Remote reboot of SMC modem

Why can't we remote reboot an SMC when on the LAN with cusadmin login?
Why does the SMC get into a bad state in the first place?

Had a problem with upstream roaming and called in to business class support.

The rep 'Dawn' asked me to power cycle. I balked and said, "why?" and she responded that they recommend that customers restart their modems every 30 days to "reset the signals".

WTF?

I told her that was stupid, network devices should be reliable and not need rebooting. She did not care for that at all and went back to her script.

I eventually woke up everyone so I could reboot the stupid modem, and yes it worked. But you know it shouldn't be required, and I should be able to do it without pulling a wire or plug.

Responses

Accepted Solution

mascjm

New Member

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1 Message

9 years ago

The past month our cable modem has been dropping connectivity almost every hour. It will drop and within a minute it will come back. We've tried rebooting the router already and it continues to drop service. Logging into the customer support page, indicates the service is operational. Unfortunately, we have a bundle of static IPs so we cannot get a retail modem for our use and need to continue leasing the equipment.

Any ideas why this is occuring? I was thinking maybe our device firmware is out of date too which may be causing the issue. I've been told that as new customers are added that Comcast will reboot the modems as changes are made to the routing tables. In a perferct world, it should just work without an interruption of service - our routing did not change so why reboot or interupt our service.

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plindner

New Contributor

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9 Messages

9 years ago

... aaaaand with some googling it appears if you change the LAN IP the SMC will prompt for a reboot.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r28251694-Connectivity-Reboot-Comcast-SMC-Business-Gateway-cable-modem

But it's a silly way to do it.

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maasj

New Member

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1 Message

9 years ago

Yeah, a lot of network hardware isn't very reliable. If it's made by people, it'll fail at some point.

My solution: a network-connected power switch. It pings hosts out on the Internet and if it can't reach them for a little while (adjustable) then it power cycles whatever is plugged into it. So, plug the cable modem into it, and the modem magically gets reset when it stops passing traffic. I don't have to drive down to the office anymore to get the flakey cable modem working again. Hooray! It's crude, but it works.

The model I'm using: Dataprobe iBoot G2

HTH,

Jason

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VBSSP-RICH

Advocate

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1.4K Messages

9 years ago

Hello massj and welcome,

Thanks very much for this primo info. Your G2 model for $199.00 seems very reasonable. Do you know if the auto-ping is programmable or is like yours standard 4?

Also another means by which some customers remotely reboot their Comcast Gateways (CG) is to have remote access to any onsite system directly plugged into any CG Lanport via port forwarding, account access, etc.

Thanks again for sharing this info.

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VBSSP-RICH

Advocate

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1.4K Messages

9 years ago

I recommend you check out this Troubleshooting Tips link by one of this Forum's Trusted Contributors and if you are still having issues, please let us know. Your symptoms sound to me like you are having downstream,upstream, or signal to nose ration issues and you can easily check this out ad follows:

1. login to any Comcast Gateway vis computer ethernet interconnected to any LanPort

2. bring up browser and in address fiels enter 10.1.10.1, username = cusadmin ; password = highspeed

3. For both SMCD3G and NETGEAR 3000, click on Gateway Summary. Cable Modem tab, scroll down to power levels;
and for DPC3939B/3941B click on gateway, connection, and WAN Status

Hope this helps you out.

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plindner

New Contributor

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9 Messages

9 years ago

I'm looking at this APC combo UPS/PDU which has built-in watchdog reset:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842301357

But you know I shouldn't have to reset my modem. I never have to reset my ethernet switch, and I've deployed servers and routers with multi-year uptimes. 30 days is weak.

Can we get an enterprise class router that supports static IPs? Maybe a real router with a DOCSIS line card?

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