Comcast lies

[VirtualLarry]

My friend, who has comcast, has been having issues with his internet dropping out in the last few weeks. He's been trying to get Comcast to fix it, and he told me today, that the guy from comcast told him, "because he has high-speed internet, he won't lose it". Saying that high-speed internet NEVER drops out. Yeah, right.

its happened 8 times today
the first time i lost it it went out for over 2 hrs

Any way to get comcast to look into this? Other than stonewalling, and claiming it's not possible for their high-speed internet to go out?

 

[getafix]

I was having a similar problem with my connectivity as well. So, everytime I called Comcast, they would ask me to disconnect everything, power cycle everything, wait for 5 minutes and to try again.

Then the rep suggested I might want to get the cable-modem replaced. After the replacement, I haven't had any outages so far in last 2 months. Your friend may want to try that.

 

[imagoon]

My friend, who has comcast, has been having issues with his internet dropping out in the last few weeks. He's been trying to get Comcast to fix it, and he told me today, that the guy from comcast told him, "because he has high-speed internet, he won't lose it". Saying that high-speed internet NEVER drops out. Yeah, right.


Any way to get comcast to look into this? Other than stonewalling, and claiming it's not possible for their high-speed internet to go out?

Good luck. Had to live out the last 7 months of a contract with 8000ms pings 6-20 times an hour because "we can ping the modem." 35 Truck rolls in that time to keep them on their feet.

 

[Jeff7181]

Run a continuous ping to comcast.net and pipe the results to a text file then send it to them as proof that the connection is dropping.

 

[gsaldivar]

Need more details here. What model modem for starters?

Most have a "link" light. When you plug in the modem, that light blinks for 2-10 seconds to indicate searching for connection; the light goes "solid" to indicate connection established.

When the connection dies, does the link light go out? Does resetting the modem (unplug/replug) cause the light to go steady again?

To save time I would simply take the modem to a local office and swap it out. Most cable companies do this for free especially if they supplied the modem. If the problem persists, have them come out and check the line. If it persists further, replace the router and start looking at possible LAN/wireless problems.

If you have to call them, just keep calling until you get the answer you want. The key is to be persistent and polite. Good luck.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, I already told my friend that we should swap out the comcast-supplied modem tomorrow, and go from there.

Hopefully that fixes things. If not, it rules one thing out.

 

[gsaldivar]

A word of advice. If the cable company gives you a choice between a "combo" modem+router, I would opt for a modem only. The router function that is built into some of the combo models can be buggy, and disabling it is a PITA if you later choose to use your own router instead.

Best to just skip all that and get strictly a modem, and supply your own router from the start.

 

[imagoon]

Run a continuous ping to comcast.net and pipe the results to a text file then send it to them as proof that the connection is dropping.

They won't care. Their support sucks and only script read. I think it goes something like this:

Step 1:
Can you ping the modem? yes -> issue is customer equipment.
Step 2: goto step 1.

 

[Gillbot]

I was having a similar problem with my connectivity as well. So, everytime I called Comcast, they would ask me to disconnect everything, power cycle everything, wait for 5 minutes and to try again.

Then the rep suggested I might want to get the cable-modem replaced. After the replacement, I haven't had any outages so far in last 2 months. Your friend may want to try that.

I had a similar issue here and they insisted they needed to send a tech to replace inside wiring at my cost. I did it myself and still had connection issues. Once the tech was here though, I briefly chatted with him and he suggested taking my modem in to the local office and swapping it out. Not a problem since.

 

[Jeff7181]

They won't care. Their support sucks and only script read. I think it goes something like this:

Step 1:
Can you ping the modem? yes -> issue is customer equipment.
Step 2: goto step 1.

They do care. Tell them you'll be calling back every day until the issue is resolved, and follow through and actually do it. Callbacks are one of the metrics they use to evaluate those techs. It doesn't look good for the techs or the techs' manager to have a customer calling back every day.

Once you call back 4 or 5 days in a row and the techs see that, they'll be more inclined to escalate your issue and actually have it addressed. If nothing else, request to cancel your service, they'll put you through to their customer retention department and tell them to reduce your bill to zero until the issue is resolved.

 

[spidey07]

Likely inside wiring. That's homeowner's responsibility.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Likely inside wiring. That's homeowner's responsibility.

I plan on swapping out all of the Cat5e cables too, if swapping the modem doesn't help. Maybe I should do that before swapping out the modem, I don't know.

I know my friend mentioned that one of his cat5e cables is missing the tab that clicks in. I'm not sure where that particular cable is in his network though.

 

[VirtualLarry]

A word of advice. If the cable company gives you a choice between a "combo" modem+router, I would opt for a modem only. The router function that is built into some of the combo models can be buggy, and disabling it is a PITA if you later choose to use your own router instead.

Best to just skip all that and get strictly a modem, and supply your own router from the start.

I think that they charge extra for a modem+router combo. He already has a router, so I would make sure that they give him just a modem.

 

[spidey07]

Really though, they should be able to read signal to noise ratios at the modem. They could even be doing upgrades which is causing the service disruption and just aren't saying anything. Could be the modem. Could be a bad modem at the head end (CMTS).

 

[Jeff7181]

I plan on swapping out all of the Cat5e cables too, if swapping the modem doesn't help. Maybe I should do that before swapping out the modem, I don't know.

I know my friend mentioned that one of his cat5e cables is missing the tab that clicks in. I'm not sure where that particular cable is in his network though.

Really? REALLY?

 

[Ka0t1x]

They could have rolled docs3 in his area, and his modem has a problem with it.

 

[imagoon]

They do care. Tell them you'll be calling back every day until the issue is resolved, and follow through and actually do it. Callbacks are one of the metrics they use to evaluate those techs. It doesn't look good for the techs or the techs' manager to have a customer calling back every day.

Once you call back 4 or 5 days in a row and the techs see that, they'll be more inclined to escalate your issue and actually have it addressed. If nothing else, request to cancel your service, they'll put you through to their customer retention department and tell them to reduce your bill to zero until the issue is resolved.

7 Months and 35 truck rolls. Read above I explained my issue. "My inside wiring" is a 6 inch RG6 from the comcast NID to the Jack on the wall and a 6 foot piece of comcast provided RG6 that had been replaced about 4 times by comcast techs.

My test device was a Mitel IP phone that had quality monitoring turned on on the PBX side. They constantly wanted me to have a PC directly on the modem (XP right on the internet go!" my compromise was to attach the ip phone, and connect to the hold music channel. Low and behold right when the computers hung, the modem attached VoIP phone died at the exact same time. Also the open QAM channels at that point would also blank out and give me a "no sync" message.

I call that "poor effort" since no one ever bothered to take ownership of the issue.

 

[Texashiker]

Any way to get comcast to look into this? Other than stonewalling, and claiming it's not possible for their high-speed internet to go out?

Have them log into the modem and check the signal levels.

Most modems have a basic signal meter built in that can give the tech support the receive signal, and the transmit signal strength.

When they get the signal levels, be sure to ask what the transmit signal is, and what the maximum level the modem can transmit at.

Lets say your transmit signal level is 45, and the modem has a maximum transmit level of 50. That means your modem is having to scream to get back to the head-end. A transmit signal of 25, while the maximum is 50 is a good sign.

When I was working in the cable field, we usually shot for a transmit level of 10, while the modem had a maximum transmit level of 50. That gave the modem 40 decibels to play with. If the line corroded a little bit, or if the signal changed, the modem adjusted its transmit level.

So when you call tech support, you want 2 things, the modem receive and transmit signal strengths. And be sure to write those numbers down for later reference.

7 Months and 35 truck rolls. ...... a 6 foot piece of comcast provided RG6 that had been replaced about 4 times by comcast techs.

I call that "poor effort" since no one ever bothered to take ownership of the issue.

Sounds like poor trouble shooting skills of the tech, or plan laziness.

When a tech arrives at your house:

First thing - measure the signal strength at the modem. The tech should have a signal meter with him/her.

Second - go to the back of the house and measure the signal strength at the ground block.

Third - either measure the signal at the tap on the main line, or at the splitters in the attic.

By measuring the signal at the modem and ground block, the tech should be able to tell what is going on. If the signal going into the house is bad, the tech needs to backup to the main line. If the signal going into the house is good, go to the attic and check the splitters.

 

[lowrider69]

I had Comcast for several years a while back and had issues about every six months that would last about two weeks each time. I recall a lot of outages and their DNS servers had issues. I asked the neighbors they were having issues as well. I would call Comcast knowing it was their issue and they would deny it and I would get the usual "reboot the modem and the router" which never worked because it wasn't the modem or the router. I had about 20 techs come out and they never found anything wrong. Then everything would magically clear up and work again with some minor issues for six months then major issues would reappear, repeat process. So I started asking them for a credit every time this happened. I relocated years ago and I don't have Comcast now.... thankfully.

 

[Texashiker]

I had Comcast for several years a while back and had issues about every six months that would last about two weeks each time.

6 months = changing of the seasons.

In the winter the line amplifiers work more efficient, and the signal strength goes up.

In the summer the line amplifiers work less efficient, and the signal strength goes down.

Since you had so many service calls, it seems there was a lack of communication between the field tech and the main line tech.

Most cable providers have techs that take care of just the main lines. They supervise the contractors, keep the signal balanced on the lines, install the fiber,,,,, stuff like that.

Then there are the techs that go to your house and trouble shoot connection issues.

 

[imagoon]

Sounds like poor trouble shooting skills of the tech, or plan laziness.

When a tech arrives at your house:

First thing - measure the signal strength at the modem. The tech should have a signal meter with him/her.

Second - go to the back of the house and measure the signal strength at the ground block.

Third - either measure the signal at the tap on the main line, or at the splitters in the attic.

By measuring the signal at the modem and ground block, the tech should be able to tell what is going on. If the signal going into the house is bad, the tech needs to backup to the main line. If the signal going into the house is good, go to the attic and check the splitters.

Totally agree. They did that 35 times. There was only 1 of the techs that even bothered to have me show him the issue. The key thing is signal strength is not reflective of signal quality. The number of T3 errors, T3 loss and T1 > T2> T3 retrains I was getting even with "good signal" should have clued them up that there was an issue somewhere else.

edit:

I have just had really poor luck with Comcast in Chicagoland area. We tried using the business cable side and they never could seem to keep service stable. Honestly "plug a computer directly to the modem" is a good idea at the residential level, however I got tired of being treated that way at the business level. When you pay for a commercial account, they should assume when someone calls them and says "we are seeing high T# errors and disconnects" that I am not a drooling idiot when it comes to networking. Also the cheap crap "business routers" they give me that seem to need to be rebooted bimonthly annoy me to no end. Rather than buy theirs $599, I would rather buy a Cisco 1841 + Docsis wic for $700. At least that will stay running (for years in many cases) but it is "not supported."

I have never dealt with the comcast fiber and metro guys however so maybe it would have been better there.

 

[lowrider69]

6 months = changing of the seasons.

In the winter the line amplifiers work more efficient, and the signal strength goes up.

In the summer the line amplifiers work less efficient, and the signal strength goes down.

Since you had so many service calls, it seems there was a lack of communication between the field tech and the main line tech.

Most cable providers have techs that take care of just the main lines. They supervise the contractors, keep the signal balanced on the lines, install the fiber,,,,, stuff like that.

Then there are the techs that go to your house and trouble shoot connection issues.

I don't know if it was the change of seasons or what, all I know is the service I have now is great and it's gets very hot in the summer and we get some cold winters too. It's not the fastest service but it's very solid.

 

[Texashiker]

The key thing is signal strength is not reflective of signal quality.

Most signal meters can not measure signal to noise ratio, they just measure the signal strength.

2 things though:

A high transmit level on the modem is usually a sign of noise getting into the line. Because the modem is having to increase its transmit level to get above the interference.

Lines on analog channels of all of the tvs in the house - especially the lower channels, 3, 4, 5, 6 7, 8,,,,,. This is a sign that noise/interference is getting into the main input line of the house.

I don't know if it was the change of seasons or what, all I know is the service I have now is great and it's gets very hot in the summer and we get some cold winters too. It's not the fastest service but it's very solid.

The main line amps can be set to automatically adjust their signal, or manually adjust.

For most large cable plants, the techs like to set the amps to automatically adjust their signal.

Kinda like setting your AC/Heat unit to hold a constant temp in the house, + or - a few degrees.

 

[lowrider69]

The main line amps can be set to automatically adjust their signal, or manually adjust.

For most large cable plants, the techs like to set the amps to automatically adjust their signal.

Kinda like setting your AC/Heat unit to hold a constant temp in the house, + or - a few degrees.

If that was the issue you would think they would have figured that out over the course of four years. Either way, it got old. Also, there were minor outages happening at random times all year round, the two weeks of BS every six months thing was the main issue for me though. Just to be clear, the outages didn't last two weeks straight, but I recall there being numerous random outages within a two week period about twice a year.

 

[Texashiker]

but I recall there being numerous random outages within a two week period about twice a year.

How long did the outages last?

Lets say that the cable company was replacing an amplifier on the main line, that would take about 10 - 15 minutes.

On a lot of the amps, there are 4 bolts holding it in. Use a nut driver or a socket and ratchet to take the bolts out, pull the amp out of the housing, move the jumpers from the old amp to the new amp, put new amp in place.

But if the company is replacing a section of truck line, that can take a little while to do.

Replace a tap on the main line, that takes like 15 - 20 seconds. Couple of bolts hold the tap in. Take those bolts out, pop the old tap out of the housing, put the new tap in place, simple. I use to carry spare taps with me all the time. If one had some broken ports, just swap it out with a new tap.

This is a tap

The main line goes in and out through the bottom, or the sides.