Who's got Comcast cable?

[Rolex]

I've had it with Comcast. In the last half hour, since I've been on this site, I've had to close it and reopen it because the connection is so slow. When I hit the back button, I wait and wait, and when it starts to reload that page, it takes another wait for the random thumbnails and the thread titles to appear. 3 times, it just quit on a blank page with no blinking on the modem or the router. I've been running into this a lot lately, so a few days ago I downloaded a short video clip just to check the speed.
I normally get around 200 KB/per second, 215 being the best I've seen, but I was only getting between 47 and 51. It was not from this site, so it's not a forum server problem.
I tried someone else's computer a few days ago, and I could not notice a difference between their DSL and my high speed cable.
Any recommendations?

 

[ZANDOR]

I have comcast and its smoken :smoke: have you tryed to reset your modem? are you running through a router?? if so reset that to.just a few things to try..

 

[Mayhem]

I'm also running comcast and am experencing no problems

 

[Rolex]

It's been such a pain resetting it from the time I got it, that I actually went to Radio Shack and bought a kit box, toggle switch and indicator light. I used to have to turn them around and hit reset buttons. Routinely I have to reset it, so I just hit the switch, kill power for 10 seconds and turn it back on. Both the modem and the router reset.
RARELY does this solve the problem, but resetting it at least gets me back on.
It's the speed that's been pitiful.

 

[olds97_lss]

Same here, no problems. I connect faster on my cable modem that I do at work over our T1 line.

I did have issues for about a month, but that was it. I've had it for about a year or so.

 

[ZANDOR]

unplug it for about 1 miniut and then see what happens. this is what tec support will tell you to do first and if that don't help i whould call tec.

 

[Rolex]

I've been through everything possible. There are times I kill power for half an hour before resetting it. Sometimes I disconnect the cable, reset it, kill power, reconnect the cable and reset it. This is what tech support used to make me do, so I know the technique. I used to call tech support, get the problem resolved, sometimes, or at best temporarily, then file a formal complaint with a case number. On a few occasions they discounted my bill, but nothing improves. I just dropped the digital end of the TV cable last month, but I'm now going to drop their internet service as well. $120 a month for TV I don't watch till I'm in bed and falling asleep, and bad internet.

 

[NCNitro]

Rolex, I'm on comcast, and I have been having problems with it being slow as hell for about three or four days now. It does seem to be a bit better tonight though.

 

[Rolex]

You're in Florida, right?
I had a different provider when I lived in New York, and it was lightning fast and never a problem. I'm in East Tennessee, near Knoxville now, and Comcast is the only choice in this area. For what I'm paying, I'm going to go with DSL, since I'm not spoiled by lightning fast speed any more.

 

[NCNitro]

Yeah, I'm in Florida. I had Sprint DSL, it was fast but I was not impressed. When I first got comcast it blew away the dsl here. Just the last three or four days it has been waaaaay slow.

 

[kwong2001]

We have comcast and have 5 computers hooked up to the same connection and it isn't slow for us at all. I've been able to download at 400kb/s. It only goes down once a month, or whenever the digital cable goes out.

 

[Rolex]

Kwong, you get 400 KB/s? That's unheard of here. The BEST I've ever seen is 215, and that's very rare. I'd say MOST of the time the download speed is between 115 and 120.
My router is to 4 computers, but this is the only one on right now, so it's not a sharing problem.

 

[kwong2001]

I've seen 400kb/s on a fast ftp. Generally, i average around 200kb/s

 

[SkyMaxx]

Note that Cable broadband is a shared pipe. That means that everyone in your area shares the bandwidth. If you live in a high growth area (lots of new houses or money moving in), then odds are the issue is just network loading. More people are using Comcast in your area, and perhaps their use habits have moved to match your own. This might be the cause of your decreased speeds. If that is the case, there is little you can do.

I had similar issues at my home in Virginia. When we first bought the house about 7 years ago, we were perhaps one or two of the only houses that used the Cable internet. Since then, I have watched that change to a point where my experience matches your own. My solution, shell out the extra $15 a month to get onto the faster cable where fewer people are seeing the benefit and not likely to join anytime soon. I went from a 4MB pipe to a 5MB pipe, and while the increase in download speed is noticeable and the upload is a bit faster, the biggest convenience is the fact that not everyone in my development has decided to go that route. I now see speeds (time of day dependent) on the order of 300-400kb/s.

Perhaps you should see if Comcast has a different straw from which to drink...

 

[MyJeep]

I had the same problem 4 months ago. So i called them, and they say they are upgrading some cables around the area. After 1 - 2 weeks, everything is fine. Download 250 - 350.

Rolex, you should call them and they normally offer you $19.99 for the next 3 months (you just need to tell them you are so pissed).

Hope it helps. I only pay $19.99 for the cable now. I call them every 3 months. LOL

 

[wdavidhicks]

My son and I both saw the "Broadband-Served Community" sign in our neighborhood last year when it first appeared.

We, of course, had subscribed before the sign even appeared and then thought about taking the sign and throwing it in the river to leave others unaware. (AOL 9.0 Optimized users don't deserve broadband.... that's justified... right?)

Comcast here has been good. I've been having to disconnect and reconnect power to the router a couple times a week to restore a connection but the speed is good. (around 3mbs)

 

[Rolex]

Excellent info, as usual, SkyMaxx. Yes, this is an extremely rapid growth area, so you have a valid point.
MyJeep, I'll be complaining to Comcast and if I get the discount, I won't be ranting quite so much.

 

[FastEddy]

I just called and ranted for the hell of it. I told them I was going to drop it in favor of DSL and they took 20.00 a month off my bill for the next 6 months and through in Basic Cable TV for no charge. I can now put a TV in the workshop.

We were the first to get Cable Internet here 10 years ago. Once the broadband band wagon hit around 3 years ago our service went to poop for 6 months or so. After they got all the bandwidth issues figured out it has been flawless.
Just hang in there it will get better.

What is the full price for Comcast in your neighborhood?
Without being a Cable TV subscriber, its $59.99 here. With Cable TV the internet price is 49.99

 

[olds97_lss]

I don't know what it is where we are. My wife does the bills. I think we have the silver digital cable package and the modem. The bill is a bit over $100 a month.

 

[Rolex]

FastEddy, it's hard to itemize because of the 'package' deals. It's digital cable with the digital music channels (which I never use).
If you want one thing, it's a package with stuff you don't want. I had to take the Disney channel to get something else. We have all the Encore channels, Then we dumped the Show Time channels in exchange for the HBO group. (11 HBOs)
So, the TV digital cable plus the hi-speed internet is $120 a month.
If I'm correct, I think it broke down to $40 a month for internet IF you had the digital cable service.
The cable service has been totally reliable. It only went out once for about 10 hours due to a bad storm.
It's their internet service that's the absolute pits.
I think I'll lodge that complaint with them and see if they give me a discount. If not, I'll go to DSL.