Why does Comcast's Hardware SUCK so much?

[Peter.Steele]

My cable modem is dying.

This is the fourth cable modem I've had to have replaced in about the past 5 years. I've also gone through I think three cable boxes in that time, maybe four.

WTF, Comcast?

[Merc1138]

Because they buy the cheapest. BTW, if you keep getting RCA or scientific atlanta brand modems, demand a motorola from them. I had the same issue with the RCA and SA modems lasting 3 months at the most, demanded a motorola and it was fine for about 4 years. When I moved to my new apartment, same thing. Went through 2 SA modems, demanded a motorola, fine for 5 years again. I spoke to the field tech about them and he said they only have a limited quantity which is why they normally hand out the crappy ones unless someone demands the motorola.

[highcenter]

Hi Peter,

I picked up a refurbished Motorola SB6121 for ~$60 and ditched the rented Comcast junk, nearly a year ago. The SB6121 is DOCSIS 3.0/IPv6 compliant, rated for up to 195 Mbps, gig-E, fully supported by Comcast, etc... and no more monthly rental fee. Works flawlessly, highly recommended.

Setup is as simple as calling Comcast with the new modem MAC address and plugging it in. Boom done

Did I mention, no more monthly rental fee, daily reboots....

~$80 @ Google Shopper - http://goo.gl/cYuiU - try google/ebay for a refurb

happy surfing


--
Jon

[ldivinag]

i am just the opposite.

since day 1 with comcast, i bought my own modem.

but it seems that 12-16 months later, the modem would act crazily and nothing would fix it. loosing connections, slow speeds, etc. but mostly dropping connections.

comcast cant help since it aint theirs.

so i would buy a new one.

after 3-4 times doing this, i've had it. so i ended up renting one from comcast. it's probably 2-3 years now. painless.


but my own router/wireless... that is a diff issue altogether... sigh...

[Merc1138]

i am just the opposite.

since day 1 with comcast, i bought my own modem.

but it seems that 12-16 months later, the modem would act crazily and nothing would fix it. loosing connections, slow speeds, etc. but mostly dropping connections.

comcast cant help since it aint theirs.

so i would buy a new one.

after 3-4 times doing this, i've had it. so i ended up renting one from comcast. it's probably 2-3 years now. painless.


but my own router/wireless... that is a diff issue altogether... sigh...

But did you buy a motorola modem like 2 of us mentioned, or a junky RCA/SA(or some other brand) modem?

[bohoki]

i know i use directv and i went to a friends house and it took like 3 seconds per channel change for the picture to show up

[Peter.Steele]

Okay, update / more details on this.


Yesterday my connection speed was peaking at about 0.8 MBPS.

At about 1730 I was really sick of this, and I called Comcast. They checked the connection, said there was 10-20% average packet loss, and since the network was okay, then it had to be a problem with the modem. The modem is a Ubee, the one that has the telephone connection built in. They set up an appointment for Monday to replace the modem.

Now the interesting part is that by about 2300, the connection was perfect again. 35+ MBPS, right where it should be.

I'm starting to wonder if perhaps it's not the modem at all, but just the number of people in the neighborhood that are using Comcast internet? U-Verse is stalled out on their service about a half-block away, and just about everyone around here has Comcast. I know there's been at least 4 new installations just recently, with people ditching satellite and going to cable instead.

Today my speed is normal, too.

[Merc1138]

Ok, and "Ubee" still isn't motorola.

Also, even if the network in your area is overloaded(oversold is more like it), that's not going to cause packet loss, just crap download speeds.

Also, never trust when the comcast tech support staff on the phone says "the network is fine" because they're looking at the overall view, not necessarily what's going on specifically with your line. I've also caught them in a lie when they've said "uhh, we're looking at the logs from your modem and there's nothing in them from the past 24 hours" when I had a motorola modem so I just logged into it at 192.168.100.1 and saw that the modem logs kept complaining about signal strength, connection resets, etc.

[Peter.Steele]

Ok, and "Ubee" still isn't motorola.

Also, even if the network in your area is overloaded(oversold is more like it), that's not going to cause packet loss, just crap download speeds.

Also, never trust when the comcast tech support staff on the phone says "the network is fine" because they're looking at the overall view, not necessarily what's going on specifically with your line. I've also caught them in a lie when they've said "uhh, we're looking at the logs from your modem and there's nothing in them from the past 24 hours" when I had a motorola modem so I just logged into it at 192.168.100.1 and saw that the modem logs kept complaining about signal strength, connection resets, etc.

Oh, I'm not saying that I'm taking the guy at his word. I know Comcast is full of crap - I've been dealing with them for quite a few years now.


I'm not going to cancel the appointment, and I will ask for a Motorola box, but I'm fairly certain they're not going to give me one, because I'm fairly certain that Comcast doesn't have a Motorola box that does telephone also.

I've actually never had an SA or RCA box with Comcast, at least not in this area. (I did have an RCA box when I lived in Tulare back in '06, and it was trouble-free!) I've had Motorola exclusively since 2007, when I moved to Madera County, up until about 8 or 9 months ago when they added phone service and gave me the Ubee.

Interestingly, I can't look at the logs or status for the Ubee modem. It requires a username and password, which the Motorola ones never did. This annoys me.

[The War Wagon]

Verizon FIOS came to my neighborhood in July of '07. Adelphia had folded the summer before, and Crapcast had taken over their contracts. I couldn't kiss them "adios" fast enough, and it's been smooooooooooooth sailing ever since!

[Merc1138]

You need one that does phone service too? Umm.... good luck with that, lol.

I know if you do some digging around, you'll probably find the login info for the modem. If it actually shows the signal from comcast(no idea if those do or not), you can use that when arguing with tech support or the field techs. Just don't tell them you know the login info, otherwise they'll likely blame everything on you(claiming you did something when you logged into the modem).

Just be careful, even their field techs are hit and miss(they're contracted out through local companies). The last time I had a signal issue in my current apartment, it took 13 appointments. Yes, 13. The last one that finally resolved it involved 3 techs and a supervisor. Long story short: At one point a tech asked if I had a router before he set foot in my apartment, my immediate response was "GTFO". Eventually comcast gave me the direct number to the local dispatch and authorized that I could demand they show up within half an hour(because the issue never happened when they were here a couple days after), and after enough idiocy on their part they finally determined a splitter or something on their side had gone bad, 20 minute fix.

[Biff...]

Hi Peter,

I picked up a refurbished Motorola SB6121 for ~$60 and ditched the rented Comcast junk, nearly a year ago. The SB6121 is DOCSIS 3.0/IPv3 compliant, rated for up to 195 Mbps, gig-E, fully supported by Comcast, etc... and no more monthly rental fee. Works flawlessly, highly recommended.

Setup is as simple as calling Comcast with the new modem MAC address and plugging it in. Boom done

Did I mention, no more monthly rental fee, daily reboots....

~$80 @ Google Shopper - http://goo.gl/cYuiU - try google/ebay for a refurb

happy surfing


--
Jon

+1on this. Paid $80 for my Motorola modem and $120 for my apple router. Both have been running for two years with no problems, and both have more than paid for themselves.

[Squid]

because they want you to get Dish?

PS-I agree about Comcast, but it is 'free' in my rent.

[Peter.Steele]

You need one that does phone service too? Umm.... good luck with that, lol.

I don't need the phone service - and have in fact only used it once or twice, sending a fax from my printer - but I have the phone service, because it's cheaper to get television + internet + phone than just television + internet. Because of this, I have to have the modem that does phone as well. Pointless, but there you have it.

I know if you do some digging around, you'll probably find the login info for the modem. If it actually shows the signal from comcast(no idea if those do or not), you can use that when arguing with tech support or the field techs. Just don't tell them you know the login info, otherwise they'll likely blame everything on you(claiming you did something when you logged into the modem).

TBH, I never even thought of this. I'll have a look for the default password for it.

Just be careful, even their field techs are hit and miss(they're contracted out through local companies). The last time I had a signal issue in my current apartment, it took 13 appointments. Yes, 13. The last one that finally resolved it involved 3 techs and a supervisor. Long story short: At one point a tech asked if I had a router before he set foot in my apartment, my immediate response was "GTFO". Eventually comcast gave me the direct number to the local dispatch and authorized that I could demand they show up within half an hour(because the issue never happened when they were here a couple days after), and after enough idiocy on their part they finally determined a splitter or something on their side had gone bad, 20 minute fix.

Oh, I know how awful the field techs are. I've only ever had one or two that was worth a damn.

[glock 357]

If you have splitters in the house they can effect your speed. Try it wit a direct line or hit the box and switch cables around. Spend $160 for a motorola that helped somewhat with speed. After I checked cables and moved it to another room, found it was a splitter that went bad. Had them out the next day to replace it and was happy since. but yes if you can just buy a motorola or have them credit the account for having such sluggish services for the past months to help fund a new one. If you can get a motorola from them that would be awesome but make sure its DOCSIS 3.0 compliant or something like that whatever is current.