Comcast being a bitch

Shade

I'm having issues. My latency to Google.com is usually 15-20ms. Its currently 50-60ms. its been this way for a week. Its not on my side, I've tested the router and I've used multiple machines to ping and it all comes back the same.

Comcast is saying that its acceptable. I'm saying that its bullshit and eventually had to ask for a manager(which I did not get and is supposed to call me back) because the guy kept saying "Well maybe you have a filesharing program or spyware running." and telling me if they send out a technician that they'll charge me $20 if nothing is wrong. Also last time I checked I was at 6Mbps but they are saying I'm currently at 12Mbps.

Advise me oh great internet masses.

Elin

Having worked for many cable ISP's, of which Comcast was one, there's really nothing to do. If you look at the tiny print it will say "speeds are not guarenteed." If you run a router they'll say it's your "unsuported hardware." To be fair it's ass hard to track down every tiny bottleneck in the U.S.A.. Just keep track of the issue, call once or twice a week to report the issue. If it continues and you have a paper trail you have a basis to ask for credits.

darklite_x

I have Comcast as well and, like you, I hate them. That said, if you look at the plans (I'm assuming you have the 12Mbps w/ Powerboost) it actually says "up to" 12Mbps. This is in addition to internet throttling w/ random outages if you decide to use bittorrent. My suggestion would be to find a different ISP if there's anything comparable in your area.

DragonPup

Are you experiencing greater than normal latency to places other than google?

Chalkbot

Hehe. I had exactly this happen. Perhaps even worse. It started randomly one day and then lasted for months, my phone calls to Comcast accomplished nothing. I would test my internet connection speed and it would bring up the results saying I was running at 14% of the average comcast customer speed. Yeah, there's definitely something wrong, but I was always told that it was "within specs". Evidently "specs" includes any speed above 0.

I gave up and just accepted the fact that I had slow internets.

Then one day we had a guy come out to service our cable box which had suddenly lost some features. He, for whatever reason, decided to "look at the lines" outside and discovered they were mostly corroded. He replaced some connections and suddenly everything was back up to speed.

I asked him if there was a way I could have gotten them to do that sooner, but he basically told me what you've been told. They'll come out and give a half-ass inspection and charge you if they don't find anything. I hate Comcast and eagerly anticipate any competitor to install service in my area.

Kazhiim

Chalkbot wrote: »

He, for whatever reason, decided to "look at the lines" outside and discovered they were mostly corroded. He replaced some connections and suddenly everything was back up to speed.

This happened to me, too. After they came out like six or seven times and swapped cable modems more than once.

Comcast is a piece of shit that wouldn't get an ounce of business if it didn't have a fucking monopoly on high-speed internet out here.

Shade

so they replaced my modem. But the technician was friendly, pretty much telling me its server side right now.

DeShadowC

If you could go to 192.168.100.1 and post your signal levels here. Also I know you said you've tested your router but have you tried bypassing your router and seeing if speeds improve?

Doc

Just to put things in perspective for you guys, I've had four ISPs in the past few years, and all of them were slower and had a worse quality of customer service than Comcast. I'm not saying that Comcast is great, but you are underestimating how low the bar is set for ISP support.

KalTorak

Doc wrote: »

Just to put things in perspective for you guys, I've had four ISPs in the past few years, and all of them were slower and had a worse quality of customer service than Comcast. I'm not saying that Comcast is great, but you are underestimating how low the bar is set for ISP support.

Good point. It'd just be nice to have the weapon of "maybe I'll take my business elsewhere." When you're under the Comcast monopoly, you don't even have that chip, and they know it.

DeShadowC

KalTorak wrote: »

Doc wrote: »

Just to put things in perspective for you guys, I've had four ISPs in the past few years, and all of them were slower and had a worse quality of customer service than Comcast. I'm not saying that Comcast is great, but you are underestimating how low the bar is set for ISP support.

Good point. It'd just be nice to have the weapon of "maybe I'll take my business elsewhere." When you're under the Comcast monopoly, you don't even have that chip, and they know it.

This is a joke threat anyways, as the phone rep really could care less if you do. Speaking from experience when you start making threats like this, you're less likely to get help.

Shadowfire

Is 60ms a problem? Not trying to be a dick, but 60ms seems pretty good, actually.

Edit: I'm getting around 15-20 to most hops, but I see right at the end I'm spiking to around 71ms, once I hit GOOGLE-INC.edge1.Washington1.Level3.net.

That said, if it's a sudden problem, it may be for your neighbors as well. You bitching and moaning to Comcast may get nothing done. If your entire street is recording traceroute logs and showing exactly what bridge is causing problems, that may work more in your favor.

KalTorak

DeShadowC wrote: »

KalTorak wrote: »

Doc wrote: »

Just to put things in perspective for you guys, I've had four ISPs in the past few years, and all of them were slower and had a worse quality of customer service than Comcast. I'm not saying that Comcast is great, but you are underestimating how low the bar is set for ISP support.

Good point. It'd just be nice to have the weapon of "maybe I'll take my business elsewhere." When you're under the Comcast monopoly, you don't even have that chip, and they know it.

This is a joke threat anyways, as the phone rep really could care less if you do. Speaking from experience when you start making threats like this, you're less likely to get help.

I try to talk to local customer service reps as little as possible anyway; they don't give a shit about anything you have to say. We've saved a few numbers of upper management at Comcast since we have to call them every month when we've been overcharged on our bill.

DeShadowC

KalTorak wrote: »

DeShadowC wrote: »

KalTorak wrote: »

Doc wrote: »

Just to put things in perspective for you guys, I've had four ISPs in the past few years, and all of them were slower and had a worse quality of customer service than Comcast. I'm not saying that Comcast is great, but you are underestimating how low the bar is set for ISP support.

Good point. It'd just be nice to have the weapon of "maybe I'll take my business elsewhere." When you're under the Comcast monopoly, you don't even have that chip, and they know it.

This is a joke threat anyways, as the phone rep really could care less if you do. Speaking from experience when you start making threats like this, you're less likely to get help.

I try to talk to local customer service reps as little as possible anyway; they don't give a shit about anything you have to say. We've saved a few numbers of upper management at Comcast since we have to call them every month when we've been overcharged on our bill.

Calling the "corporate escalation" number just gets you a local rep or supervisor, depending on the setup, who normally does nothing but take those type of calls.

Malkor

Kazhiim wrote: »

Chalkbot wrote: »

He, for whatever reason, decided to "look at the lines" outside and discovered they were mostly corroded. He replaced some connections and suddenly everything was back up to speed.

This happened to me, too. After they came out like six or seven times and swapped cable modems more than once.

Comcast is a piece of shit that wouldn't get an ounce of business if it didn't have a fucking monopoly on high-speed internet out here.

:P

I don't know how they do things, but the noise from the corroded wires outside should have been obvious to anyone who actually looked at your modem from within the network. I'm guessing that they just didn't bother.

Shade someone asked, but I didn't see an answer, is it only to Google or is it across the board?

urahonky

Yeah I just checked and I'm getting about 70ms to google. :P

Shade

Its slow across the boardz...all of them...they are slow.

DragonPup

Shade, I know you said you had a router, but is it wireless, or wired? Also, can you post a traceroute between you and say google?

DeShadowC

People have asked you a few questions to try and narrow down and assist resolving your error.

1. Go to 192.168.100.1 and post your signal levels
2. Are the pings the same to multiple urls or is it only google?
3. Do you have any packet loss
4. Do things change/improve if you bypass the router?


If you want to make a post just complaining about Comcast, I'd suggest D&D or SE++, if you want to actually resolve your problem we're going to need some help from you.