Docsis Help

(Update 2-16-09)

When the 10K meets an older Acterna DSAM….

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Recently during an ISO upgrade I found (well a fellow engineer I work with found) that the older Acterna (now JDSU) DSAM meters failed BPI registration. It was interesting because all the modems on the CMTS worked fine and other meters did not have this issue. Well after a lot of trouble shooting from myself and other engineers it was found that the newer JDSU meters did not have the same issue. In the end it was that the older meters did not have a valid self signed Certificate and they had to be upgraded via JDSU TAC. Now the prior IOS was 12.3(17b)BC and we upgraded to 12.3(21a)BC and noticed the issue. So just as a warning to other Engineers you may want to test your older Acterna meters if you upgrade your IOS. If they do not pass BPI/BPI+ just call JDSU and have them add valid certs to the meters. This can be done via hooking the DSAM up to an Ethernet connect with a public IP for the JDSU TAC to access the meter. Basically your meter is fine and even if you have the BPI fail issue your meter can still work fine with all your normal RF testing and you could just use a modem to test DOCSIS with till you upgrade the meter.

(Update below)

JDSU has Cablelabs BPI+ Certs for the DSAM Contact you JDSU Support team if you think you have seen this issue on your DSAM meter.

JDSU is in my opinion the best vendor for DOCSIS/RF test equipment and I have used JDSU meters/pathtrack and other products for some time and the quality and support is the best you will find. The reason for the update here in the blog is that JDSU is committed to quality and contacted me to let me know of the fix and continued  support to there customers.

-Slimjim100-

Daemon

By Daniel Suarez

I wanted to promote a very awesome book I read last year. The author Daniel Suarez wrote the book and self published it himself. I was lucky to have been an early supporter of his book and reviewed it when I seen the review over on Ethical Hacker Network. After chatting with Daniel online I ended up meeting him in person at Defcon 15 and we have stayed in touch since then. Daemon was such a hit Dutton Press bought the rights to his book and republished it in hardback with added content. This is one of the best novels I have read in a long long time. It is a work of fiction but all the technology is based on real stuff. I would fully recommend this book to anyone technical (& non-technical) as you will enjoy all the references to real technology from a writer that is also a technical person. One reason I decided to post this here is that I am out of town working for a client in Orange County and ended up calling Daniel and getting dinner with him. During dinner we chatted about the book and it's concepts and I found out that the sequel will be publish in the future soon and it will pickup where Daemon left off and is guaranteed to be even a better. The next book is rumored to be named "Freedom". Anyway I strongly suggest you order this book now.  it's release date in January 8th 2009 but you can pre order it at your favorite online book retailer. As a side note Ethical Hacker Network recently hosted a hacking challenge that was giving away copies of the original Daemon book as a prizes for there contest.

Slimjim100