Comcast internet speeds - what are they?
Jimmy King
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Alright, so I've had Verizon DSL for years. I've been patiently waiting for them to get FiOS in since they are putting it in my city and have been for a couple years now. I am tired of waiting, though, and my slow ass DSL speeds are no longer acceptable. I am looking at going to Comcast, but their advertised outbound speed, which is hard as hell to find in the first place, is crap... 384k? What the hell?
Now, I've got a friend who works for Comcast and does installation/in house support stuff. He doesn't know what their packages are currently, but says that he rarely sees upload speeds lower than 2Mb/s. Everything I find on the web also suggests that Comcast bumped everything up to 1Mb (and 2Mb with powerboost) or 2Mb/s outbound some time ago. Comcasts site, in the few places you can find it, still says 384k on most packages, with one package available with 768k outbound.
So, is there anyone here who actually knows what the hell the packages, specifically with outbound speeds, are? I do not want to actually call and talk to some sales rep on the phone, they probably don't know, and I don't want to talk to sales people.
Now, I've got a friend who works for Comcast and does installation/in house support stuff. He doesn't know what their packages are currently, but says that he rarely sees upload speeds lower than 2Mb/s. Everything I find on the web also suggests that Comcast bumped everything up to 1Mb (and 2Mb with powerboost) or 2Mb/s outbound some time ago. Comcasts site, in the few places you can find it, still says 384k on most packages, with one package available with 768k outbound.
So, is there anyone here who actually knows what the hell the packages, specifically with outbound speeds, are? I do not want to actually call and talk to some sales rep on the phone, they probably don't know, and I don't want to talk to sales people.
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I am also in a weird situation where I'm being charged the standard rate, but my bill says I'm getting "Blast" which is the high end speed, I think.
I'm not at home right now, but I will check my speeds tonight and post them.
I'm in Arlington VA--I'm sure that where you live makes a big difference in what Comcast offers.
And yeah, lots of horrible things about comcast, which is why I have resisted switching for so long. But seriously, $35/month for 1.5Mb/~500Kb (actually like 487k or something, some really weird, off speed) that I get with Verizon? Screw that, it's not fucking 2001 anymore.
I think that's the limitation of the DSL technology. Are you even using that much download speed or upload speed? But cable packages tend to be shit tons better than DSL.
As to usage, depending on what I'm doing, yeah. Streaming Netflix to my 360, which is primarily inbound, of course, gives shit quality video right now. Transferring mysql data sets from a remote server when doing test/dev work from home and hitting what is essentially a live-test db? Christ that shit is miserable. Transferring hundreds of .wav audio masters for work to home and then back, both upload and download? That shit takes forever.
So, yeah, I'm mostly just trying to figure out exactly what it is Comcast is selling here to determine if I'll even get the performance increases I am wanting/needing to know if it's worth the hassle of switching and the extra $5-$10/month cost. Obviously for inbound intensive stuff it is, but I want to make sure it is when I'm doing stuff that hits the outbound hard, too, or at least not a decrease in outbound, since I do make regular use of outbound heavy stuff.
No, it will not be worth it when factoring in the practical speeds.
Also, there have been rumors floating around that Verizon is actually trying to sell its fiber network, which is why FiOS went strong for a while then seemingly stopped being added to any new markets.
Here are my results at this instant:
I have the cheapest service, but they doubled my speeds from 6/1 to 12/2 over Christmas break. I think I'm lucky enough to live on a cable loop that isn't oversaturated with customers, though.
The Verizon thing sounds possible, too. They were upgrading all over town a couple years ago, but I have yet to hear anything about it since then.
As to the speeds everyone is seeing, that's really interesting and strange. It seems to be in line with numbers I'm seeing from non-comcast sites, though, and we've got speeds from all over that are certainly way over the crap 384k that comcast shows on their site. That's really very strange that comcast only lists 384k and a single 768k option on their site, but they also don't list the 16Mb deal anywhere, unless that's 8Mb + powerboost. I would think they would want to advertise these things accurately.
standard 6m down 1m up, powerboost bumps this up to 12 and 2
speedtier is 8m down with 2m up, powerboost bumps this up to 16 and 4
Powerboost with standard, will kick in and cause the first 10mb of a file being downloaded to go at the powerboost speed, with speedtier this is for the first 20mb of the file.
@Bowen, cable systems haven't worked that way in years. The people in your neighborhood will have no affect on your speeds.
You sound like a Comcast commercial :P
I had a problem where it was faster than my wireless connection, heh. I also continue to receive cable TV even though I canceled it months ago.
This is certainly an edge case: the place I used to live had comcast as well and it was almost never as fast as advertised.
I think the new speed bumps are actual bumps and not just powerboost. The last really large thing I downloaded was the Win7 beta, but speeds stayed pretty constant for that.
Not yet. Now this quarter they're increasing the speeds, which powerboost will get doubled as well, but this is only available in a few test markets at the moment.
Like a few people have said, customer service is AWFUL. I mean, really bad. It gets better if you get a hold of a service technicians personal phone number and you can call them straight away instead of calling comcast.
I have no other complaints otherwise. Usually you can argue them into discounting your monthly rate periodically with little or no effort if you claim to want to cancel.
Problem is, at least in my personal experience, the only thing worse than Comcast customer service is Verizon customer service.
me: I just got my new account, I have everything set up and just need the username and password
moron: What lights are on your modem?
me: <whatever ones are on>. That's all fine, I just need the username and password
moron: is <light x> blinking or solid?
me: <whatever it is>. That's fine, I just need the username and password
moron: ok, let's look at your tcp/ip settings
and it went on from there, for 20 fucking minutes. Future calls were similarly pointless, where I tell them my DSL is out, the "DSL" light that goes solid when there's a DSL signal is flashing, and then they proceed to "test" and tell me that everything looks fine from their end.
My jaws just tensed up just from thinking about that call again.
I pretty much just don't call now. It's not worth the frustration. Someone who is not an idiot is working on it somewhere and they'll have it fixed eventually.
Also, a friend is an on-site tech for comcast, so I can always just harass him if I absolutely need something done and just can't take dealing with "Frank" in India anymore.
I must be a test case or you guys are giving me powerboost for far too long, because I'm still getting 1.5MB per second after several hundred megabytes. Not that I'm complaining.
Me: "I don't really care what the charge was supposed to be, I was told it was $1.99, so I expect it to be that."
Them: "Well, we always charge $10.99 to send out a truck."
Me: "I don't care what you always charge, I was told it would be $1.99."
Them: "I have no record of you being told it was $1.99."
Me: "Do you have a record of me being told $10.99?"
Them: "...no."
Me: "Look, I know you aren't going to reduce the charge, I'm just complaining that I was told something different from what happened."
Them: "Oh, okay."
Me: "No, it's not okay."
Them: *silence*
Me: *silence*
Them: "Have I answered all your questions today?"
Me: "No. Why was I told incorrect information?"
It went on like that until I felt like I'd sapped $9 of Comcast's money through phone support.
First level techs for Road Runner and VerizonDSL are notorious for that up here, and when cable modem hardware actually fails, they refuse to send someone out to fix it because "It's alright from where I'm sitting," to get you to shut up. To deal with this situation specifically, I unplug the modem.
They then tell me everything looks fine from their end and the modem is good.
I tell them that the modem has been unplugged the whole time.
They stumble and either give me a technician immediately because I've caught them lying or they pass me higher up to someone who can do something.
How's Frank doing, by the way?
I'm paying like 45 bucks a month for cable only. Am I doing this wrong??
14 ms ping? Wut.
you're looking at $99 installation with a $40 mail in rebate if you don't already have cable TV.
if you do have TV, you can either go the above route, or get a self-install kit for $39.95,
if you want Comcast to provide you with home networking the install is $149.99, and then $2/m for wireless G or $5/m for wireless N.
Upgrade from 12mg to:
16mg, $10 (free for first year in areas where fios is available)
22mg, $20 ($10 for first 3 months if you have an HD triple play, or free period if you have the premiere triple play)
50mg, $97 (no promotions)
Power-boost bumps the 12mg to 18mg, 16mg to 20mg, the 22mg to 30mg, for the first 10mb of the file and the 50mg doesn't get Power-boost.
I know this because I am tech support for the product, and because I have sold many internets in my time.
EDIT:
I am paying for the 16, and am in downtown Everett.
Everyone on my block has Comcast.
192.168.100.1 go to this page and let me know what your signal levels look like.
You do realize that the page you linked him too is intranet right?
no one on a computer not in a Comcast office is going to see anything.
olol at you.
That's actually the "standard" surfboard-modem frequency/diagnostic page.
:O
I guess that's why I'm video and not hsi.
olol at me.
for reference, that page isn't going to load if you're behind a router, like I am. might have wanted to specify or at least ask about that.
It will if your router does automatic routing with RIP.. or OSPF I can't remember which one surfboard does.
Basically, any modern router from the past 10 years will work.
If your router is blocking you from getting to the firmware page of the modem, you need a new router, but that's a discussion for another day. Also the install prices Vash listed are market specific. Install prices vary market to market.
Also that page will load on 95% of cable modems. Very few I've found don't have a diagnostic page.
Here's my speedtest. This is in Arlington, VA. It might not be applicable because I'm in one of the markets that they are rolling out the speed boosts to.
Also, I get Comcast cable, and I pay $29.99 for internet. My bill says it's "Blast!" I have no idea what I'm paying for because I don't think even the lowest internet speed they offer costs $29.99.
Actually the motorola surfboards aren't the most popular by far. Most markets use the RCAs or the Scientific Atlantas.
*edit
@RUNN1NGMAN you're probably under a promo for the speedtier service for the first x months.
Yeah I know I was joking. Just been my experience so far.