Re: CAX80 + Cox ISP Challenges: recurring disconnects

jesmith602 · ‎2020-10-08

I purchased my first CAX80 in mid-August--Netgear sent me a replacement a month later when their tech support could not figure out why my Cox ISP connection was dropping multiple times a day. Here are all the solutions I have attempted, in consultation with Netgear technical support during 10+ phone calls & emails:

Two vists to my house by Cox to replace and re-test the cable line
Asking Cox to reprovision the modem multiple times
Performing a hard reset multiple times
For 2.4ghz wireless network, change the channel from auto to 11.
For 5ghz wireless network, change the channel from auto to 128.
Disable AX band
Enable Beamforming, MU-MIMO, and Airtime Fairness.

None of these improved the disconnects. Yesterday, Cox came back & installed a 6 dB attenuator which raised my upstream power levels back in range. I've attached the before & after here for reference. Strangely, before the Cox tech installed the attenuator, the Cox tech noticed that the upstream power levels that my router is reporting to Cox are higher than what the router logs were showing--he said he's never seen that in 7 years, and could only explain that as being an early adopter of a new modem.

I have not had a disconnect since the attenuator was put on the device 19 hours ago, which is the longest I've gone without a disconnect since August.

I'm sharing these details so others don't have to go through the stress the CAX80 has caused me for two months, As you will also see throughout this forum, there are multiple people (especially on Cox) expericing the exact same problem with this combo modem/router--with no acknowledgement from Netgear.

FURRYe38 · ‎2020-10-08

Keep in touch with NG support.

@vkdelta

jesmith602 · ‎2020-10-09

@FURRYe38 Netgear support has been completely unhelpful. They haven’t responded to my ticket in a week.

FURRYe38 · ‎2020-10-09

I presume they are aware of the situation and probably working and reviewing all the information. It may take a longer period of time for them to review and look into this and probably work with the ISP on this. This won't happen over night.

BEB7474 · ‎2020-10-12

Thank you so much. I will give the 6db attenuator a shot. I purchased my cax80 back in August as well & have tried everything you listed. Netgear techs have been no help. If this works, they should pay you for solving THEIR problem. Thank you again.

jesmith602 · ‎2020-10-29

I've been working directly with the Netgear engineering team on this, and have a couple of updates for those who are following:

1) I changed from a 6DB to a 10DB attenuator and that reduced th enumber of disconnects, but did not eliminate them.

2) This morning Netgear sent me a beta firmware release (v2.1.0.4). In their words, "Cox’s CMTS frequently performs load balancing which is not common and it may affect CAX80. I have a new firmware that have a newer codebase that may help."

As soon as I installed it my upstream power levels went up 3-6 points beyond the boost they got from the attenuator.

BEB7474 · ‎2020-10-29

Thank you for the update. Do you know when they will be releasing the firmware update? Thank you again for all your help.

FURRYe38 · ‎2020-10-29

You might reach out to the forum moderator to see if they can get you the beta to try.

@vkdelta

@BEB7474 wrote:
Thank you for the update. Do you know when they will be releasing the firmware update? Thank you again for all your help.

tamanaco · ‎2020-10-29

I'm also interested on getting my hands on this v2.1.0.4 beta firmware. My CAX80 running Router firmware version 1.1.0.41 and Modem firmware version 1.02.08 but it is connected to Spectrum. My router also experiences some random weird disconnects. The router status says Good (connected), but my computers, tablets and phones can't reach internet sites. My three Google Homes continue to work without issues as they remain connected. Rebooting the router sometimes fixes the issue, but sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't, I have to factory reset the router and restore it using the most recent configuration backup.One thing of note when I restore the configuration is that the names and icons that I have associated to my attached devices are not restored. I have to re-enter the description of the attached devices and associate the icons again after I restore the router.

Before the problems starts, the router web interface gets slouggish and some of the links on the widgets on the home page do not respond. Some times the home page displays a red banner saying that there's no internet connection, but my devices are not experiencing Internet connection issues. Go figure. Some times the widgets on the home page have icons and sometimes they do not. I'm also attaching a screenshot of some of the error messages on the Event Log that I get from time to time, The cross out MAC address is the MAC address of my router. The MAC address starting with 00:17 in the Event Log might be from some device in the WAN as it's not the MAC of any device I own.

Moderator: Is there a procces I need to follow to join the Netgear CAX80 beta firmware program. - Thanks

FURRYe38 · ‎2020-10-29

Just contact the forum moderator or NG support and ask for the beta file if its supported for your ISP. There may not be a FW beta for Spectrum.

The beta program has already come and gone.

@tamanaco wrote:
I'm also interested on getting my hands on this v2.1.0.4 beta firmware. My CAX80 running Router firmware version 1.1.0.41 and Modem firmware version 1.02.08 but it is connected to Spectrum. My router also experiences some random weird disconnects. The router status says Good (connected), but my computers, tablets and phones can't reach internet sites. My three Google Homes continue to work without issues as they remain connected. Rebooting the router sometimes fixes the issue, but sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't, I have to factory reset the router and restore it using the most recent configuration backup.One thing of note when I restore the configuration is that the names and icons that I have associated to my attached devices are not restored. I have to re-enter the description of the attached devices and associate the icons again after I restore the router.

Before the problems starts, the router web interface gets slouggish and some of the links on the widgets on the home page do not respond. Some times the home page displays a red banner saying that there's no internet connection, but my devices are not experiencing Internet connection issues. Go figure. Some times the widgets on the home page have icons and sometimes they do not. I'm also attaching a screenshot of some of the error messages on the Event Log that I get from time to time, The cross out MAC address is the MAC address of my router. The MAC address starting with 00:17 in the Event Log might be from some device in the WAN as it's not the MAC of any device I own.

Moderator: Is there a procces I need to follow to join the Netgear CAX80 beta firmware program. - Thanks

tamanaco · ‎2020-10-29

@FURRYe38 wrote:
Just contact the forum moderator or NG support and ask for the beta file if its supported for your ISP. There may not be a FW beta for Spectrum.
Dumb question... How do I contact the forum moderator? For some reason the images I uploaded are not displaying correctly. Retried adding much smaller size images to this reply post, but they also failed. I'm new to the forum, so should I assume that I can not upload images becased I'm in a probation period?

FURRYe38 · ‎2020-10-29

Select the forum moderators name in this thread and it will take you to there profile page. Send a direct message there.

tamanaco · ‎2020-10-30

@FURRYe38 wrote:
Select the forum moderators name in this thread and it will take you to there profile page. Send a direct message there.

@FURRYe38 All the user names on the posts on this thread are labeled as Gurus, Guides or Stars .No user with a "Moderator" label. EDIT: Never mind found a Moderator in the sticky posts.

The images I posted are now displayed... I guess it takes some time for them to be approved by the Moderator 🙂

FURRYe38 · ‎2020-10-30

Occasionally, I tag the Cable modem moderator in various threads. He was tagged in this one as well.

jesmith602 · ‎2020-10-30

@tamanaco I don't think they have a beta program per se, and they gave me the sense the v2.1.0.4 release had fixes specific to Cox. In any case, the only way I ultimately got it was by opening a support ticket (I'm out of the 90 day window, but they still accepted it) and constantly asking for an escalation to tier 2 who finally escalated to engineering.

jesmith602 · ‎2020-10-30

Just received the following message from Cox:
There is a ticket affecting the data carriers that the CAX80 uses to operate. This would cause issues with connection speeds as well as making it feel intermittent during peak times. Fixing the problem is taking longer than normal but our engineers are working to provide the best possible experience.

FURRYe38 · ‎2020-10-30

Thanks for the info. Sounds like this is most an ISP issue...Hopefully they can get it fixed soon.

tamanaco · ‎2020-11-12

@jesmith602 wrote:
@tamanaco I don't think they have a beta program per se, and they gave me the sense the v2.1.0.4 release had fixes specific to Cox. In any case, the only way I ultimately got it was by opening a support ticket (I'm out of the 90 day window, but they still accepted it) and constantly asking for an escalation to tier 2 who finally escalated to engineering.

Well, no matter what I tried I continued to have issues with the router. Could not get Beta firmware no matter what I tried. In the end,I sent the router back and received a replacement 2 days ago. So far, I have not encounter the issues I mentioned before with the new one. Same 1.01 hardware release and Router + Modem firmware versions. Fingers Crossed.

FURRYe38 · ‎2020-11-12

Possible you had a faulty unit. If you run into this again,

"Pls post connection table + Event log + Network logs screenshots for review."

@tamanaco wrote:

Well, no matter what I tried I continued to have issues with the router. Could not get Beta firmware no matter what I tried. In the end,I sent the router back and received a replacement 2 days ago. So far, I have not encounter the issues I mentioned before with the new one. Same 1.01 hardware release and Router + Modem firmware versions. Fingers Crossed.

Retired_Member · ‎2020-11-19

What is the status update of this? I'm using Spectrum and having same issues with the CAX80 disconnecting and restarting itself.

@FURRYe38 wrote:
Possible you had a faulty unit. If you run into this again,
"Pls post connection table + Event log + Network logs screenshots for review."
@tamanaco wrote:

Well, no matter what I tried I continued to have issues with the router. Could not get Beta firmware no matter what I tried. In the end,I sent the router back and received a replacement 2 days ago. So far, I have not encounter the issues I mentioned before with the new one. Same 1.01 hardware release and Router + Modem firmware versions. Fingers Crossed.

Retired_Member · ‎2020-11-19

did the firmware fix your problem with the cax80 ?

jesmith602 · ‎2020-11-19

Yep, after suffering through 2+ months of disconnects I haven't had a single one since I installed the new firmware.

FURRYe38 · ‎2020-11-19

Where did you get the FW from? NG?

@jesmith602 wrote:
Yep, after suffering through 2+ months of disconnects I haven't had a single one since I installed the new firmware.

jesmith602 · ‎2020-11-19

Yes, after buying the CAX80 in mid-August, I opened a support ticket and after literally 8 weeks of asking them to escalate to engineering, they finally did. Engineering then spent another week trying to troubleshoot, before finally sending me the new firmware. It's asbolutely bonkers that Netgear treats their customers like this, and I hope someone with director of VP in their title reads this thread and does something about it.

FURRYe38 · ‎2020-11-19

Well sometimes finding problems, reviewing them, collecting information and testing doesn't happen over night. it does take time.

At least they fixed it. I see one poster mentioned seeing new v2.1.1.4 on there modem so next step is the ISP has to make sure the new FW works on there network before pusing it out and with the different ISPs out there, they all don't use the same test timeframe for this as well. So there is that.

Well, at any rate, users will need to contact NG for help and information regarding this. The forums can only do so much. In this case, we can't help here.

Enjoy.