A couple of weeks after that , my own Comcast started disconnecting and reconnecting all by itself. I’d be on one minute and off the next. Sure it would work 90% of the time, but only about 9 out of every 10 minutes.<\/p>\n
The outages would be 3 or 4 seconds, or up to a minute or more. working remotely or working on a server became impossible. A constant internet connection for me is just as important as speed. Here’s a sustained ping to Comcast…<\/p>\n
![\"comcast1.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.pdxtc.com\/wpblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/comcast1.jpg\")
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Over a week or more, I did everything I could think of doing, replacing cables, network cards and my router. I verified that the problem was present on different computers. I purchased another brand new router.<\/p>\n
Whether I was trying wired or wireless, with a laptop or desktop, with or without a router at all, it didn’t matter. Some days were nearly fine, but others were much worse, being unable to stay on for more than a minute. Although they assured me they were not having problems, I had them come out for a service call.<\/p>\n
Over the summer, I eventually had Comcast installers, supervisors, or networking subcontractors here a total of 9 times. They’ve given me 3 new modems, each time leaving saying it was fine now. Within an hour, the problems came back each time. At their suggestion, I moved cordless phones and unplugged electric items from near the router, but they swore it was me.<\/p>\n
During their visits, I got all new splitters and other in my house, at my box, and at the main box on the block. Finally, I got one guy to stay 10 extra minutes, and he saw me prove the problem. He reported it as an escalated line issue, and I finally got new cable to the street. Well…that didn’t work either!<\/p>\n
Believe it or not, I started testing the connection at a few neighbors homes and it was bad too! That average person though wouldn’t notice, because they don’t use a “constant” connection while surfing and downloading.<\/p>\n
The problem was not mine, it was definitely Comcasts. A quick check of the forums onlyine showed me tons of cases just like mine. The solution for some seemed to be changing their own DNS servers, but when I tried in one router I lost all connection, and got fed up.<\/p>\n
At this point, I concluded that the only thing I could do was pay Comcast a $200 installation fee, and I’d buy a router\/modem combo from Comcast. In doing so, I’d then have to pay $15 more a month for their “home networking” support, but the issue would then be in their laps, making it their problem.<\/p>\n
Well…after THREE trips in four days, even they could not make my problem go away so it went back to the line department as a “DNS resolution problem” which it what I’ve been saying all along.<\/p>\n
They said it would be fixed in 72 hours, which it never was. Each time I called I got the runaround, with my ticket number finally disappearing! They said they had no record of a “DNS problem”, and couldn’t send anyone without charging me.<\/p>\n
They (Comcast) told me that I must have had four, (yes four) bad routers, and the problem was not theirs, and would I like to just quit the service? Well, now my plan was to just research satelite access, so I put back on my original router and decided to live with it a little longer. That was about 3 weeks ago…<\/p>\n
After reading an email from someone regarding their problem, it dawned on me that I haven’t noticed it cutting out for over a week! Sure enough – IT’S FIXED! Running a “ping -t www.comcast.net” confirms that my connection is staying on!<\/p>\n
I can also see, much to my surprise, that www.comcast.net now resolves to 204.127.195.15. Completely different IP than I was getting all summer. Obviously, someone somewhere fixed this major snafu that they would never admit existed.<\/p>\n
Don’t you feel lucky that your outage was only a week?<\/p>\n
*update 7\/2007 –
\nComcast is now blocking port 25<\/a>, in selective markets around the country. If you find yourself unable to send mail with Comcast<\/a> this might be your answer.<\/p>\n
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