[Wolves] Cable modems and NTL

[Re-LoaD]

All this talk of NTL and Telewest modems.........

They both use the same modems, UBR's and the same type of access network 
architecture. A small difference is modulation type TW has the cleaner 
network and can use a more modulation types, if these are deployed on 
the NTL network with cleaning it up... ooops no network. The big 
difference is the "new" company has/is cutting back on engineers and so 
the network starts to suffer. Problems with SNR (signal to noise ratio) 
and FEC (forward error correction) are the main focus, TW and NTL are 
using different thresh holds to measure the SNR and FEC one value the 
network looks ok and the other value the network is starting to look 
shit, you can guess what's getting shown to the senior management.
As for modems going into meltdown it can happen to any bit of network 
kit, from my own findings I have found that the older home networking 
routers the netgears / linksys to name a few, that are first generation 
just cant handle the background noise. They is just to many packets 
flying around the internet and these little routers only have a small 
amount of memory and available CPU so they fall over. The same can be 
said for the early cable modems.
My advice is if your are a NTL/Telewest/Virgin mobile customer (yes all 
are one) and have a time to waist on the phone... call in and report ALL 
faults and keep on reporting them as repeat faults are getting flagged. 
The more flags flying the more they have to do something.

I hope you find this info of some use.


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Re-LoaD