Ongoing bridge mode WAN problem
Ever since switching to Fizz in April, I am having problems with the Coda-4680 modem in bridge mode. Before Fizz, I was also with Videotron (eBox) for many years, using a Thomson DCM475 modem, and never had a single problem.
Problem: randomly, the WAN connection from my Asus AX88U router to the Fizz Coda will break. My router’s LAN side remains functional, but the WAN goes down, with a message that “your ISP’s DHCP is not working properly”. All the LED’s on the Fizz modem seem normal, but my router LED shows WAN is down.
This can happen once a week, a few times per week, or every day. And always out of the blue – I can just be browsing, or checking emails, and suddenly it goes down. And doesn’t seem to have anything to do with my WAN IP lease from Fizz, as I can still have days remaining on the lease when it happens.
The only thing I can do to recover from this is to reboot the Fizz modem. However, this is taking 6+ minutes to reboot, and not the 3 minutes Fizz says it should take. Trying to simply reboot my router doesn’t fix it, I have to reboot the modem.
I have tried reducing my DHCP query frequency, and tried MAC cloning on my Asus router. I have tried an unmanaged switch between the Fizz modem and my router, in case there was some weird chipset incompatibility. I have even tried using an older Asus AC68U router, but the same problem happens.
Fizz support has been useless. Both times I tried chatting with them, the only solution is to use their Coda as the router. Asked if there was anything else I could try (different MTU or other setting), but Fizz declined to provide any answer, again telling me to use their device as the router. Easier said than done, as my LAN / VPN / IoT devices are nicely set up with my own, and I don't want to create a double NAT situation by using theirs. They did offer to send a tech to check the modem, but if nothing is found, I would be charged for the visit. I find this ridiculous, as I explained to them that it is an intermittent problem, and never once in the many years that I was using the Thomson modem did I have any Videotron connectivity issue. I’ll assume that the cable drop to my house is ok, as the problem only started when I had to switch to the Fizz modem.
I have read of issues with these Hitron modem/router combos using Puma chipsets, and bridge mode issues. Would be nice if Fizz would just address the issue, or offer a replacement modem. I would love for them to provision my old Thomson modem, which worked perfectly fine up till the day I changed to Fizz.
Anybody else have similar issues – or solutions?
Answers
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No idea to be honest, you already tried all the things to troubleshoot this. My assumption is Fizz modem is defective.
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When this happen from the log in the Asus you will see a new ip?
i find strange the kind of error, since the dhcp leasing time should be relative big at least couple of days and if you see this kind of problem it is like you are loosing the connection but I believe is from the modem side, otherwise the router was logging it if it was for the wan
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Unfortunately your can not use the Thompson DCM475.
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Did you already try to reset the modem and reconfigure it again in bridge mode? You never know, can clean some configuration.
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Not always, as I usually am here when this problem happens, and reboot the modem right away, so I am still holding on to the same ip. I tried leaving modem unplugged for a few hours to get a new ip from the pool, but the same problem with different ip. Right after rebooting modem, the lease is showing 24 hours, but after a few hours , it then increases to 3 day lease. The Asus log doesn't show anything abnormal before it happens, but when the wan connection breaks, that's where I can see the wan down errors in the log.
Several times :-( Same for the Asus, full factory reset, flush jffs, reflash fw, manually reconfigure everything (not restoring from old config). Even tried different patch cables, and tried different lan ports on the modem, no change.
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Sorry to see your have so much troubles...
It must be frustrating!
And given that the double nat is not a option:
Keep screenshots/photos of any messages you get from your modem (*message that “your ISP’s DHCP is not working properly”. All the LED’s on the Fizz modem seem normal, but my router LED shows WAN is down")
Try to contact support again.
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Hi @elraie
When you say "when the wan connection breaks" are you talking about the link between the router and the modem?
If it is the case, this means that you are losing the connection, but it is losing the link?
I was intrigued by this message "your ISP’s DHCP is not working properly", that was the reason of my questions, since if your lease is long why to contact again the DHCP? This probably happens when you lose the connection, and the router try to request to the DHCP the IP.
I will probably try to use the modem in standard mode, for a day or two and check his log to validate that the problem is coming from the Fizz side (and I believe is). Did you already try to ask the support to monitor your line to see if the signals are ok?
When I read that your flush jffs this show your knowledge, only for curiosity are you using the original FW or merlin or similar
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Good point from @Jess_i88b6 to use Fizz modem for a day to monitor it.
I am pretty sure the issue is coming from Fizz modem. When I joined Fizz, the modem was rebooting every 2-3 hours (uptime was constantly changing), after it was replaced no issues so far 🤞.
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When the problem happens, I apparently have good US/DS sync on the modem, all LEDs show that modem is functioning and connected to Fizz network. But the router loses wan connection to the modem (what I meant by broken connection). I tried disconnecting the router from the modem, and connect my different router to see if it would get a wan ip, but the modem did not like that and rebooted itself.
I agree with your observation about DHCP. I normally use Merlin, but have also tried going back to factory f/w after complete factory reset & wipe. And for it to be happening on 2 Asus routers makes me think it is the modem.
Tech support didn't really want to go beyond telling me the connection looked good - they didn't want to monitor the line, and told me that they can't do anything to help as I was in bridge mode and they cannot help; the only solution was to put their modem back into gateway mode.
I may try that for a day or 2; my other option is that I have a 2nd Fizz account in my name, set up at my mother's house, I have it as gateway for her as very minimal usage / connected devices. I may take one of my routers there, and put her into bridge mode, to see what happens. A bit of a pain, and if if goes down when she's watching her netflix, oh boy ;-p
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@Andrei_ref_R7VK1 did you got charged for the modem replacement/swap?
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To try to use your mother modem is a very good solution, the only problem you should leave with different speed :D
In everything you said I believe that the problem is with the FIzz's LAN's, can you try to disable any auto negotiation ? I don't remember if it is possible on the Asus router, probably in the merlin fw you will find this option
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Nope, as it was not my fault 🤣.
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That's good!
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It makes sense.
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In fact, I don't think the modem+router combo is a perfect choice for fizz. They can simply give the modem. If we aren't new to Internet, we have own routers each one. Combo modem may have problems easily. Mine has just been changed after 9 day service, it couldn't reach WAN anymore.
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I agree with you to a certain extent
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I'm experiencing exactly the same problem. I'm Fizz customer since 2019, and this problem started about 4 weeks ago.
My set up is similar to yours. I have the same modem (CODA-4680) in bridge mode but my router is OpenWRT running on Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X. I loose the connectivity one a day in average, and my router doesn't log anything when it happens.
I have port-forward in my router because I want to access my own hosted services (VPN, etc) from internet. I suspected the issue were coming from hackers, so I turned of my services and disabled the port-forward for few days, but I didn't help. I also downgraded OpenWRT, but the problem persists.
@elraie, have you tried to use the modem in the standard mode?
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Finally !!! I just came across this forum post and saw that I'm not the only one experiencing this same issue. I've had it since around March or April 2023, not sure when it started. At first I noticed the issue in the morning when a woke up.
The exact same intermittent problem:
I have an Asus router, and I've been with Fizz for 3 years. My Asus router was connected to the Fizz modem and their router/modem had the residential gateway turned off (it only acts as a modem). Everything remained the same for 3 years without any issues.
I contacted them it first started... after MANY MANY tests and troubleshoot on my side :
-The Fizz support says everything is OK on their end.
-Only restarting the Fizz modem solves the problem.
-The internet loss comes back between 1 and 9 days (lately it's been closer to 1 week all the times).
-Only restarting the Fizz modem, not just the Asus router, solves the problem.
-So, I decided to completely remove my Asus router and use only the Fizz router (which I reset to factory settings).
-The problem persists even with only the Fizz router connected.
-The issue is present on both LAN and Wi-Fi connections simultaneously.
-I used their DNS servers instead of the CloudFlare ones, same issue
Finally, after persisting with the useless Fizz support, I managed to get a Videotron technician to come to my place on behalf of Fizz.
-He completely replaced the coaxial cable from the pole to my modem and also redid all the coaxial connectors. We also changed the Ethernet cable from the modem to the router.
and.... the problem returned 1 week later : random internet connection loss !!
He had given me his phone number to contact him directly if the problem persisted to avoid dealing with the Fizz support (very kind of him!!)
The same technician came and replaced my Fizz modem (it was the only thing left to do). I was quite confident that the problem would be solved afterwards............... but...... no! The problem returned exactly 9 days after the last modem restart (I had reconnected my Asus router, being confident that it would work this time).
The Fizz router doesn't indicate any errors at all since the begining... everything appears to be fine with all lights on the Fizz modem, including the blue light.
At least the Asus router indicates a DHCP problem with my ISP... but Fizz says everything is fine on their end!! Could I have an IP conflict coming from Fizz/Videotron? This is an advanced troubleshooting that needs to be done at Fizz with N2 / N3 support... not their useless level 1 support.
The fact that I used only their Fizz equipment and reset from scratch multiple times proves that the issue is on their end (even with a brand new modem)... I don't know what else to do! I feel like contacting the technician directly again to see if he can ask Videotron to check their systems for any IP issues coming from the Fizz/Videotron DHCP.
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@Whizz can someone please take a look and escalate? Several users reported the same issue 😕.
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Very interesting comments since my last post. Good to know it's not just me.
I was out of town for a few days, so haven't had a chance to do any further testing.
While I was away, it happened again: I received notification from my alarm monitoring that the network was down, and notification from my home automation hub (ST) that network was down. This happened at 10pm Wednesday. When I woke up on Thursday, I see that network connection was restored at 5am.
So without me having to manually reboot the Fizz modem, it restored itself after 7 hours.
I just got home and peeked at my Asus log: nothing abnormal, except for all the router services failure messages when wan link went down at 10pm ; and services coming back when wan link went back up at 5am.
I was convinced that this is a Coda bridged modem issue, as after almost 15 years of Videotron / eBox service at this location, I never had a modem glitch (with my other modems)....but @Ne0 explains that it also happens with the Coda (and even the replacement Coda) in gateway mode, so I don't know what to think now.
It's a big headache and very time consuming for all of us trying to troubleshoot, and Fizz support doesn't seem the least bit interested in trying to help. Might be easier to just change isp.
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What a joke! 1 hour after posting my last message, it happened again. Was just browsing, connection became slow and unstable for around a minute, then wan went down. Had to manually reboot modem to restore wan. So this makes 3 times in 7 days.
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I totally feel the pain ! For some times it happened to me once every 1-2 days.
I forgot to mention that when the issue occurs I try to ping google.com or any public IPs that I took note of and no IPs can ping. That means it's not a DNS issue. It's not a IP lease renew issue as well as it can happen once a day. I had the same public IP since 2 years anyways. I obviously had a new IP with my new CODA Fizz modem but the problem persists.
When I've install only the Fizz modem/router, no Asus router, everything looks fine in the admin web interface when the issue occurs. The uptime goes on, my public IP is there, everything looks normal ! At least with my Asus router installed, when the issue occurs, I see the error “Your ISP’s DHCP does not function properly” which can give a clue eventhough it's a generic error. I didn't see anything unusual in the Asus router logs as well.
@Whizz is there somebody at a higher level than the normal chat support who can take a look at that ongoing issue ? Everything was tried on my side and it's happening again with a new modem as well. Strangely it began one day for no reason when everything worked well for 3 years...
Soon as the modem finishes rebooting the problem is fixed.... but it can come back 1 day later... up to 1 week if I'm lucky.
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Hey I have the EXACT SAME ISSUE. I've been with Fizz for several years (since the beta days) and have never had this issue. And then all of a sudden it started happening a few weeks ago. Now it's almost every day that I need to restart my modem.
There's so many people with a similar issue.. this can't be a coincidence?
If Fizz can't fix this I'll have to switch ISP. I don't want to but losing my internet connexion every day is extremely aggravating.
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@Guillaume S. 18944 did you see other fizz forum threads about the same issue ? We need to spread the word so we can be heard by @Whizz and show there’s now more and more people having this connectivity issue. it’s not a coincidence as you mentioned. I’m pretty sure we’re not from the same area and it’s something on the network services side. Very annoying….
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@Ne0 : I was literally in the process of rebooting the router when you posted. I was fine since my last reboot on June 17, then just happened again now.
@Guillaume S. 18944 : I think the only coincidence is that I just joined Fizz as this bug started happening, I was thinking it was only related to my hardware before seeing the forums. FWIW, I'm in Pierrefonds.
I agree that we need to spread the word and have this escalated. Les forums en francais signalent-ils egalement la meme chose?
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I just found this thread in the french forum which starts with exactly the same issue : needs to restart the modem 2-3 times per week. The client got his modem replaced in April and the issues persists. Same thing with me : modem replaced.
https://forum.fizz.ca/fr/discussion/2641043/panne-internet-recurrente
It seems to be an ongoing issue for many clients. It's hard to get the correct keyworks for the search to find all the cases....
Someone talked about "Politique de gestion du trafic Internet". This applies to 100 mbps plans and up (since the 100 mbps exists, before it started with 120 mbps).
**** Is that a coincidence ? : I noticed it started around march when I got this new 100 mbps plan (which didn't exist before). Previously I had 120 mbps, which had also traffic restrictions but I never had an issues with the 120 mbps plan which was applied since summer 2021. Before summer 2021 that I had 30 mbps (so no traffic policies). Maybe that's a coincidence... I'm trying to find a common point between us. I'm located in Laval, @elraie is in Pierrefonds...
Which internet plan do you guys have ?
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The "politique de gestion du trafic" applies to upload only. If upstream congestion is high in your area, they can throttle it until it normalizes again. I'm not uploading or even doing much DL when the problem happens.
I'm currently on the 200 mbps plan. Up till April, I was 120 with eBox, same politique de gestion, but never had an issue.
It seems silly, but I'm going to put my Fizz modem on a smart outlet, and set up a power schedule to reboot it every night. I'm hoping at least that way, the modem will be refreshed every 24 hours, and not throw these random wan failures. Not sure if it will help, but no harm trying. But sure would be nice for Fizz to say or do something.
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I'm in Laval (Ste-Dorothée), my plan is 30/10 mpbs. I loose connectivity on a daily basis, around 24 hours after a reboot.
Do we know if the modem receives regular firmware upgrades? Could it be a bug introduced in the last 4 or 5 weeks that is causing the issue?
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@spag I think that is a very plausible cause. For me, this started around mid-April, 1 week after joining Fizz.
I have been reading about so many of these Hitron and other brand modems with the Intel Puma 6/7 chipsets, including our Fizz model, suffering from latency issues and lag spikes, and packets dropping for no reason, causing things to break. Some articles even recommend outright avoiding these Puma based modems if given the choice. Seems some companies were pushing out firmware fixes fixes for their modems. And these problem reports go back a few years, so not exactly a new issue.
But if many of you have been with Fizz and this modem for years, and only now suddenly having an issue, it could very well be possible that a new f/w was recently pushed to the device. I know mine went through several reboots when I first connected it, took a long time before becoming operational, so maybe that was the update process.
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Glad I came across this post! Was debating whether to switch ISP to FIZZ. 👆️ is exactly why I won't!
I had heard of this issue with their modem/router and 'hoped' it was fixed. Guess it is not. The Coda modem is the issue. I was looking into installing it within a commercial environment (sports bar) and was advised by a 'rep' not to. Hardwired and went 'old' school instead. rock-solid and stable.
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I find some other posts from 2020 for the same kind of issue. It might be indeed firmware related on those Hilton modems. We aren’t aware when fizz is pushing new firmwares so maybe a new versions came out around march - April 2023.
I also noticed that 24h increment crash ! Many times it crashes pretty much at the exact same hours when it was restarted the last time. Not all the times but often.
you can take a look at :
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grabing some popcorn here, as I have been hab=vine a smilar issue for the past 2-3 weeks may be (It has to be a coincidence but it started the days I switched to th e 400 MBPS plan).
Internet dies for now apparent reason, all the lights are normal on the modem but no DHCP lease.
tcpdump on the router shows no activity (well beside the dhcp requests that is). The modem needs a restart at that point and it takes quiet sometime to boot/acquire the signal.
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Here's a link of what @elraie has been talking about for the Puma chipset on this Fizz Hitron 4680 modems :
https://approvedmodemlist.com/intel-puma-6-modem-list-chipset-defects/
Several other ISPs are using this same model and variants and users are reporting the same issues. You can google that.
Reading all the details about the chipset problems, it's funny to see the latency crash occurred at night for the first 2 months, while I was sleeping and using no internet...
Fizz should at least acknowledge the problem.
There's also a lawsuit on this Puma chipsets...
When the Videotron tech replaced my modem recently, it was for the exact same model and of course the same firmware version (I took note of the old one). We just don't know when that latest firmware was pushed.
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I did a hard-reset yesterday and I got the firmware version of my modem: 7.2.4.5.2b8.
@Ne0, I found the same site earlier today as well. Slightly different page though: https://approvedmodems.org/bad-modems/
They say it's a hardware problem. From what I understand, the vendors could perhaps minimize the symptoms by releasing new firmwares, but they cannot fix the root cause.
Interesting part for me is: "Modems featuring Puma 6 and 7 chipsets are known to experience speed, jitter, and latency-related issues. In simpler terms, they take a lot of time when it comes to processing network packets". Besides the connectivity crashing 24h after the restart, I'm experiencing latency almost on a daily basis in the afternoons (from ~ 2 PM to ~ 4 PM). Maybe for most of Fizz customers the lag is unnoticeable, but for me is easily remarkable because I use Citrix and it freezes for few seconds or sometimes for one minute until I get a timeout and get disconnected from work.
I have to thank this community for the hard work, specially to @elraie and to @Ne0 for the deep troubleshooting and research. I think the issue is very clear now and I don't have a hope Fizz will take action.
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Hello everyone, I have been experiencing the same problem the past few weeks, I have set my modem to bridge mode (all the lights are all on as they should be). Rebooting the Fizz modem is the only way to restore internet connection. Support team advised me to try another power outlet, verify the coaxial cable, but I did not find any issues with the coaxial cable or changing power outlets changed nothing.
While I didn't have internet access, I asked support to check my modem. From their side, they said everything was fine and they could "see" my modem. Has anyone found a solution? I am also located in the Laval region. Would @Whizz be able to contact those experiencing these long disconnects in order to solve this issue once and for all?
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It’s sad to say that all the things the first level support will ask you to do for this issue are useless. It’s like an endless loop of trying the same basic things over and over again. @Whizz didn’t get back to us after all our tags on this thread. No solution found so far as it might be a modem hardware / firmware issue. I’m lucky recently as it happened to me once a week compared to when it began with a 2-3 times per week. I have the same firmware version as mentioned above (screenshot from may 2023). We can’t know when that version was pushed to our modems….
people who contact the support should mention this fizz forum thread exposing all the customers having the same exact issue. This is not normal….
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I've been on that firmware (7.2.4.5.2b8) since first joining Fizz in April, and started having these problems.
Since putting the modem on a smart outlet schedule last week, and having it reboot at 2am every day, I have not had an unexpected wan outage. I will complete a 7 day cycle like this, and if no problems, I will then try with a 48 hour reboot schedule for another week, to try and pinpoint the timing of the failure.
I am filing a complaints with the authorities, and suggest you do the same. That is likely the only way to go further that the nonsense level 1 support route. Fizz advertises, and even confirmed in writing before joining that I would be able to use bridge mode with my router. They did not tell me that 3+ times per week, I would lose internet access and have to force a reboot. We have all done our fair share of troubleshooting, we've all been patient, with no resolution of the problems at hand. It's far time that Fizz / Videotron acknowledges this bug.
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Oh, wow; how this forum is biased! When I tried to post the names of the authorities I'm reaching out to in my previous message, my message was blocked, could not post. Only when I removed the acronyms did it let me post. It's it nice how companies censor us for trying to resolve an ongoing problem?
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Guys, I strongly suggest you to create a ticket yourself. Login to your account, go to
Settings -> Contact forms - > Submit a complaint
This way a superior will have to follow up.
Hopefully it will be fixed 🤞.
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Food suggestion Andrei! You can save some time opening a ticket yourself
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Sorry guys, too late, I unsubscribed from Fizz yesterday. I'm receiving the modem from Videotron tomorrow.
I strongly believe it's a hardware issue combined with a change in the above firmware release. I don't see a fix for this hardware issue in the short term, and I depend on internet to work.
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I'm not too far behind you on making that decision myself.
I'd be curious to hear how the Helix modem works in bridge mode. Can you post back here after you are running for a while, and let us know how it's going?
Good luck.
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Did you get a good deal with Videotron? All the best 🥂
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I had a tech come to our house. He blames poor signals, possibly caused by a cable splitter. He changed the splitter but the issue is still happening a week later so this didn't fix it.
He said that Vidéotron might have changed the frequencies/channels they use a few weeks ago which might be why the issues started out of nowhere.
Since his change didn't really fix the issue I'm reaching out to support again today but I figured I'd share with you.
The tech did show me that my modem was in the red when it came to two signal quality metrics and that these metrics were green after his changes.
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I tried doing this and get an error.
Can't have customer complaints if the form doesn't work!
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I was able to see the form, but I didn't try to submit. Probably a temporary problem
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So I opened a ticket, explained the problem is shared by many subscribers, had perfectly good service before the Fizz modem, and requested a level 2 or 3 tech to get back to me.
Instead, I received a reply from general tech support, telling me they would have to send a "specialized tech" to the house to verify. Essentially, I will have to provide 3 different days of availability, for the tech to check line quality and signals, which is exactly what was done when they delivered the modem. No splitter here, direct to grounding block and then to modem. Signals were excellent when the tech tested during install visit.
I already wasted an entire day when Fizz came to deliver / test, as they did not show up during the arranged time slot. And now, I have to provide them 3 days of availability? Nope.
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@elraie Indeed it's not something on your side and doesn't worth loosing a day for a tech to pass at your place. Chances are it won't help in any way as we ALL have the SAME issue here. Very frustrating...
I already had my coax cable changed up to the pole, brand new modem... and it happened again. Well... I'm actually breaking a record since April as it didn't happen yet for 10 days ! But it did happen again with the new coax and modem. Did you send them the link of this thread ? I noticed sometimes we have to be very insistent and bring them all the facts... then you'll get one technical rep who totally got the point of all this and will escalate the ticket to a higher level support. I'm pretty sure they are challenged to not escalate issues higher unless all the basic troubleshoot is done first.
Before getting a tech at my place, besides insisting with so many messages to their N1 support, I had to prove them it wasn't an issue with my personal Asus router by removing it and leaving only the Fizz router... Which I did, and got the issue as well.
Good luck @elraie , keep us posted.
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@Ne0 : Yes, today I responded to their first N1 reply to my ticket, and told them straight out that I am not wasting more time with their 'generic' response of sending a tech, when so many of us are having the same issue (sent them this thread). I insisted that they escalate and read the posts. It is clear that this is not my router (both of them), it is not my line, but something with their infrastructure / DHCP server or the Coda hardware. They replied, and said they would escalate it. We'll see what happens. What was their response when you had the same issue after new coax and hardware?
I am day 6 with my overnight scheduled reboot, and have not had any random connectivity surprises. I will increase the interval tomorrow and do more testing. So while it seems to help me, I don't think as paying subscribers that we should have to go this far to maintain stable connectivity. Especially since nothing ever broke before they forced their Fizz router on me.
Hopefully @spag will report his experience with the Helix modem.
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Hello @elraie and @Ne0. I know it's a bit early to report, but so far so good since the Helix Fi 2 modem installation yesterday. The uptime is now 30 hours and the connection is good (no loss of connection). My current set up is exactly the same as before (bridge mode, same cables, same router, same everything, except the modem).
I took the risk and chose Videotron intentionally because Videotron and Fizz share the same physical network layer, and I wanted to do as less changes as possible to help isolate the problem. I'm not going to any compensation with this move (except better internet), but I don't care. This is just my retribution to this good discussion that helped me believe the problem was not my router.
I will post again in one week or so to report the stability with the new modem.
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