Comcast Hell

waynenf · Post by **waynenf** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 7:25 pm

I am a new Comcast High Speed Internet customer running on the new Comcast.net network. I was not a prior @Home user, and did not have an @Home account to transfer over to the new network.

A brief history of my story:

Approximately 2 weeks ago, I was overjoyed to learn that Comcast High Speed Internet was finally available in my town (I live in Vineland, New Jersey). I rushed out and purchased a cable modem, a NIC card, and the Comcast @Home self-installation kit. After everything I was installed and configued properly, I contacted Customer Support to have my modem configured and activated. I was told by the wonderful young woman on the phone not to install the @Home software, and that as soon as my cable modem's "Cable" light was lit solid, I could call back customer support and have someone walk me through my network settings.

In less than 24 hours, my modem was active, and I called Customer Support. A very helpful young man walked me through the network configuration process, and I was up and surfing at high speed in no time.

Then, the problems started:

1. According to your web site, all customers will have 1 email address available to them until mid-February, at which time the additional email addresses will be available. I have called customer support a number of times, many times waiting for over 1 hour, and no-one has been able to provide me with an email user name and password. I have been told that I will not have an email address with comcast.net, and to continue using my @Home email address. I am a new subscriber, am not being transitioned from the @Home network, and therefore do not have any email access. Why does the ComcastOnline.com web page promies the 1 email address to all customers, yet this is not being provided? I even called my local call center in South Jersey to request that my user name for email be provisioned, but have not heard anything yet.

2. For the first few days, my download speeds were excellent. Then, the download speeds got progressively worse. Last night (1/29/02), my max download speed was 124 Kbps (lower than my upload speed!!!). The web site promises a download speed faster than DSL and 50 times faster than 56K access... my download speed is considerably lower than this, and it is getting worse. I have recycled my modem, rebooted my PC (none of which corrects the Comcast.net network problems), all to no avail. Are there network issues in South Jersey right now? If so, why can't Comcast admit this fact?

3. Email responses from customer support and technical support are canned and do not address the questions being asked. In response to my questions concerning an email id, I was told to use my existing @Home email id until mid-February... even after telling the tech support person I was not a transitioned subscriber!

I am willing to overlook these issues on a temporary basis, since I am a network professional and can understand the problems Comcast is facing in setting up a new network and transitioning customers from the @Home service. However, I do sincerely hope that Comcast is addressing these issues, and will provide a solution in the near future.

- Wayne

N0de · Post by **N0de** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 7:43 pm

I just did the swich to the comcast.net and my speeds are up from around 50 to a little over 100. In theroy cable is faster than a T line but in reality due to the nature of the network its slower. It get slower when more people on your grid use there internet but get Download acclerator(sp) and download through that and it should get faster. I had problems at first but it smothed out now i have problems w/ my ping in games.

Cable_Dood · Post by **Cable_Dood** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 8:46 pm

Not true....the amount of people using the service does not affect your speeds unless your node is overloaded, which rarely happens with Comcast....especially if its new in your area. There is no Comcast.net email access yet. We are working on it as fast as we can. If new customers were given the option of going without email a couple of weeks or waiting until it's available to be installed, what do you think they would choose?

Could you be more specific about your download speeds? What are you downloading and from where?

Cheers

--Cable_D00d

N0de · Post by **N0de** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 9:01 pm

mine gets slow as more people get on and it has also been stated on many shows about its pros and cons over DSL and one of the cons was the speed reduction when people are on, I have an @comcast.net address right now and it modded my IE6. I am havig problems w/ my ping in games, my d/l speed has improved but my ping durring games has went up and i would trade d/l speed for my low ping any day. Im in Centeral Maryland if that helps.

rodrod5 · Post by **rodrod5** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 9:25 pm

Originally posted by Cable_Dood
the amount of people using the service does not affect your speeds unless your node is overloaded, which rarely happens with Comcast
Cheers

--Cable_D00d

there are some folks in Sacremento and the Kansas City area that would beg to differ

Cable_Dood · Post by **Cable_Dood** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 10:09 pm

Well...you can probably blame your local provider for that. With @Home a node split was a major bee-otch because you had to reprovision the entire exodus of people that were split off. With the new provisioning system, the combining network alone can be arranged in any way necessary with no customer impact and no back-office work.

I got called 3 times a week by the NOC because one node in our entire system had 18 too many customers......not 1 solitary complaint from the customers on the node, but we split it anyway.

Sorry for the folks in Kansas City and Sacramento. It may not be easy for the local engineering, but it would be a rare case where that couldn't be fixed. For instance, if the nodes were overpopulated because the HFC plant is really old.....They just replaced the LE's and amps with return-capable equipment instead of doing a complete rebuild. Then there's not enough free bandwidth to stick another couple of uBRs in there.

I'm not familiar with those Comcast systems....I'm in the Southern Division of Comcast.

Good luck!

--Cable_dood

N0de · Post by **N0de** » Wed Jan 30, 2002 10:40 pm

thanks, we did not have any interuption in service so i am greatful for that.

Kip Patterson · Post by **Kip Patterson** » Thu Jan 31, 2002 2:50 am

for N0de: You're on the wrong side of a very overloaded OC-12 circuit between Comcast and ATT. It's been catching flack for several days now. Doubt that it will get fixed soon.

Sorry,

Kip

therealcableguy · Post by **therealcableguy** » Fri Feb 01, 2002 10:46 am

Originally posted by Cable_Dood

I'm not familiar with those Comcast systems....I'm in the Southern Division of Comcast.

Good luck!

--Cable_dood

Hello from Augusta fellow Southern Divisioner!

cplclegg · Post by **cplclegg** » Fri Feb 01, 2002 11:44 am

Well as far as not getting e-mail access the kind folks at Comcast told me that was a free service they offered and if it goes down tough. The only thing we pay for is web access and that is all they will reimburse you for if it goes down. So according to them web space and e-mail are perks.

wee96 · Post by **wee96** » Sat Feb 02, 2002 3:46 am

This coming from Newcom boy, pfahaha, your a joke.

Originally posted by rodrod5

there are some folks in Sacremento and the Kansas City area that would beg to differ

rodrod5 · Post by **rodrod5** » Sat Feb 02, 2002 4:59 am

newcom.................no but close (if you really knew anything you would know it is NuComm) but i did not work there

are ALL these people and many others a joke too???

http://www.pcmike.com/Journal/comcast.html

it is funny how some people only try to knock others personally when they know they have nothing else

does it matter who i am or where i worked??

the fact is i learned about this site (speedguide) from a person called grim in sac that was pissed off and left comcast because you clowns could not solve the issue and would not be honest with him

he talked to me and i was honest with him and another on here as well drey_heinz (are they a joke too cause YOUR service was bad?)

i could not fix the issue because i dont lay fibre to headends but i could be honest and straight foward with them (something you and cable_doodie cant seam to do) and for that i got their respect

comcast has issues in the past and in fact they plain suck right now and mouth pieces like you and that clown cable_dood continue to come in here and B.S. people and spoon feed them comcrap garbage

your company has no clue what customer service is and the fact that a joke like you looks down on your own "newcom" repersentatives further proves it

comcast hired those jokers they under trained those jokers and they under pay those jokers so that just when they know anything they leave for anything better

your company wants it that way because clowns like them are the only ones that will fall for the crap that "knowledgable" losers like you tell them to spew to subs

the fact is that those 2 areas i listed were huge problems for comcast in the past and everyone on this board knows it

now Mi, Md and many others are there as well

meanwhile fools that claim to "work for comcast" come in here with more of the same personal crap that is not only false and misleading but blatant lies as well to try to discredit those that tell the truth

if you must know i worked at Stream as i have said in here many times before

sure it was a monkey job but at least i had respect for myself when i did it and told the truth instead of being a mouth piece chump like you

please continue to attack me personally others see right through it and know YOU are the peon that can do nothing but spew lies while the comcast network goes to hell

by calling me a joke you are basically calling all the others that have problems with comcrap a joke as well

i brought up real world known issuse to refute garbage talk and you responded with a personal attack instead of any REAL response now who is really the joke.........YOU REALLY DO WORK FOR COMCRAP HUH....they must be so proud you r a lil rOgErS in the making now go put your lips back on their butt

Stu · Post by **Stu** » Sat Feb 02, 2002 5:07 am

I'm in the South Jersey area as well (Comcast/Garden State Cable), and I have noticed the speed decreased since the switch over too.

I called Comcast about two weeks ago, because I couldn't get online at all for two days. It turned out that my account was screwed up, and I had to talk to the "local office". After being transferred to everyone but the person I needed to talk to for about an hour, I ended up talking with the guy who runs the network for most of South Jersey.

After he fixed my account, I asked about the speeds being slower than before. He basically told me that they had switched from the @Home lines (which went from the Philadelphia Comcast hub that connected to @Home in N.Y.C. via OC lines) to using the Comcast lines which use the Philadelphia Comcast hub to connect to a hub in Camden, NJ which is connected to the Washington D.C. hub that routes you to the internet via AT&T. He didn't know what type of lines were being used to connect Camden and Washington D.C., but I would suspect (since they had only a week or so to start building this network) that they are using T-3's and not OC as a temporary fix. If in fact that is the case, I would expect--once they get all the services up and running, and all of Comcast is switched over from @Home--that they will look to fix the bandwidth issues.

Keep in mind, they had a bomb dropped on them. Building a nationwide WAN from a bunch of MANs (which probably aren't all designed alike--since some were acquired by Comcast, like Garden State Cable, for instance) in less than two months with no time to thoroughly plan it all out, is a nightmare. At this point, Comcast is racing to switch their network off of @Home before the last week of February. So, they are focusing on making sure that all their customers actually have a connection--because that is priority one.

wee96 · Post by **wee96** » Sat Feb 02, 2002 9:21 am

Originally posted by rodrod5
newcom.................no but close (if you really knew anything you would know it is NuComm) but i did not work there

are ALL these people and many others a joke too???

http://www.pcmike.com/Journal/comcast.html

it is funny how some people only try to knock others personally when they know they have nothing else

does it matter who i am or where i worked??

the fact is i learned about this site (speedguide) from a person called grim in sac that was pissed off and left comcast because you clowns could not solve the issue and would not be honest with him

he talked to me and i was honest with him and another on here as well drey_heinz (are they a joke too cause YOUR service was bad?)

i could not fix the issue because i dont lay fibre to headends but i could be honest and straight foward with them (something you and cable_doodie cant seam to do) and for that i got their respect

comcast has issues in the past and in fact they plain suck right now and mouth pieces like you and that clown cable_dood continue to come in here and B.S. people and spoon feed them comcrap garbage

your company has no clue what customer service is and the fact that a joke like you looks down on your own "newcom" repersentatives further proves it

comcast hired those jokers they under trained those jokers and they under pay those jokers so that just when they know anything they leave for anything better

your company wants it that way because clowns like them are the only ones that will fall for the crap that "knowledgable" losers like you tell them to spew to subs

the fact is that those 2 areas i listed were huge problems for comcast in the past and everyone on this board knows it

now Mi, Md and many others are there as well

meanwhile fools that claim to "work for comcast" come in here with more of the same personal crap that is not only false and misleading but blatant lies as well to try to discredit those that tell the truth

if you must know i worked at Stream as i have said in here many times before

sure it was a monkey job but at least i had respect for myself when i did it and told the truth instead of being a mouth piece chump like you

please continue to attack me personally others see right through it and know YOU are the peon that can do nothing but spew lies while the comcast network goes to hell

by calling me a joke you are basically calling all the others that have problems with comcrap a joke as well

i brought up real world known issuse to refute garbage talk and you responded with a personal attack instead of any REAL response now who is really the joke.........YOU REALLY DO WORK FOR COMCRAP HUH....they must be so proud you r a lil rOgErS in the making now go put your lips back on their butt