The Comcast saga...finally at an end?
So for the last few weeks ive had problem after problem with my Cable Modem (/sarcastic) graciously provided by Comcast. First my problems started with latency spikes which wouldnt disconnect me but would basically leave me unable to do anything with my characters for 30-40 seconds at a time and then everything would speed up.
Speaking to Blizz support, they claimed my Router was the cause of this issue and that perhaps it wasnt capable of working with WoW. So, off to Best Buy to purchase the latest top of the line Netgear Firewall/Router and installed it. What a surprise, the problems persisted. Removing the router completely from the equation and using the modem directly showed me this was in fact an issue with my ISP and not with Blizz.
Changing strategies, I placed call after call to Comcast and even a visit to the local office, still, no resolution from them. After much searching on the net, I found that in fact my problem had been linked to a specific Motorola cable modem model and that a downgrade to an earlier revision seemed to have fixed the issue for everyone else with the same problem.
$80 later at Circuit City I came home with the same model that was suggested on all the writeups I saw, happily I threw the rented modem back at Comcast and saved a whopping $3 a month on my bill because of it.
For the first week with the new modem things went well, but my latency was still high compared to what it had been about a year ago which was 54-120ms. I was sitting at almost double and pushing into the 300-400 range quite a lot which never happened to me in years previous.
About 2 weeks later a new problem arose...random internet disconnects. My cable modem wouldnt reset, but all my net connections would terminate for about 40-60s where I could do nothing. This resulted in the many disconnects in game you all saw over the last few weeks where id pop off and be able to log back on right away usually.
Again I placed call after call to Comcast asking them to send someone out to fix the issue or at least investigate why my net would cut out. I got one visit, repair guy told me he saw no issues with my line, and similar statements uttered by the many incompetent phone techs I spoke with.
In my last bit of desperation and attempt to fix the issue, I placed another call today. The first girl put me on hold and never came back....not a wise move nor a good start. Redialing and getting another girl, I did my best to remain cordial and calm as much as I wanted to rip into her for what the previous girl did and the weeks past futile efforts and annoying calls with other techs. Somehow, the gods smiled on me today and I actually found one of the 10% competent people that work for them, she informed my my signals were very high and this could cause the symptoms I was describing. She also found it odd how no one before her had spotted the issue or the visiting tech as a history of my line had showed that this was not a new problem. She told my that perhaps my cable splitter was bad and I told her it was the same one that was installed when I first had cable set up. Off to Radio Shack to buy a replacement after she actually gave me my my upstream and receive numbers (yea, I understand that stuff, amazing when a tech actually speaks to you intelligently). Buying the new splitter and installing it, I followed the instructions the pevious woman gave me and called back to verify my line signals had in fact improved. The new woman I got did in fact tell me that my line seemed to be in the green again and actually detailed to me what numbers were good and that one was slightly on the high side but not so much as before as to be a concern. She told me if it continues to be a problem she will have a tech out with explicit instructions on what to do to fix it as I explained to her my last visiting tech with a handle-bar mustache was more interested in undressing me with his eyes and calling me "darling" than actually fixing or investigating my problems.
So in the end, all the effort, time and money spent may have very well been resolved with a $10 item that went bad. My latency numbers have since dropped back down to 50-100 and so far (cross fingers) no disconnects. If this does turn out to fix my issues, Comcast's local office will be once again receiving an unpleasant visit from a disgruntled customer...
Quote from: Shadowwolf on April 28, 2008, 05:24:52 PM
...my last visiting tech with a handle-bar mustache was more interested in undressing me with his eyes and calling me "darling" than actually fixing or investigating my problems. ...
Mario???
[attachthumb=#]
]:D
wasn't me! ;)
This guy ?
I used to work for Comcrap, and if there is one thing they know, its that thier Customer Service stinks worse than a fish market left alone in the sahara for a few days. The best thing to do with any problems with them is to keep on them. Keep calling them, thier call center is in the US, and NEVER pay a tech. Most don't know what they are doing and will just sit on the phone to the office doing things that you could of done.
Wohoo for -7db cable splitters, also, you may want to get a "house amp" if this ever happens agian. it will boost the signal strength both ways.