New cable Modem troubles

[mike_l]

Hi all

I have been a Telstra customer with Cable for several years. I have pretty much had almost no issues with my cable service. No dropouts or intermittent faults other than scheduled outages. I recently changed my plan and was sent a new modem. My old modem was fine but I figured I would swap it out anyway. I work in IT and do a lot of work remotely from home so having a reliable connection is important. The new setup is the cable modem and router as separate units.

Ever since installing the new modem I have noticed my connection having very frequent dropouts. Random things like accessing my security cameras or Spotify pausing. At first I thought it was my wifi (Aruba) but I have confirmed that isn’t the issue by using multiple hardwired PC's to run ping tests out to the internet and the router simultaneously. The router is dropping packets from my constant pings on the LAN interface which is quite concerning.

I have some pretty decent equipment on my network at home which I know is not the problem as the only thing that has changed is my modem/router. I have checked the logs on the router and have noticed a bunch of DNS resolution errors and a few other random errors. I can’t change the local DNS on the router so by default the DHCP tells all the clients to point to the router for resolution.

My guess is either this router can’t handle my network or the router is just no good and needs to be replaced. My question to the community is, are these routers problematic? Should I just go back to my old modem? I am trying to avoid calling Telstra support as even swapping out the modem was a hassle. They tried to force me to diagnose things when I know exactly what the problem is and wouldn’t listen to me. Is there a second/third level of support I can deal with to not have to speak with someone who reads off a script?

Thanks for your help 

Mike

[Yastiandrie]

What was the modem you were given, and what was the old one?

[mike_l]

The new Modem/router combo is as follows:

Modem:

Netgear Telstra Cable Adaptor

Model No: CM450-1TLAUS

Router

Model No: F@st 5355

My old modem/router was a Netgear CG3100

[Yastiandrie]

Do the logs on the CM450 indicate any problems around the same time the logs on the 5355 do?

[mike_l]

How do I access the CM450?

Is there a default IP address or should i direct connect to it?

[Yastiandrie]

plug in directly with an ethernet cable and it should be http://192.168.100.1/

[mike_l]

I am happy to check this but I am unsure how this would affect the router itself dropping packets from the LAN side when the cable adpator box is plugged into the WAN side of the router?

[Yastiandrie]

mainly seeing if the DNS errors could be coming from the modem

Are you saying packets are dropping between the device and gateway? If thats the case it is more then likely a faulty gateway

[mike_l]

The DNS errors are coming from my network as I recognise some of the names it is trying to resolve.

The packets are being dropped from the devices on my network to the LAN side of the router.

Is there a way to expedite speakig with a level 1 helpdesk and just organise a replacement through these forums?

[Yastiandrie]

No one on here can organise a replacement unfortunately

You'd had to contact cable assurance via 133933