View Full Version : Comcast internet woes.
CrossLOPER
06-18-2008, 04:22
I'm at wit's end. I am tired of seeing the "Send" and "Recieve" lights flashing endlessly and having my family paying for service that goes away for weeks at a time. Oh, and when it decides to work? 5000 ping? Pure joy.
Anyone have a similar experience? Perhaps recommend another ISP?
Mods, please don't move this to the H & S forum. There are like three people there and they are too busy deciding whether or not Firefox is awesome.
The HW/SW forum tends to light up when there's a good question. This would be one. Anyway, the obvious questions apply -- where do you live? Is DSL available? What forms of broadband are being offered?
CrossLOPER
06-18-2008, 05:06
Georgia. It looks like Bellsouth DSL, Direct TV... Maybe something else?
TevashSzat
06-18-2008, 10:47
Well up here in Maryland, Comcast is pretty nice actually. If you are having connection troubles, maybe its the physical connection near your house.
When I first got Comcast, I couldn't even connect at all. Later, it was found out that the cables connected to our house underground were all worn and had to be replaced. After they were replaced, everything was fine.
Did you ask other people in your area who have Comcast whether they have the same problem too?
CrossLOPER
06-18-2008, 17:02
A technician has been called. He is supposed to check the modem. If that isn't the issue, he's supposed to lay down a dedicated line. That, along with the visit, is going to cost about $60. Anything else I should request?
TevashSzat
06-18-2008, 17:41
Just make the technician stay until your connection seems to stay fast and stable.
Another thing that comes to mind is that the modem outlet thing in your house may be too old. In my basement, I had an outlet that would work, but barely. When I unscrewed the cover off, the wire ending that your cable connected too was frayed so I just cut it off and stripped off some of the cable to get a newer better ending.
My Comcast service is....okay. I get about 2-3 interruptions a month for maybe a few hours at a time. Otherwise, though, I've not had any real problems. [Knocks on wood.]
CrossLOPER
06-18-2008, 21:31
A month or two ago, I resorted to connecting the cable to the primary interior splitter in the attic which extends all cable connections throughout the entire house. It worked for several weeks, then it failed again. It comes back once in a while.
To the Hardware forum and awayyyyyyyy!
CrossLOPER
06-19-2008, 00:41
To the Hardware forum and awayyyyyyyy!
You've doomed my thread! :no:
With an attitude like yours, I'm surprised that anyone took the time to reply to this thread. Best of luck.
You've doomed my thread! :no:
You underestimate Lemur's forum, me lad.
Replacing the modem is an obvious first step. Truth is that cable is faster (generally) than DSL dollar for dollar, so you wants to stick with cable if you can.
If Comcast is willing to replace the modem and re-run the cable, you should be sitting pretty. Just be advised that Comcast does some serious traffic shaping, so if your World of Warcraft client tries to update with the bittorrent protocol, expect problems.
PanzerJaeger
06-19-2008, 06:28
Stick with Comcast.
I'm in the South as well, and Bellsouth is terrible.
The problem is most likely on your end. If they put in a dedicated line you'll be good to go. I would push for that even if the problem can be solved in another way for ping purposes. My family bought a penthouse in a very old bank building that was redone into flats. We love the eclectic atmosphere, but unfortunately it was not designed in the internet world and things had to be sorted.
I fought with Bellsouth's DSL for 2 years and they were jerks the entire time. I now have a dedicated Comcast cable line and I get excellent pings. Im getting like 40-80 on american servers and low hundreds on Euro ones.
*Gets the heck out of Lemur's playground before he assembles his posse...
I'm already annoyed if they disconnect me for a second, if they'd disconnect me for several hours several times a month I'd complain and if they would not change it I'd drop them and get another ISP ASAP. I use DSL though and here we have plenty of ISPs(hard to say, 10? 20? I may not even know them all :laugh4: ) offering DSL at low prices. Heard that cable can be really slow here around the time everybody watches TV (prime time?) and in addition they wanted me to pay >300EUR to get the house(not mine, I have a flat) connected in the first place. :sweatdrop:
Hard to say about the USA but here DSL seems to be the better option and I wouldn't put up with long downtimes, unless of course there are no alternatives, which sadly seems to be the case in the US. :no:
TevashSzat
06-19-2008, 14:40
In the US, cable is usually about 5 times faster or so than DSL, but about 2-3 times more expensive.
I had to stick to Comcast since Verizon, which is the only DSL provider where I live, does not service my community. Right after I got Comcast, Verizon started installing cables for FIOS
LeftEyeNine
06-20-2008, 14:53
With an attitude like yours, I'm surprised that anyone took the time to reply to this thread. Best of luck.
What's up? Anybody cares to elaborate through PM ?
Gregoshi
06-21-2008, 00:03
I'm with Verizon FiOS currently, but I had Comcast for a number of years. I'm in suburban Philadelphia and had no complaints at all about the internet service provided by Comcast. In fact, in the several years I had it, I might have experience one service outage - maybe. I can't recall for sure. I only switched away from Comcast because I had a better deal from Verizon. Unfortunately for Comcast, their "triple play" offer (internet, phone, TV) came a couple of months too late.
I'm inclined to agree with PJ - it is more than likely an issue at your end. As Tevash said, don't let the technicial leave until he's isolated and corrected the problem. I'm not much of a hardware techie, but those splitters in the attic have my spider senses tingling. How good are the splitters and how many splits before the signal goes to the modem? I have no idea what I just asked, but it sounded good to me. :laugh4:
LeftEyeNine
06-21-2008, 00:26
Mods, please don't move this to the H & S forum. There are like three people there and they are too busy deciding whether or not Firefox is awesome.
We three goblins here dwell on the important parts. And I'm quoting that above as the unimportant part of it so as to underline our comprehension.
You're welcome anytime.
"H&S Forum - Satisfying Every Need, And Even More"
RRRukk RRRukk !
CrossLOPER
06-21-2008, 00:56
....RRRukk RRRukk !
You guys had your chance a month or so ago. :smartass:
:beam: jk
The technicians came in and found that the cable lines in the house were all hooked up into an amplifier. One of them connected a wire that apparently dampens the signal. Apparently the modem (an apparently humorous Motorola 5120) was unable the receive the signal because of the amplifier. Anyway, problem appears to be solved for now. Thanks for the encouragement.
btw, three guesses how much this cost.
Gregoshi
06-21-2008, 03:27
Was the amplifier your equipment or theirs? If it was all their equipment, it should be free.
CrossLOPER
06-21-2008, 17:44
Was the amplifier your equipment or theirs? If it was all their equipment, it should be free.
I'm fairly sure AT&T installed it a while ago. Comcast did not take off in the area until a few years ago.
Perhaps Comcast's internal PowerPoint show about why they suck would be of interest? Warning -- link (http://cache.consumerist.com/assets/resources/whatdoescqereallymean.pps) is to 7.9 meg PPS file. But oh-so-worth-it.
Gregoshi
06-21-2008, 19:52
Lemur, is that an actual internal Comcast Powerpoint presentation? If so, I guess I'll consider myself one of the lucky few.
Yup, this was a slideshow that was being passed around within Comcast, which is a bit different from saying it's an official Comcast document. Background here (http://consumerist.com/tag/exclusives/?i=5018081&t=internal-comcast-powerpoint-shows-they-know-exactly-how-much-they-suck).
CrossLOPER
06-22-2008, 02:42
I'm fairly sure AT&T installed it a while ago. Comcast did not take off in the area until a few years ago.
I'm apparently wrong.
Darn, Lemur! Where's the competition???
Gregoshi
06-22-2008, 05:58
Lemur: thanks for the info.
CrossLOPER: so how much did Comcast charge you for the service call?
CrossLOPER
06-22-2008, 14:01
Lemur: thanks for the info.
CrossLOPER: so how much did Comcast charge you for the service call?
HSI VID/CDV 42.95 (this is apparently just for showing up)
DIG PREMIER 105.25 (this is apparently for the five-inch wire)
GUIDE 3.40 (this is for..... I have no clue. It had better not be the wire.)
= $151.60
That's more than twice the amount that I was initially set to pay. I LOVE monopolies.
LeftEyeNine
06-22-2008, 17:25
HSI VID/CDV 42.95 (this is apparently just for showing up)
DIG PREMIER 105.25 (this is apparently for the five-inch wire)
GUIDE 3.40 (this is for..... I have no clue. It had better not be the wire.)
= $151.60
That's more than twice the amount that I was initially set to pay. I LOVE monopolies.
OMG.
Apparently they are worse than three goblins. OMG.
$151.60
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Lemurmania/wha-cat-042408.jpg
If anyone would want to charge me 105$ for a wire that isn't covered in gold and diamonds I'd tell him to get out and take his wire with him. :inquisitive:
That you have absolutely no idea what the positions on the bill are supposed to mean is almost hilarious, you should've had the guy explain them to you in detail, for free of course.
CrossLOPER
06-23-2008, 13:41
If anyone would want to charge me 105$ for a wire that isn't covered in gold and diamonds I'd tell him to get out and take his wire with him. :inquisitive:
$105? Gilded in gold and sprinkled with diamond dust, maybe....
That you have absolutely no idea what the positions on the bill are supposed to mean is almost hilarious, you should've had the guy explain them to you in detail, for free of course.
Oh, I have a pretty good idea about every item on the bill. It wasn't just the wire. I'm sure that checking the modem and repeated trips into the hot attic are factored in.
Why, the extra $3.40 charge was probably because they knew I would be the type to keep them an extra five minutes or so I could check that everything was indeed working.
LeftEyeNine
06-23-2008, 13:42
That you have absolutely no idea what the positions on the bill are supposed to mean is almost hilarious, you should've had the guy explain them to you in detail, for free of course.
Verbally Informative Technical Interaction - $70.25
If I get 3 disconnections every day, what the heck should I do? I am hijacking a thread again, but I need to do something for the crappy service of Telecom. Please tell me which details would you like to know.
If it's really their fault and their technical support can't help, then the best thing you can do is get another ISP.
First thing you could tell us perhaps is when are those diconnects usually? Do you have a WLAN? And how long are those disconnects?
If it's really their fault and their technical support can't help, then the best thing you can do is get another ISP.
Err, they can, simply they arent willing to help me. They arent willing to help you because they would have to recognize that the modems they give you are faulty, instead, they say that "an unexpected manteinance service has started, please hang and try again in some minutes" or "check if the modem discconects itself thanks to an option in the USB energy setting, change them and try again". Its all been a pack of lies (lol Phil Collins), because the modem shuts down itself. I think that is because of the capabilities of that modem, that it is not usefull for our climaic conditions. In other words, Telecom gives u the crap free.
First thing you could tell us perhaps is when are those diconnects usually? Do you have a WLAN? And how long are those disconnects?
Those happen randomly. You are surfing ok for hours, and then you notice that Internet is going slow... The pages wont close, MSN disconects... you know, the usual.
I think I have a DSL modem. Its a Huawei HT810 btw.
It disconnects, you have to wait 3 minutes again to have it working again. The thing is that the modem is faulty since it came to my hands.
I think I have a DSL modem. Its a Huawei HT810 btw.
If you're giving your money to a phone company, it's DSL. If your bill is coming from a cable operator, it's cable.
As for this Huawei HT810, I gotta say, you're freaking me out. Googling that equipment does close to nothing. Here's Huawei's home page (http://www.huawei.com/). Go ahead and search for the HT810. Nothin' there. Now try just 810. Again, nada.
It's a super-secret DSL modem.
You always have the option to get your own FritzBox or so then, not sure how much they cost but at least that should fix the problem fast, having a technician come over may well cost more as you can see above. :shrug:
If you're giving your money to a phone company, it's DSL. If your bill is coming from a cable operator, it's cable.
As for this Huawei HT810, I gotta say, you're freaking me out. Googling that equipment does close to nothing. Here's Huawei's home page (http://www.huawei.com/). Go ahead and search for the HT810. Nothin' there. Now try just 810. Again, nada.
It's a super-secret DSL modem.
Huh. I typed the name wrongly. It was MT810 (http://www.huawei.com/mobileweb/en/products/view.do?id=482&pageId=null) instead of HT810.
TevashSzat
06-25-2008, 16:15
Err, they can, simply they arent willing to help me. They arent willing to help you because they would have to recognize that the modems they give you are faulty, instead, they say that "an unexpected manteinance service has started, please hang and try again in some minutes" or "check if the modem discconects itself thanks to an option in the USB energy setting, change them and try again". Its all been a pack of lies (lol Phil Collins), because the modem shuts down itself. I think that is because of the capabilities of that modem, that it is not usefull for our climaic conditions. In other words, Telecom gives u the crap free.
Those happen randomly. You are surfing ok for hours, and then you notice that Internet is going slow... The pages wont close, MSN disconects... you know, the usual.
I think I have a DSL modem. Its a Huawei HT810 btw.
It disconnects, you have to wait 3 minutes again to have it working again. The thing is that the modem is faulty since it came to my hands.
That actually happens to me sometimes, but I have a router and I know how to fix it pretty quickly. Do you have a router? If you don't, it might be your cable since iirc, modems don't really mess up that often.
If you don't, it might be your cable since iirc, modems don't really mess up that often.
Not entirely true, I've burned through 2 modems in 5 years. They're just like wireless routers, if they constantly have to xmit on highest power, they'll eventually burn the circuitry out to the point where it just can't produce a powerful enough signal. Different technology, same concept.
That said, a lot of my own personal woes with internet disconnects have been because the wiring in my house is total crap. They definitely did not put a cent more into this house than they had to, when I replaced all of the lights downstairs I found that the hallway light had SPEAKER WIRE in it. Just a hunch but that MIGHT be a violation of building code. :wall:
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