modem are all at eight and ix dBmV which is acceptable.
The "Upstream Power" reading should exist between +37 dBmV to +55 dBmV and, ideally, should be closer to the middle of that potential range. In our screenshot here, the upstream point squeaks by with a 39 reading (and nosotros're receiving the full speed we pay for without connectivity issues), merely we'll definitely be keeping an heart on it.
Finally y'all want to pay attention to your signal-to-dissonance ratio (SNR). You desire this value to be greater than 30 dB. Lower than 25 dB causes signal and packet loss on near systems. The lower the value, the more problems there are with your bespeak. The higher the value, the less noisy the signal. Ranges from 32 to 55 dB are typical, and our rather-average 39 dB signal-to-noise ratio is more than than acceptable.
How to Use this Diagnostic Information
As nosotros noted before in this guide, there aren't a lot of things within the modem that y'all, the user, can change. Most of the time you need to contact your provider and ask them to either remotely make adjustments or dispatch a tech to your dwelling house.
That said, checking your modem'southward diagnostic arrangement allows you lot to quickly save yourself a lot of hair-pulling past ruling out other sources of Cyberspace connectivity problems. Y'all'll quickly see if your modem is to blame, or the problem lies somewhere else (like your router).
You'll also be able to use the modem itself every bit a handy signal checker. If you, for example, have your cable modem plugged into a coax jack in your home office and you're having connectedness problems, you could unplug the modem and plug it directly into the coax line coming into your home from the street. By rechecking the signal at the point of entry, you'll be able to dominion out any problems with the wiring in your home as the source of your Internet woes.
Finally (and perhaps about importantly), knowing how to utilise the diagnostic folio makes you an informed consumer. You'll no longer be at the mercy of a disgruntled tech support worker who says "yeah, everything looks fine on our finish…accept y'all tried turning it off and on again?" because you tin can read your own logs and signal forcefulness to meet if everything is, in fact, inside acceptable operating levels.
Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/240575/how-to-read-your-cable-modems-diagnostic-page-when-something-goes-wrong/
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