Comcast Internet connection problems

[Paul Wilcox]

If you don't use Comcast's broadband Internet service, you can skip this email.

If you do use Comcast, you may have noticed that their Internet service has been unusually slow the last couple of weeks. This hasn't affected their cable television service, only the Internet network connection speed. I've been in contact with Comcast a great deal about this problem and would like to pass on what I've learned.

A couple of weeks ago, Comcast started servicing a new complex of homes in our neighborhood. Unfortunately, they failed to anticipate the stress that would put on the available network bandwidth in the area. Consequently, the whole neighborhood is now overtaxing the system. In technical terms, we should be getting about 2 megabits of upload bandwidth and 12 megabits of download bandwidth. Due to network congestion in the area, however, we're getting far less.

This is especially apparent during peak hours in the evening when everyone gets home from work and surfs the web and starts playing video games, when our speed has been dropping as low as 1 megabit of upload and .5 megabit download. That's enough for checking your email and maybe loading webpages, but not enough to play video games or stream movies.

To address this issue, Comcast has been working at splitting the neighborhood in half so we each have our own network trunk, and adding capacity to the entire region -- a long-term solution that will hopefully keep us happy for years. Unfortunately, this is not a quick thing to fix. As of Thursday night they implemented a partial fix that's helped alleviate some of the problem (in technical terms, it's got us back to about 6 down/2 up). They expect to have the problem entirely rectified within a week or two.

A note on phoning Comcast: If you try to call Comcast's 800 number for more info or assistance with this, it probably won't help. Comcast's telephone support people are in a central office outside of our area and don't have any special knowledge about our neighborhood problem. Their phone support people are equipped to help troubleshoot individual problems with your home, not trouble with the entire neighborhood, and they don't really have insight into our area problems. The only way I've learned about all of this is because I've spoken with local field technicians and a local field tech supervisor, who are very aware of the problem in our area and working on fixing it.

Please reply on this email thread if you have any questions,

-Paul

[mingming mao]

Hi Paul:   How do you reach the local technician? Thx.   Mingming --- On Mon, 12/13/10, Paul Wilcox <pwi...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Paul Wilcox]

I had to set up 2 separate appointments by calling up the central (unhelpful) 800 number who sent technicians to my condo.

The first one discovered the problem because, by pure luck, he bumped into another Comcast tech who was coincidentally visiting one of my neighbors for the same problem. I suspect that's how the local people discovered there was a problem in the entire neighborhood, when those two guys compared notes in the parking lot.

When I hadn't heard back from the first guy within a couple of days, I called the (again unhelpful) 800 number who told me they had to send a 2nd tech out to the condo. The second guy was able to tell me what was going on, since his co-workers had been working on the issue for a couple of days. He also gave me the direct phone # of the area's technical supervisor.

I got a call back from the supervisor on Saturday, who repeated everything the 2nd tech told me, but was able to provide the details that a partial fix was in place and that the whole thing will hopefully be resolved within a couple of weeks.

-Paul

[Subash]

Hi Paul,

 

Thank you for sharing this information.

I was not aware of this and I have been having this problem for a while and working with Comcast.

They said it was the problem with my modem and i had to get a new one of DOCSIS 3.0 and new Wireless router as well, but even after that i am not getting what i am supposed to get.

 

Cheers and have a happy week,

Subash

--

[Pradip Nandi]

Is the problem resurfaced today? I am seeing similar issue today. Thanks, Pradip --- On Tue, 12/14/10, Subash <subash...@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Subash <subash...@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Comcast Internet connection problems To: celeste-circl...@googlegroups.com

[Paul Wilcox]

I didn't notice a problem yesterday. I can do a speed check when I get home.

You can check too -- just pick a speed test website (here's a good list). I recommend checking multiple sites, especially across the continent. I've seen great results vs. a SF server but as soon as you test against a Washington, DC server you realize there's a massive difference, which is indicative of a problem.

-Paul

[NinaKersi Daruwalla]

I did not notice any issues last night.

 

Thanks