Discussion forum

Feel free to send me a private message.

Alternatively, good forums to discuss your HFC issues are;

• HFC Network - General Discussion
• NBN HFC Arris modem status page

How to contribute

Feel free to fork this repository and send me pull requests.

HFC Overview

HFC stands for "Hardly Fucking Connected" not "Hybrid Fibre Coaxial" like NBN would like to have you believe. HFC is an outdated and failing cable infastructure bought by NBN from Telstra for $11 billion and Optus for $800 million, used instead of replacing this aging and rusting infastructure with Fibre to the Premise (FFTP) like the government initially promised.

The HFC infastructure is prone to failures. Telstra technicians used to work diligently in the background to keep the cable infastructure working. However the picture is quite different with NBN. NBN doesn't appear to be actively monitoring or maintaining the HFC network in any way. Instead a customer has to complain for NBN to become slightly aware there might be a problem. The majority of customers don't have the technical expertise to convince their Retail Service Provider (RSP) to contact NBN to report faults. The overall result is an increasingly poor internet experience for Australians.

Telstra chairman John Mullen has claimed all Australians would have access to high-speed internet at a "fraction of the cost" if the government had not proceeded with the NBN monopoly. The Telstra Chairman said:

"It is my view that over the last 10 years private sector competition between strong players such as Telstra, Optus, TPG and others was always going to build 100 Mbps broadband access and speed to the majority of the population of Australia, in an ongoing competitive landscape and at no cost whatsoever to the taxpayer,"

And I think he's right. Unfortunately we seem to be stuck with the NBN monopoly, so lets instead discuss how to stablise and fix your NBN HFC connection.

Having issues with your NBN HFC connection?

There's a lot of technical information on this page that can help you understand your issue. There's also a tool called hfcmon that can collect technical information from your cable modem to help you understand your issue better.

Unfortunately though you're probably going to have to complain to your RSP (Retail Service Provider) and get them to contact NBN. If nothing gets done, as per the NBN complaint guide, register a complaint with the TIO and notify your RSP of the TIO reference number. Good luck! (you're unfortunately probably going to need it)

What can be done to improve this situation?

If you're annoyed, take the time to reach out and complain to your Federal MP. I complained to my Federal MP - <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=LTU">Ged Kearney</a> - with this email. I eventually received this response;

Just wanted to send you a quick note on your policy suggestions – which were very thorough and well considered, thanks very much for them. You make some good points – a lack of adequate communication, and the difficulty with which it occurs is a glaring issue with the NBN, and is often paired with the issue of having too many parties engaged in a single household’s issue. I think you make some good points in this regard, and also highlight some common sense solutions to the common issues.

There are of course a myriad of technical issues with the NBN, and Labor’s approach is to try to work with the Government to iron them out. The NBN has been an issue for a number of years, and as such our Shadow Minister for Communications is well versed on the issues. Ged will be sure to raise your suggestions with the Shadow Minister in her next communications with her, and we’ll continue to be briefed on the Shadow Minister’s progress in pushing the Government to fix their broken roll out of the NBN.

Thanks again for your detailed suggestions and I assure you they’ll be passed on to the Shadow Minister’s office.

This may have ultimately done nothing to actually improve the situation. But it's better to speak up than to do nothing.

NBN policy suggestions

The policy suggestions I made were;

• Require NBN to label which house is connected to which HFC tap - a majority of residents issues are caused by an NBN sub-contractor not knowing which house is connected to which tap - and repairing the wrong tap (and therefore not actually fixing the residents problem!). In other cases, taps not being labeled has caused NBN technicians to simply unplug existing residents connections, rather then spending the time to properly identify which tap isn't actually being used.
• Stop hiring sub-contractors from companies like Service Stream who come to your house claiming to be competent NBN technicians. Recently it seems, though I haven't seen this myself yet, that NBN seem to be employing their own technicians who are much friendlier and seem to be doing a much better job. This is good news!
• In line with the ACCC recommendations, encourage competition with NBN not discourage it. Companies like DGTek should be welcomed - they not only provide better internet for residents, they also provide lots of benefits for the community as a whole such as free internet for schools.
• If you have an existing TIO ticket that the RSP/NBN hasn't resolved within 2 weeks, the TIO has a 6 week waiting list until a mediator can be appointed. Once a TIO mediator is appointed, they have no authority to speak to NBN directly - this is absolutely absurd. The ombudsman efficiently has no power to resolve NBN disputes - and neither does the customer. The law has to be changed immediately to allow customers with issues with NBN to speak to NBN directly and have the NBN resolve their disputes. I am fed up beyond believe of speaking to my RSP only for them to tell me they're in the process of trying to get a response from NBN. I would highly recommend NBN build an online system to manage this where they can communicate to customers accurately about their issues. RSPs have no technology experience or knowledge to resolve NBN HFC issues - nor should they. The entire process is absurd because after 2 months of bad internet, I'm yet to hear the results of a single technical analysis that NBN has done.

Your NBN technician

There are 2 types of NBN technicians;

• Contractors: typically paid a lump sum per a job so regularly only interested in doing the bare minimum to get paid and leave your premise. Unfortunately these contractors are only trained and authorised to fix the most basic issues like rusted taps and replacing your cable modem.
• NBN employee: only sent out where the initial contractor has provided a report that they were unable to fix a customers connection issue.

If you were lucky enough to convince your RSP to convince NBN to send out a technician, here's what they'll typically check;

1. Check the tap - if it's rusted, replace the tap; (you'll typically see these taps on the power poles outside your house, unless they're underground).
2. Check the network isolator box (grey box on wall outside house);
3. Check the wall socket inside the house;
4. (Optional) Replace Arris CM8200 cable modem;
5. At each step, check for signal/power issues.

Unfortunately there are many "up tap" issues that your NBN contractor will be unable and unauthorised to fix. The most common "up tap" issue that people have - that your NBN contractor isn't authorized to fix - is with the tap itself (i.e. with the 8 port or 4 port metal box that your houses coax connection plugs into outside your house). Many of the original Telstra/Optus taps have completely rusted through, but in many cases NBN have had to install new taps to connect all the houses in your street - you want your connection to be plugged into these newer non-rusted taps and in many cases this will completely solve all your connection issues.

For more information on the technology involved in your HFC connection, see here.

How you can diagnoise your own connection

1. Get status page of Arris CM8200 cable modem (details below on how to do this).

2. Check power/SNR values are within acceptable values;

• Downstream Power: most places say the ideal is between "-15 to +15dBmV with closer to 0dBmV being better". However, NBN technicians I've spoke to say "between -6 to 9dBmV is acceptable, 0 to 3dBmV is ideal. 15dBmV will result in drop outs."
• Downstream SNR (Signal-to-noise ratio): +35dB and above is good, with +40dBmV and above being better.
• Upstream Power: between +40dBmV to 54dBmV is good with closer to 40dBmV is better.
• Uncorrectables: Should be as close to 0 as possible. In my own case, where I'm getting a lot of packet loss and drop outs, I often also see a high number of uncorrectables across all downstream channels.
• Lots more useful information here.

3. If your power/SNR values are completely wrong, y