We haven’t even called Comcast because we’ve had this problem before. They’ve came and changed the cable wire, switched DVR boxes, and gave us a new modem, and here it is, back again. Supposedly, this happens when they are updating things (that’s what they told us anyway), but how long does it take to update? Last year, it was almost the whole summer. And even throughout the year, we had random drop outs. Sometimes whole days without the internet or “On Demand” working. They did also tell us that this was probably just a bad area…. but can’t they do something to fix that? It is really annoying!

The tech told me he could not put the cable on the exterior north wall. He suggested we put the TV cable on the interior wall. I left him to do his work. A few minutes later I heard a drill, and thought little of it. When I came into the room, I saw him pulling cable through my brand new hardwood floor. He drilled a hole five inches from my west wall, two inches from the southern interior wall. I was hot. I asked him why he did this. He said there was a wood beam in the way, and he did not have the tools to put it through an exterior wall. That was not a good start to say the least.

For the next two months I got very little signal for my TV or my INTERNET. Comcast sent several people to my home. Finally, after several months of complaints they admitted there was not enough signal from the pole, and told me they would fix it. They told me they had to take the filter off the pole so I could get more signal. It worked better, but kept cutting off.

Five years later, it is still not working correctly. I would have switched if I had an alternative. I have had various techs come out to the house during this period of time.

Last week I called Comcast, and go someone’s attention. The INTERNET was out more than not for the past two weeks. I set up an appointment. The tech called, and asked to come early. My phone did not work because the INTERNET was out. He did not show up. I called COMCAST on my pay as you go cell phone again. They promised me a tech the next day. While my wife and I were out, the tech called and asked to come early. He spoke to my daughter who was home from college. He said since it’s working, I guess I don’t have to come over. I spoke to my daughter, and called back the tech’s phone on the caller ID. The tech explained the “lady of the house” told me not to come over, and that it was working. I got angry, and gave him a piece of my mind.

The tech admitted going up the pole, and checking the signal. He said the problem was not at our home. He said the signal from the pole was too low, and he knew that was the reason why I couldn’t get a good signal. (I have been running up to 5 Mb/sec, but usually less than 2 Mb/sec) He said he told his supervisor it was a design problem five years ago. He said everytime he came out it was the same issue, and his supervisor was unwilling to fix it due to the cost. He said it would do no good to come out because it had never been fixed correctly, and that was up to his supervisor.

I have been paying $50 per month for five years. Comcast has known of this problem for all this time. They have taken my money. I have not been getting the service I was promised.

When I complained to the tech about this, he said we do not guarantee your VOIP will work with our cable service. I told him you guaranteed me a advertised a certain amount of band width, and knowingly deliver more than half as much over a five year period of time. He had no answer for that.

I am still waiting for Comcast to fix the problem. A new tech is supposed to be out this Saturday to fix the wiring issues in the house. When that is done properly, I will pursue the lack of bandwidth. I know who the supervisor is, and may pay him a visit. He lives a few houses down the street. He is a neighbor.

I came across your site by accident while browsing Google for help on Comcast problems.

The discussion is the quality of Comcast TV. For the past six years I have had the Comcast family of services (TV and broadband).

Over the past two years it has been observed that audio cutoffs on channels of Comcast has become a common occurance.

This can occur on any Digital, HD channel or on a DVR recording. When it occurs (1-3 seconds) there is also a breakup of the video signal on screen.

I have reported the problem to Comcast a number of times and get the usual run around. They have replaced my DVR (Motorola DCT 6412 III) a least twice over the past 6 years.

The interesting thing is that I have been told, off the record, that the local techs have observed this problem in other locations and they believe there is a problem with the design of the the Motorola DVR or an audio problem existing in the Comcast network (something to do with the Broadband traffic they are pushing down the digital pipe).

I have recently sent an Email to the Comcast VP of Customer Service explaining the problem and to date have not received a response.

My location is in Las Cruces, NM.

Sincerely,

Mike Izon
Las Cruces, NM

c:\> ping -t ping -t http://www.comcast.net > filename.txt

press and let it chew a while. When you’re convinced it’s been running long enough, press -c and you’ll be returned back to the c: prompt.

Open the file with notepad or equivalent if you wish to view / review. Then send a copy of it to concast for fixage.

When the service becomes intermittent, run “speed test” several times. _Call_ Comcast (remember the line is intermmittent) and politely ask them to check your modem and line speed (they do this remotely. They may have you run their speed tests and reboot their modem).

After verifying with their own tests, Comcast will reset _their_ modems until the speed is acceptable to them. If not, they will give you new DNS URLS to connect to. (you must know how to setup your Browser and Router to do this bec. you can’t get LAN support.)

For this to work:
(1) you must be direct connected to the modem, do not even mention anything else, much less connect it.
(2) _you_ must keep your on-line ticket numbers and NOT allow them to close out. Refer to it on every call, and take names, politely. It reflects badly on tech’s performance reports if the same ticket keeps showing up.
(3)If it doesnt clear up in a week, make a formal _written_ request to Accounting to drop the monthly Internet charge, citing the open ticket numbers. IT WORKS.
(4) for every tech I talked to, this was the first time they ever heard of that problem, and they were so proud that they “fixed” it, and immediately submitted it to their super’s.

The problem goes away and eventually it comes back. It is definitely something in their system that they don’t know about, and is probably load-dependent. Therefore they think it is _your_ problem until you can point them back to their hardware.

BTW: use your browser and enter the Modem’s IP address, then you can see what they see. Look but do not touch.