help! bad internet in atlanta (comcast)

[KDu]

I had cable installed in my apt this past Monday and it has been hell for me. I get horrendous spikes (speed is REALLLY REALLLY SLOW too) and the internet would just go out randomly every once in a while for a few seconds. I have comcast hsi here in Fulton Country of Atlanta, GA and running it with my own Dlink DCM-202 modem with the new comcast firmware updated. Here is the screenshot of my modem settings, is there something that I could do to this line?

»www.dothedu.com/files/ss.jpg

 

[Scott66]

Way up in Canada here but have cable modem as well. How good is your cable connection? The crew here had to run a new line from the pole because the old one had too much leakage. They also verified the frequency range as this affects the quality of the cable. Also make sure any splitters you have in your house support digital signals. Comcast should be able to help you test all the above.

 

[chronokefka]

First thing you can try to do would be go right to where the line enters your home, hook up there, and see if the connection improves. If it does, then it's a weak signal on the line that's causing the issues. If you still have the speed problems, then it is either an incredibly weak signal, or line noise that is causing packet loss.

I do CC tech support(I thankfully don't have them here in Canada), but not for the GA area. Your best bet would be to just call in, get an Agent and say my service is intermittient, can you send a tech out? They should be more than willing to send out someone to take a look and figure out what is going on. Whatever you do, DON'T say you are having speed issues. Most reps will just pass it off as 'within' specs. Good luck.

 

[corkyg]

High density areas with high density buildings are the worst case for cable Internet. It is a shared system, so it relates directly to being in an apartment building which might also be next to other apartment buildings. The available bandwidth is then shared between all of them in a given sector.

This is the kind of environment where DSL would serve better.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Connect directly to your cable modem, bypassing any home network at all. Power cycle the modem for 30 seconds, then release/renew to get a new IP on the Comcast network (as opposed to an IP from your home network).

Open your IP configuration and write down the gateway IP. Run a continuous ping (c:> ping x.x.x.x -t) to that IP and let it run for 2 minutes. If you see any ping times higher than 100ms or *any* packetloss, call Comcast and report it. They'll have you uninstall and reinstall your NIC drivers and TCP/IP.

They'll check the network status in your area and check for known network issues at that time.

If that doesn't work, they'll send a tech out to check the signal strength at the modem, at the wall, just outside the house, and at the poll if necessary. If there's no signal strength issue, they'll keep working their way back, maybe even as far as to the Regional Data Center (RDC). If not or if that doesn't find the problem, they'll escalate the issue to Tier 3 or NOC (internal group only) and they'll fix it.

 

[KDu]

i pinged my local cable gateway and half of them were "Request timed out" whereas the other half were around 12ms which sounds normal...

 

[Random73421]

Do you happen to have a wireless router or access point? If I put mine on channel 11, it interferes with the modem and it works like you describe.

 

[birdpup]

Originally posted by: chronokefka
First thing you can try to do would be go right to where the line enters your home, hook up there, and see if the connection improves. If it does, then it's a weak signal on the line that's causing the issues. If you still have the speed problems, then it is either an incredibly weak signal, or line noise that is causing packet loss.

Originally posted by: Nik
Connect directly to your cable modem, bypassing any home network at all. Power cycle the modem for 30 seconds, then release/renew to get a new IP on the Comcast network (as opposed to an IP from your home network).

Make sure your connection is not split between the main home connection and your modem.

 

[KDu]

yeah, my modem is a regular cable modem and i'm plugged in with a cat5. i found my apartments main cable line and connected the modem straight into it, still gives me problems but it seems less random. oh well, the comcast guy is coming tonight, i'll see how that goes

 

[KDu]

found out my problem is my cable line, so they are sending out someone next week to replace the entire line to my apartment. ugh, gotta wait a few more days :[

 

[laketrout]

I have been going through similar problems and they were going to replace the line but then backed out at the last minute because by some miracle it started working again. However, just a few days ago my internet service dropped. 3 days now it hasn't been up. What is the fastest way to get through the obstacles of comcast CS to get back to them replacing the line, any tips? Is there anything I can test on my own to tell them instead of having them come test again? I fear that they won't take it seriously since they almost replaced it and then it worked... their support can be very frustrating.

 

[KDu]

i had to explain the problem to the internet department first, then they told me to talk with the cable tv department since they are the ones that replaces the physical cable. so eventually, after a long drawn out explanation of how ignorant and stupid their technicians are, they scheduled out for a line replacement