How Bad is Comcast in 2021?

[Zarathustra[H]]

Hey all,

So we are going to move, and as we are looking for a new house one of my must have criteria is decent internet.

We have found one house that has great potential, but unlike everywhere else I have lived in 2009, it does not have Verizon FiOS available in the neighborhood.

I have gotten used to unlimited data at gigabit speeds with roughly matched upstream and downstream speeds.

This neighborhood is only served by Comcast. (Well, Verizon has some slow DSL there, but that doesn't count)

I have a few questions for anyo0ne who has recent Comcast experience.

1.) Comcast lists a service with 1200Mbit down. I have googled my ass off but cannot for the life of me find what the upstream is. Anyone know?

2.) Like all home ISP's they probably talk about how hosting is not covered by the service, but do they actually enforce it by blocking incoming requests or closing off ports? I tends to use a dynamic DNS service with port remapping. Will that still work with Comcast as it does with Verizon FiOS?

3.) So, Comcast now has a 1.2TB per month data cap after which they start charging overages. This will never be sufficient for me. I seem to average about 5 times that. As much as this pisses me off (ground based data should never under any circumstance be metered) I vaguely remember there being options, like paying more for unlimited, but I can't find anything about it on comcasts page. Does anyone know what it costs to take a 1200mbit/s plan and turn it unlimited?

4.) I refuse to use ISP provided routers, preferring to provide my own. Can anyone tell me what this implies in 2021?

4.1) Last time I used Comcast 12 years ago, there was a separate docsis modem and router. Are they integrated in one box now? Does that mean if I decline the router, I also need to figure out a modem solution?

4.2) I imagine they are using DOCSIS 3.1. What are some good docsis 3.1 options out there today? Does anyone know what it takes to get my pfSense box to maximize the 1200mbit on this service? It already has a dual port 10gig Intel x520 NIC with SFP+ ports. Anyone know if there are any DOCSIS 3.1 to SFP+ adapters or anything like that?

I'd appreciate any other thoughts, information or suggestions when it comes to buying a house and becoming stuck with Comcast.

 

[BlueLineSwinger]

For all their probable faults in customer service, pricing, etc. IME Comcast has been very good on the technical side of things.

1.) Comcast lists a service with 1200Mbit down. I have googled my ass off but cannot for the life of me find what the upstream is. Anyone know?

For my 1 Gb/s service, it's ~35-40 Mb/s up. Sad, but still far better than the ~10-12 Mb/s lower-tier plans provide. (I'd gladly trade half my download for >100 Mb/s upload.)

2.) Like all home ISP's they probably talk about how hosting is not covered by the service, but do they actually enforce it by blocking incoming requests or closing off ports? I tends to use a dynamic DNS service with port remapping. Will that still work with Comcast as it does with Verizon FiOS?

I've had no problems with DDNS or connecting back to home via a VPN using the configured hostname and IP address. IME, they don't flip public addresses very often either. I've not attempted to host any other services on common ports.

3.) So, Comcast now has a 1.2TB per month data cap after which they start charging overages. This will never be sufficient for me. I seem to average about 5 times that. As much as this pisses me off (ground based data should never under any circumstance be metered) I vaguely remember there being options, like paying more for unlimited, but I can't find anything about it on comcasts page. Does anyone know what it costs to take a 1200mbit/s plan and turn it unlimited?

Not too sure on this. I want to say there's a $50/month cap on overage charges? Going off memory here, not something I've had to do.

4.) I refuse to use ISP provided routers, preferring to provide my own. Can anyone tell me what this implies in 2021?

Buy your own cable modem and router. I've had no issues with this (didn't even have to call in last time I got a new modem, setup was automatic/online). Also saves something like $13/month in rental fees.

4.1) Last time I used Comcast 12 years ago, there was a separate docsis modem and router. Are they integrated in one box now? Does that mean if I decline the router, I also need to figure out a modem solution?

See above. IIRC all of the current Comcast offerings are integrated modem/router/AP units. Also, they run their own hotspots from them as well unless you explicitly opt-out (which I'm sure has the potential to "accidentally" reset). This won't count against your monthly bandwidth, but the nature of wireless does mean that if someone is using it you'll have less WiFi bandwidth (i.e., it's another SSID/VLAN, not a separate radio).

4.2) I imagine they are using DOCSIS 3.1. What are some good docsis 3.1 options out there today? Does anyone know what it takes to get my pfSense box to maximize the 1200mbit on this service? It already has a dual port 10gig Intel x520 NIC with SFP+ ports. Anyone know if there are any DOCSIS 3.1 to SFP+ adapters or anything like that?

Arris is still the go-to for cable modems I believe. I have a Netgear CM1150V (at the time it was the only one that also had a EMTA for their land-line voice service), and it's been good. Most cable modems will state their compatibility with various providers on the box as well as in the Amazon description.

AFAIK, none of the current cable modems actually feature an ethernet port faster than 1 Gb/s. Any that support greater upload to the ISP do so by combining two ethernet ports in a link aggregation (LACP) to the router. So unfortunately your SFP+ ports are probably of no added value here, even with a 10Gbase-t copper transceiver (and I'm not sure the X520 would support 2.5/5 Gb/s, even if the transceiver does).

I'm not using pfSense/OPNsense currently, so unfortunately I can't really help there.

 

[SamirD]

Hey all,

So we are going to move, and as we are looking for a new house one of my must have criteria is decent internet.

We have found one house that has great potential, but unlike everywhere else I have lived in 2009, it does not have Verizon FiOS available in the neighborhood.

I have gotten used to unlimited data at gigabit speeds with roughly matched upstream and downstream speeds.

This neighborhood is only served by Comcast. (Well, Verizon has some slow DSL there, but that doesn't count)

I have a few questions for anyo0ne who has recent Comcast experience.

1.) Comcast lists a service with 1200Mbit down. I have googled my ass off but cannot for the life of me find what the upstream is. Anyone know?

2.) Like all home ISP's they probably talk about how hosting is not covered by the service, but do they actually enforce it by blocking incoming requests or closing off ports? I tends to use a dynamic DNS service with port remapping. Will that still work with Comcast as it does with Verizon FiOS?

3.) So, Comcast now has a 1.2TB per month data cap after which they start charging overages. This will never be sufficient for me. I seem to average about 5 times that. As much as this pisses me off (ground based data should never under any circumstance be metered) I vaguely remember there being options, like paying more for unlimited, but I can't find anything about it on comcasts page. Does anyone know what it costs to take a 1200mbit/s plan and turn it unlimited?

4.) I refuse to use ISP provided routers, preferring to provide my own. Can anyone tell me what this implies in 2021?

4.1) Last time I used Comcast 12 years ago, there was a separate docsis modem and router. Are they integrated in one box now? Does that mean if I decline the router, I also need to figure out a modem solution?

4.2) I imagine they are using DOCSIS 3.1. What are some good docsis 3.1 options out there today? Does anyone know what it takes to get my pfSense box to maximize the 1200mbit on this service? It already has a dual port 10gig Intel x520 NIC with SFP+ ports. Anyone know if there are any DOCSIS 3.1 to SFP+ adapters or anything like that?

I'd appreciate any other thoughts, information or suggestions when it comes to buying a house and becoming stuck with Comcast.

Some great answers above and I'll add with my experience with Comcast in two different cities over the last 3-4 years.

1. As mentioned above, it sucks. One thing I have discovered is that it is much cheaper to be on the plan on tier down and get almost as fast upload speeds. Where I currently am, that plan is 600/15, but previously it was 300/25 in the other city. One way around this if you really need the upload bandwidth is to simply have more accounts and modems. I've not done this with Comcast, but I did at one point run 3x modems with a Cisco rv016 back in the mid-2000s to get more upload bandwidth. I'm sure pfsense can handle multi-wan pretty easily.

2. I use this account to run a 24x7 ipsec vpn link and have had no issues.

3. I remember reading that the gig plan is automatically unlimited, but I've also seen an offer for something like $100/mo for any plan to be unlimited. You get two 'freebies' on going over the 1tb cap, but that won't last you long for sure.

4. Easy-peasy--get your own modem and you've already got your pfsense for routing. Their default unit is a combo unit, but you definitely don't want that because of the hidden hotspots--those eat all sorts of airwaves as there's actually 3 hidden antennas/ssids. At one point I fought with shutting them off all the time, until I just got our sb6190 and an archer c5--smooth sailing after that. Arris has come out with a modem with a 2.5Gbps port, but honestly, it's going to be a waste if you need upload bandwidth. Pick up some used sb6190s for next to nothing (because everyone is scared of the supposed 'puma' chipset issue--reality is that it is a non-issue as I have 2x sb6190s obtained from two completely different sources, one being new, and they are the latency sensitive ipsec link I'm typing over right now and if there were any issues, my typing at 140wpm spikes would have definitely been an issue.)

Personally, I would think of it this way--you can have multiple accounts for multiple purposes with different public IPs. One for the house traffic, one for uploads, one for hosting, etc. They all come on one bill and are broken out by account (last I remember seeing it since I had 2 accounts at one point when we moved from one city to another). Hope this helps!

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Thanks for all the info. It is very helpful.

For my 1 Gb/s service, it's ~35-40 Mb/s up. Sad, but still far better than the ~10-12 Mb/s lower-tier plans provide. (I'd gladly trade half my download for >100 Mb/s upload.)

Damn, that's outright depressing. I've been used to 940mbit down 880mbit up now for years.

I have a nightly ZFS snapshot and remote backup going over ZFS Send/Recv every night, and being limited to 40Mbit up would be painful...

AFAIK, none of the current cable modems actually feature an ethernet port faster than 1 Gb/s. Any that support greater upload to the ISP do so by combining two ethernet ports in a link aggregation (LACP) to the router. So unfortunately your SFP+ ports are probably of no added value here, even with a 10Gbase-t copper transceiver (and I'm not sure the X520 would support 2.5/5 Gb/s, even if the transceiver does).

I'm not using pfSense/OPNsense currently, so unfortunately I can't really help there.

That's a shame. Yeah I know my old Intel stuff doesn't support the 2.5 and 5 gbit standards, but honestly I don't see any reason for those intermediate standards to exist. Why wouldn't everything just jump straight to 10gig??? It's just compatibility breaking and forces you to use subpar Aquantia chips instead of high quality Intel ones. Very disappointing.

I guess I could LAGG/LACP two ports on the pfSense box, but that means a single client can never use the max speeds.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Some great answers above and I'll add with my experience with Comcast in two different cities over the last 3-4 years.

1. As mentioned above, it sucks. One thing I have discovered is that it is much cheaper to be on the plan on tier down and get almost as fast upload speeds. Where I currently am, that plan is 600/15, but previously it was 300/25 in the other city. One way around this if you really need the upload bandwidth is to simply have more accounts and modems. I've not done this with Comcast, but I did at one point run 3x modems with a Cisco rv016 back in the mid-2000s to get more upload bandwidth. I'm sure pfsense can handle multi-wan pretty easily.

2. I use this account to run a 24x7 ipsec vpn link and have had no issues.

3. I remember reading that the gig plan is automatically unlimited, but I've also seen an offer for something like $100/mo for any plan to be unlimited. You get two 'freebies' on going over the 1tb cap, but that won't last you long for sure.

4. Easy-peasy--get your own modem and you've already got your pfsense for routing. Their default unit is a combo unit, but you definitely don't want that because of the hidden hotspots--those eat all sorts of airwaves as there's actually 3 hidden antennas/ssids. At one point I fought with shutting them off all the time, until I just got our sb6190 and an archer c5--smooth sailing after that. Arris has come out with a modem with a 2.5Gbps port, but honestly, it's going to be a waste if you need upload bandwidth. Pick up some used sb6190s for next to nothing (because everyone is scared of the supposed 'puma' chipset issue--reality is that it is a non-issue as I have 2x sb6190s obtained from two completely different sources, one being new, and they are the latency sensitive ipsec link I'm typing over right now and if there were any issues, my typing at 140wpm spikes would have definitely been an issue.)

Personally, I would think of it this way--you can have multiple accounts for multiple purposes with different public IPs. One for the house traffic, one for uploads, one for hosting, etc. They all come on one bill and are broken out by account (last I remember seeing it since I had 2 accounts at one point when we moved from one city to another). Hope this helps!

Thanks for that. I had not considered combining multiple upstream WANs.

That might help a little if you have multiple clients going upstream, but my biggest upstream bandwidth use comes from my single nightly connection from my NAS that uploads a snapshot to offsite backup. I don't think it would help much there unfortunately

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

What is really pissing me off is how opaque they are on their site. I can't find answers to half the tech questions I have.

I wonder if maybe there is a Comcast Business account I can sign up for that will have more upstream.

No idea what that would do in the billing department though.

 

[SamirD]

Thanks for all the info. It is very helpful.



Damn, that's outright depressing. I've been used to 940mbit down 880mbit up now for years.

I have a nightly ZFS snapshot and remote backup going over ZFS Send/Recv every night, and being limited to 40Mbit up would be painful...



That's a shame. Yeah I know my old Intel stuff doesn't support the 2.5 and 5 gbit standards, but honestly I don't see any reason for those intermediate standards to exist. Why wouldn't everything just jump straight to 10gig??? It's just compatibility breaking and forces you to use subpar Aquantia chips instead of high quality Intel ones. Very disappointing.

I guess I could LAGG/LACP two ports on the pfSense box, but that means a single client can never use the max speeds.

Yeah those snapshots and backups would be painful to the point they would take a week to run...

The main reason for the 2.5/5Gbps standard that I figured is that it can run over the 5e everyone has installed. Otherwise, it would be the same rip out and re-cable situation from 10Mbps to 100Mbps that took years for 100Mbps to become standard because of the cabling hurdle.

Even though everyone pushed the sb8200 when it came out (and spent almost 2x on it), I don't know of a single isp that has utilized the 2x ethernet ports in a lag. And now that arris has come out with a modem with a 2.5Gbps port, I highly doubt any isp will ever use the 2x ports in a lag. Hence all the sb8200 purchases were just a waste of money, haha...

 

[SamirD]

What is really pissing me off is how opaque they are on their site. I can't find answers to half the tech questions I have.

I wonder if maybe there is a Comcast Business account I can sign up for that will have more upstream.

No idea what that would do in the billing department though.

Yeah, I hate consumer stuff like this as it pisses me off too. There is an FCC document that requires them to list their speed tiers, but I don't know if it's been updated. I found the link to them, but it's dated 2019 on the 'Network Management' disclosure:
https://www.xfinity.com/policies/internet-broadband-disclosures

The business accounts are the same, but cost much more (3x) and have no data caps. But I think they require using their equipment, or at least they did back a few years ago when I looked into them. You'd be better off with 4x consumer cable modems and accounts versus a single business one. And if your backups are multi-stream (like rsync or whatnot), then they'll fully utilized all the upload bandwidth.

 

[vegeta535]

Comcast is really garbage. They have a lower advertised prices then fios but comcast adds a ton of fees on to it. With fios you pay the advertised price. I pay $55 for 200mb. There are no fees on top of it. I can get GB from fios for $100 or comcast for $70. The comcast bill would probably end up in the $90s with fees. I rather pay a little more for symmetric down/up speeds with out a cap. Not to mention comcast always tried to pull shady shit with my bill in the past. I refuse to use them again.

 

[vegeta535]

Yeah, I hate consumer stuff like this as it pisses me off too. There is an FCC document that requires them to list their speed tiers, but I don't know if it's been updated. I found the link to them, but it's dated 2019 on the 'Network Management' disclosure:
https://www.xfinity.com/policies/internet-broadband-disclosures

The business accounts are the same, but cost much more (3x) and have no data caps. But I think they require using their equipment, or at least they did back a few years ago when I looked into them. You'd be better off with 4x consumer cable modems and accounts versus a single business one. And if your backups are multi-stream (like rsync or whatnot), then they'll fully utilized all the upload bandwidth.

Most people don't pay attention to what they paying for. It is how comcast gets away with ripping people off. I don't know how they get away with it. Their business class suppose to guarantee 99% up time or something. That is why they don't let you provide your own modem for it. They can't trust what crap people would hook up.

 

[BlueLineSwinger]

Damn, that's outright depressing. I've been used to 940mbit down 880mbit up now for years.

I have a nightly ZFS snapshot and remote backup going over ZFS Send/Recv every night, and being limited to 40Mbit up would be painful...

Yeah, it's an unfortunate combo of most people not caring so much about upload (i.e., download numbers sell), and that cable infrastructure that was never really designed for bi-directional symmetrical bandwidth (though the latter is almost just an excuse now).

That's a shame. Yeah I know my old Intel stuff doesn't support the 2.5 and 5 gbit standards, but honestly I don't see any reason for those intermediate standards to exist. Why wouldn't everything just jump straight to 10gig??? It's just compatibility breaking and forces you to use subpar Aquantia chips instead of high quality Intel ones. Very disappointing.

I guess I could LAGG/LACP two ports on the pfSense box, but that means a single client can never use the max speeds.

NBase-T (2.5/5 Gb/s) were not designed for the consumer market, really. As I understand it, its aim was to provide additional wired bandwidth to things like APs and other business/office-focused network equipment, without having to pull new cable. WiFi standards have just about caught up to gigabit ethernet. 10Gbase-T copper was problematic here, as it was having a hard time gaining traction, was power-hungry, and (the big one) has no support for PoE.

That NBase-T is starting to catch on in the consumer market is just osmosis, and maybe some brands trying to one-up others on the spec sheet.

Even though everyone pushed the sb8200 when it came out (and spent almost 2x on it), I don't know of a single isp that has utilized the 2x ethernet ports in a lag. And now that arris has come out with a modem with a 2.5Gbps port, I highly doubt any isp will ever use the 2x ports in a lag. Hence all the sb8200 purchases were just a waste of money, haha...

On my CM1150V it's a user-defined option, not set by the ISP. I can't imagine why they'd care anyways.

Kinda glad to see that there are models with 2.5 Gb/s ports becoming available, except that it may just lead to more of the same from cable ISPs jacking up download to sell at the cost of upload.

 

[SamirD]

Most people don't pay attention to what they paying for. It is how comcast gets away with ripping people off. I don't know how they get away with it. Their business class suppose to guarantee 99% up time or something. That is why they don't let you provide your own modem for it. They can't trust what crap people would hook up.

This is every isp--auto payment, auto-anything, bill creep are all things I have to watch for on the 4x isp accounts I deal with. Even the business sla really doesn't mean much with some companies. The 2x charter accounts I have (1 bus, 1 res) are pretty much the same even though they're supposed to be different types of accounts at two different addresses. It is nice that the business one allows I think 5 dhcp public IPs (and we've needed them), but that's about it. Speed wise and reliability they're the same. Same case when I dealt with knology/wow.

 

[SamirD]

On my CM1150V it's a user-defined option, not set by the ISP. I can't imagine why they'd care anyways.

Kinda glad to see that there are models with 2.5 Gb/s ports becoming available, except that it may just lead to more of the same from cable ISPs jacking up download to sell at the cost of upload.

Interesting. I still wonder if any isp will ever use it with 2.5Gbps here.

I'd be curious about that as well. Supposedly Comcast has a 2Gbps symmetrical service according to this:
https://www.xfinity.com/networkmanagement

 

[TheSlySyl]

Comcast is the only available ISP at my house that's over 50mb/s and I'll be honest, I have 1GB down/50mb up and I've never had trouble.
Aside from the complications I had upgrading my modem (my own modem - they mistyped a MAC address letter and it took 4 fucking hours on the phone to get resolved.)
We pay $120 a month, which is including their absolutely ludicrous "unlimited" fee, but you gotta do what you gotta do (I use multiple terabytes a month.)

Still, considering I'm hosting two servers on my computer, download multiple terabytes of month (most of it in torrent form) and we're not in a neighborhood and out of city limits, i've been happy with em. Up time is 100% except for the super rare case of an actual power outage or physically downed line or something.

We use an SB8200 modem and our (main) router is an Asus AC-5300.

I wish we had more upload but the cost increase to turn into a business account or whatever is absolutely ridiculous, so 50mb/s upload it is. (They were previously only offering 10mb/s and that was fucking fucking painful.)

Calling them is like pulling teeth though. What took 4 hours on the phone was solved in about 5 minutes going to an actual Comcast store.

 

[Grentz]

I can tell you this, once setup it is reliable in my experience and that is worth a lot to me.
Screw high speeds if the service is not reliable.

The reality is most households dont need anything more than 100mb or so. And even less on upload. I do wish they had more upload speed as I came from a 100/100 fiber and that was perfect.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Kinda glad to see that there are models with 2.5 Gb/s ports becoming available, except that it may just lead to more of the same from cable ISPs jacking up download to sell at the cost of upload.

Yeah, I did some more research, and this has been my conclusion as well.

I didn't realize this, but apparently some Intel x710 adapters (specifically the x710-AT2 (dual port) and x710-TM4 (quad port) both support 1/2.5/5/10gbit. The more common x710-AM2 and X710-BM2 models only support 1/10gig.

So, since my pfSense box is built around a mini-ITX board with only one PCIe slot, I'll have to pull the x520, replace it with an x710-AT2, and then use a 10gig SFP+ adapter in the switch (Mikrotik CRS317-1G-16S+).

That's doable.

One of the recommended DOCSIS 3.1 cable modems with 2.5 support is the Arris S33. Damn who designed this thing?

It looks like a public restroom soap dispenser.

I don't suppose there are rackmounting ears for it, huh?

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Another option would be to convince someone a town or two over who has access to FiOS to let me install a Ubiquiti AirFiber transmitter at their house in exchange for free internet

Those things are $1600 a piece though, and I'd need a matched pair.

 

[BlueLineSwinger]

I didn't realize this, but apparently some Intel x710 adapters (specifically the x710-AT2 (dual port) and x710-TM4 (quad port) both support 1/2.5/5/10gbit. The more common x710-AM2 and X710-BM2 models only support 1/10gig.

So, since my pfSense box is built around a mini-ITX board with only one PCIe slot, I'll have to pull the x520, replace it with an x710-AT2, and then use a 10gig SFP+ adapter in the switch (Mikrotik CRS317-1G-16S+).

Yeah, those look like a good option (also saw the STH thread). Very reasonable MSRP too. Any luck finding one? I can't find either anywhere, and Intel's page say's it's still being produced.

One of the recommended DOCSIS 3.1 cable modems with 2.5 support is the Arris S33. Damn who designed this thing?



It looks like a public restroom soap dispenser.

I don't suppose there are rackmounting ears for it, huh?

Some metal strapping, zip-ties, duct tape... Hang that sucker right up.

 

[noko]

Hey all,

So we are going to move, and as we are looking for a new house one of my must have criteria is decent internet.

We have found one house that has great potential, but unlike everywhere else I have lived in 2009, it does not have Verizon FiOS available in the neighborhood.

I have gotten used to unlimited data at gigabit speeds with roughly matched upstream and downstream speeds.

This neighborhood is only served by Comcast. (Well, Verizon has some slow DSL there, but that doesn't count)

I have a few questions for anyo0ne who has recent Comcast experience.

1.) Comcast lists a service with 1200Mbit down. I have googled my ass off but cannot for the life of me find what the upstream is. Anyone know?

2.) Like all home ISP's they probably talk about how hosting is not covered by the service, but do they actually enforce it by blocking incoming requests or closing off ports? I tends to use a dynamic DNS service with port remapping. Will that still work with Comcast as it does with Verizon FiOS?

3.) So, Comcast now has a 1.2TB per month data cap after which they start charging overages. This will never be sufficient for me. I seem to average about 5 times that. As much as this pisses me off (ground based data should never under any circumstance be metered) I vaguely remember there being options, like paying more for unlimited, but I can't find anything about it on comcasts page. Does anyone know what it costs to take a 1200mbit/s plan and turn it unlimited?

4.) I refuse to use ISP provided routers, preferring to provide my own. Can anyone tell me what this implies in 2021?

4.1) Last time I used Comcast 12 years ago, there was a separate docsis modem and router. Are they integrated in one box now? Does that mean if I decline the router, I also need to figure out a modem solution?

4.2) I imagine they are using DOCSIS 3.1. What are some good docsis 3.1 options out there today? Does anyone know what it takes to get my pfSense box to maximize the 1200mbit on this service? It already has a dual port 10gig Intel x520 NIC with SFP+ ports. Anyone know if there are any DOCSIS 3.1 to SFP+ adapters or anything like that?

I'd appreciate any other thoughts, information or suggestions when it comes to buying a house and becoming stuck with Comcast.

Just changed my Comcast Plan from their Bundle of Junk to just Internet. $260/month to ~$130/month. I also reduced the 1Gb/s to 600Mb/s -> did not need the speed and have not notice any real difference in experience. Now a quick Speedtest, Ethernet, of what I have now with my wife streaming to our TV (probably an old low res General Hospital YouTube video ):

​

Dismal Uploads, at least for this one test. Anyways Comcast has an unlimited Data plan you can add onto their Internet plans, she told me unlimited was an additional $10/month which seems reasonable if you are hitting those downloads. We were not close so I didn't bother.

May buy my own modem to save some money as well as not being a WiFi hotspot. At times WiFi performance is terrible which maybe because it is being shared to whoever.

 

[TheSlySyl]

May buy my own modem to save some money as well as not being a WiFi hotspot. At times WiFi performance is terrible which maybe because it is being shared to whoever.

Just letting you know that if you switch from their modem/wifi combo for your own, they charge *more* money per month, especially for unlimited.
It's such a ridiculous limitation that I can't believe it's legal, but there it is. Renting their modem + unlimited would have been $105 a month for me, having my own modem + unlimited is $120. (All at 1gb/s down)

Also interesting to hear that pricing tiers are different in different ares.

 

[x509]

Is there any love here for Comcast?

 

[noko]

Just letting you know that if you switch from their modem/wifi combo for your own, they charge *more* money per month, especially for unlimited.
It's such a ridiculous limitation that I can't believe it's legal, but there it is. Renting their modem + unlimited would have been $105 a month for me, having my own modem + unlimited is $120. (All at 1gb/s down)

Also interesting to hear that pricing tiers are different in different ares.

Yep, they are very frustrating to work with, trying to just go Internet is impossible using their site. Had to find the magical number and person who had a very difficult time getting the plan down. Mine is after taxes and fees and is around $100 before that. I hate the current state of cable and the unlimited number of channels that have zero interest or worth for me or my wife. With Comcast/Xfinity, every page up or down with the controller you had about 1/3 of the options being pay channels (we didn't buy) or movies for rent or some other scheme to add to your bill. I think if 99% of the channels disappeared, I wouldn't even have notice.

 

[Bassman99]

I live in Sacramento and have had bad experience with comcast basically forever.
No other choices on my side of town, ghetto area.
They are doing ok this month.
At least one interruption a month lately.
Im disgusted with them!
But most ppl I know have little or no issues.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Just letting you know that if you switch from their modem/wifi combo for your own, they charge *more* money per month, especially for unlimited.
It's such a ridiculous limitation that I can't believe it's legal, but there it is. Renting their modem + unlimited would have been $105 a month for me, having my own modem + unlimited is $120. (All at 1gb/s down)

Also interesting to hear that pricing tiers are different in different ares.

Absent alternatives I'd pay $15 per month to not use their awful hardware.

I won't be happy about it though.

 

[noko]

Is there any love here for Comcast?

They have some good equipment, speeds etc. Beware of the price and all the tricks. After I downgraded to Internet only at a slower speed. A streaming box showed up at the door??? Called Comcast and asked if this cost extra, they said no, I said I never asked for a streaming box. I may hook it up to see what it is, I am sure just another way to try to get more money from you.

 

[Bassman99]

Absent alternatives I'd pay $15 per month to not use their awful hardware.

I won't be happy about it though.

I use my own Router as theirs was ALWAYS failing

 

[noko]

I use my own Router as theirs was ALWAYS failing

lol, between the updates for faster speeds and failing modems, I have no clue how many modems we went through in the last 10 years, at least 10 if not more. Do bought ones last longer?

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

lol, between the updates for faster speeds and failing modems, I have no clue how many modems we went through in the last 10 years, at least 10 if not more. Do bought ones last longer?

I don't know man.

I've used the same pfSense build for 4 years.

I'm sure it will give me another 6-10 years.

 

[Bassman99]

lol, between the updates for faster speeds and failing modems, I have no clue how many modems we went through in the last 10 years, at least 10 if not more. Do bought ones last longer?

I bought one at walmart 3 yrs ago paid $200 router/wifi combo and still going

 

[BlueLineSwinger]

Just letting you know that if you switch from their modem/wifi combo for your own, they charge *more* money per month, especially for unlimited.
It's such a ridiculous limitation that I can't believe it's legal, but there it is. Renting their modem + unlimited would have been $105 a month for me, having my own modem + unlimited is $120. (All at 1gb/s down)

Also interesting to hear that pricing tiers are different in different ares.

FWIW, this has not been my experience. TV/Internet/Voice bundle w/2-year promo pricing. The cost is as-advertised when we upgraded to the current plan, no line-items on the bill for cable modem rental or other surcharges for having my own modem.

 

[TheSlySyl]

FWIW, this has not been my experience. TV/Internet/Voice bundle w/2-year promo pricing. The cost is as-advertised when we upgraded to the current plan, no line-items on the bill for cable modem rental or other surcharges for having my own modem.

Do you have the unlimited data plan?

It's not some hidden fee, they advertise the price increase very blatantly. Your own equipment is $30 more a month for unlimited.

As someone who has used over 2 terabytes a month of internet for the past 3+ years (5TB is my average)... its a bit of a requirement to pay for unlimited IMO.

 

[bman212121]

lol, between the updates for faster speeds and failing modems, I have no clue how many modems we went through in the last 10 years, at least 10 if not more. Do bought ones last longer?

I keep seeing modem and router being used interchangeably here. Yes they do like to blur the lines even further if you're talking about an XB6 or whatever where they are a combined device, but generally speaking they are two separate components.

In your example I'd bet it's 99.999% not the modem that is the problem, but probably a line issue. Comcast is generally useless when it comes to actually fixing the root cause, so modem swaps are their primary go to for temporarily fixing the problem. For reference I pulled an old SB5100 out of service after 13 years not because it was dead, but because the speeds finally were fast enough the old docsis 2.0 modem was the bottleneck. Basically any modem should be getting like 5 - 10 years of service, and if they are not then you need to look into why.

Also, if there is an xfinity store in your area you just need to go visit them. Switching to internet only would probably only take you like 10 minutes with an appointment and if you return any equipment you can get a receipt for when they claim they didn't get it back from you.


TheSlySyl That is exactly the sheet I was thinking about. If you get xFinity complete it includes a modem / router / wifi all in one unit and unlimited data and costs less than just paying for unlimited. You might need to have gig blast (gigabit) in order to get that deal though, I'm not entirely sure.

 

[TheSlySyl]

Yeah, I'm *not* willing to use their modem/router. I've had too many issues with that in the past, and I like having custom firmware on my routers. I used DD-WRT back in the day and I've been using Merlin (Asus custom firmware) for years at this point.

I don't trust the whole sharing internet thing they have going on with their own router, partially from a safety perspective but also just from a performance one...

Then, on my own personal network, I'm running with a pi-hole, static IPs and AImesh, hosting a plex server and no way in fucking hell am I going use whatever shit they control every single setting of. I don't care if it actually is reliable now.

I don't want their modem, I don't want their router, I don't want their repeater and I really don't want their streaming box.

 

[bman212121]

The one thing no one has touched on here yet is that you can in fact get fiber from Comcast, but it's going to cost you. Comcast does have 2 gig fiber which is 2 down / 2 up over it's Metro-E circuits in basically the same manner as the enterprise users get. You get a CPE (customer premise equipment) of a Cienna 39xx box with a 10 gig SFP+ port, once again the same thing they hand out to their enterprise customers. (Market dependant of course, I have heard some places it's something slightly different). It doesn't have any data caps and there is an additional added bonus where they turn up a copper gigabit port on the CPE for you as well in case you didn't have fiber. Because they data rates are set per port most people will take both the fiber and copper ports and load balance them on their device, allowing 3 gig total throughput down and up.

Now for the bad part, Comcast's 2 gig fiber is generally around $300 per month, and usually requires some type of build out. The cost of the build completely depends upon how close their fiber is in proximity of the location you want service. If fiber is more than like 1/2 a mile away they might decide to just not offer fiber to that location at all. So while that might seem offputting at first, you can do TCO calculations based upon the cost of home ownership. If you're paying $70 a month right now for fiber, it's an additional $230 a month, or 2,760 per year. So throw in some build out costs and the TCO is probably around $30k for a 10 year ownership over an area with another fiber provider. If moving further out into a Comcast area is saving you $30k on the cost of a similar house then you can consider it a wash and it might be worthwhile to do so.

One more thing no one linked yet, here are the list of ports Comcast blocks:

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/list-of-blocked-ports

The most notable is 25 in both directions due to email spam, and then obviously straight 445 and some of the broadcast traffic so if someone plugs their pc directly to the modem it limits the risk to those devices.

Thanks for all the info. It is very helpful.



Damn, that's outright depressing. I've been used to 940mbit down 880mbit up now for years.

I have a nightly ZFS snapshot and remote backup going over ZFS Send/Recv every night, and being limited to 40Mbit up would be painful...



That's a shame. Yeah I know my old Intel stuff doesn't support the 2.5 and 5 gbit standards, but honestly I don't see any reason for those intermediate standards to exist. Why wouldn't everything just jump straight to 10gig??? It's just compatibility breaking and forces you to use subpar Aquantia chips instead of high quality Intel ones. Very disappointing.

I guess I could LAGG/LACP two ports on the pfSense box, but that means a single client can never use the max speeds.

Not quite true. A single client can use all of the bandwidth, a single stream cannot. If you use LACP then you simply need multiple connections to be able to fill the pipe. Steam already uses multiple connections so it will scale to fit multi port LACP. If you're doing SCP backups then you need to run multiple jobs at the same time to take advantage of both connections.

There are two common modems that support LACP, the MB8600 and the SB8200. The MB8600 by default has a plastic cover over the 3 additional ports on it, so you need to pry the decal off. I believe it's only configured for 2 port LACP even though the modem itself can technically do LACP up to all 4 ports. The SB8200 is only 2 port LACP and I don't believe is hidden by default. There is a newer version of that SB8200 but I don't recall what model # they gave it. Not sure if it's worth seeking out or not as it might be hard to find at the moment. Maybe now with the 1.2g download + over provision it's worth the slight increase in latency you'll see from using LACP.

The reason why you can't find much info about gig blast 1.2gbps is because that is a very recent increase in speed. Everything that references 1000 / 35 is what the old tier was like a month ago. So now it's 1200 / 35 with 20% over provision.

EDIT:

Comcast does offer business coax, which automatically comes with a gateway they provide. (You don't get a choice) You should be able to put it in bridge mode and point the IPs at your PFSense box. The advantages of business is: officially allowed to host from it, unlimited data, much better support as they have their own techs and phone number and you can generally get someone on site same day to fix issues, and the ability to pay for static IPs. The primary downside is that it costs a bit more for slower speeds, and they are generally regulated to similar speeds as residential is. I don't believe you can get any tiers faster on business coax than residential coax as they are still sharing the same infrastructure. Just throwing that out there as yet another option from the same company. Technically you could get enterprise as well but you don't want to see the pricing on that.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

The one thing no one has touched on here yet is that you can in fact get fiber from Comcast, but it's going to cost you. Comcast does have 2 gig fiber which is 2 down / 2 up over it's Metro-E circuits in basically the same manner as the enterprise users get. You get a CPE (customer premise equipment) of a Cienna 39xx box with a 10 gig SFP+ port, once again the same thing they hand out to their enterprise customers. (Market dependant of course, I have heard some places it's something slightly different). It doesn't have any data caps and there is an additional added bonus where they turn up a copper gigabit port on the CPE for you as well in case you didn't have fiber. Because they data rates are set per port most people will take both the fiber and copper ports and load balance them on their device, allowing 3 gig total throughput down and up.

Now for the bad part, Comcast's 2 gig fiber is generally around $300 per month, and usually requires some type of build out. The cost of the build completely depends upon how close their fiber is in proximity of the location you want service. If fiber is more than like 1/2 a mile away they might decide to just not offer fiber to that location at all. So while that might seem offputting at first, you can do TCO calculations based upon the cost of home ownership. If you're paying $70 a month right now for fiber, it's an additional $230 a month, or 2,760 per year. So throw in some build out costs and the TCO is probably around $30k for a 10 year ownership over an area with another fiber provider. If moving further out into a Comcast area is saving you $30k on the cost of a similar house then you can consider it a wash and it might be worthwhile to do so.

One more thing no one linked yet, here are the list of ports Comcast blocks:

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/list-of-blocked-ports

The most notable is 25 in both directions due to email spam, and then obviously straight 445 and some of the broadcast traffic so if someone plugs their pc directly to the modem it limits the risk to those devices.




Not quite true. A single client can use all of the bandwidth, a single stream cannot. If you use LACP then you simply need multiple connections to be able to fill the pipe. Steam already uses multiple connections so it will scale to fit multi port LACP. If you're doing SCP backups then you need to run multiple jobs at the same time to take advantage of both connections.

There are two common modems that support LACP, the MB8600 and the SB8200. The MB8600 by default has a plastic cover over the 3 additional ports on it, so you need to pry the decal off. I believe it's only configured for 2 port LACP even though the modem itself can technically do LACP up to all 4 ports. The SB8200 is only 2 port LACP and I don't believe is hidden by default. There is a newer version of that SB8200 but I don't recall what model # they gave it. Not sure if it's worth seeking out or not as it might be hard to find at the moment. Maybe now with the 1.2g download + over provision it's worth the slight increase in latency you'll see from using LACP.

The reason why you can't find much info about gig blast 1.2gbps is because that is a very recent increase in speed. Everything that references 1000 / 35 is what the old tier was like a month ago. So now it's 1200 / 35 with 20% over provision.

EDIT:

Comcast does offer business coax, which automatically comes with a gateway they provide. (You don't get a choice) You should be able to put it in bridge mode and point the IPs at your PFSense box. The advantages of business is: officially allowed to host from it, unlimited data, much better support as they have their own techs and phone number and you can generally get someone on site same day to fix issues, and the ability to pay for static IPs. The primary downside is that it costs a bit more for slower speeds, and they are generally regulated to similar speeds as residential is. I don't believe you can get any tiers faster on business coax than residential coax as they are still sharing the same infrastructure. Just throwing that out there as yet another option from the same company. Technically you could get enterprise as well but you don't want to see the pricing on that.

The 2 gig service was listed as being available at the address on their webpage, but I kind of dismissed it out of hand based on the high price tag of over $300 per month.

I didn't realize it was matching up and downstream though. That makes it more desirable, but still, over $300 a month is a tough pill to swallow...

 

[bman212121]

The 2 gig service was listed as being available at the address on their webpage, but I kind of dismissed it out of hand based on the high price tag of over $300 per month.

I didn't realize it was matching up and downstream though. That makes it more desirable, but still, over $300 a month is a tough pill to swallow...

Yes it's pricey, but it's a relative thing. Google shook up the market with the $70 a month pricing and others followed suit. Comcast didn't want to cannibalize their coax offerings so they never released a 1 gig fiber option. If you wanted the same service you're getting as a residential customer from the enterprise side I'd guess it's somewhere around 10x the cost for the circuit. So there is somewhat of a justification for their pricing model, but I would no doubt say it's cushioned for about twice the cost of what someone else could offer it for.

So 2 gig is fiber, every other service is coax. Fiber is symmetrical / unlimited by default and the coax offers are not because of limitations of their current DOCSIS infrastructure.

Also don't assume you can in fact get it either, they have been known to not honor their website many times. Until you put in the request for service all bets are off. I've heard of people putting contingencies into the realtor contracts for things like coax availability. If there is already a drop to the house you're usually at least safe for coax, but even then on certain occasions for houses that are far away from the road they have back tracked because someone did something they weren't supposed to and they won't support it for a new customer.

 

[vegeta535]

Yes it's pricey, but it's a relative thing. Google shook up the market with the $70 a month pricing and others followed suit. Comcast didn't want to cannibalize their coax offerings so they never released a 1 gig fiber option. If you wanted the same service you're getting as a residential customer from the enterprise side I'd guess it's somewhere around 10x the cost for the circuit. So there is somewhat of a justification for their pricing model, but I would no doubt say it's cushioned for about twice the cost of what someone else could offer it for.

So 2 gig is fiber, every other service is coax. Fiber is symmetrical / unlimited by default and the coax offers are not because of limitations of their current DOCSIS infrastructure.

Google didn't shake anything up. Their availability was very limited and they stopped expanding years ago.

 

[bman212121]

Google didn't shake anything up. Their availability was very limited and they stopped expanding years ago.

Google 100% did shake things up. You couldn't get AT&T fiber before Google and definitely not for $70 a month. Just because Google didn't follow through doesn't mean they didn't impact the rest of the market. If I remember correctly Verizon FIOS was $100 a month before Google came along as well.

 

[vegeta535]

Google 100% did shake things up. You couldn't get AT&T fiber before Google and definitely not for $70 a month. Just because Google didn't follow through doesn't mean they didn't impact the rest of the market. If I remember correctly Verizon FIOS was $100 a month before Google came along as well.

Verizon fios is still $100 a month for 1GB. $55 get you 100mb. Speeds double basically for every $10. Around here anyway. Comcast is $70 for 1GB but that is before $30 in fee and taxes.

 

[munkle]

Its different in every area but in my area its cheaper to use their modem router combo to get unlimited than to get unlimited by itself. Its only $5 cheaper so if you are ok paying $5 more then I would say use your own modem. I have never had an issues with the motorola/arris modems and I would stick to those. We wanted to save the $5 a month and we are using the comcast modem/router (xfi complete is the comcast upgrade term on the plan). I'm using my own router with it and just have it pass through instead of using it as a router. First modem they gave us was an old one and it was hot garbage we got it replace after a week. Second one has been ok for about 6 months but its been hanging every couple weeks so I am going to take it in to get it replaced. It runs crazy hot, I have a fan on top of it sucking heat out.

Reliability wise its good in our area, maybe one outage a year. The price is consistent as long as you are under a contract, once your contract expires pricing goes wild and seems to change frequently. I've always been able to call in and get in on a new promo and they have never denied me. I have friends that have been shot down on trying to get promo pricing applied, but could be because they are internet only, and my mom has to have the land line and tv so we have 3 services from comcast and they are more willing to give you that promo pricing in that case.

As long as everything is working I think comcast is fine. But if you have an issue be prepared for pain and torture. Their phone system is the absolute worst, it will hang up on you, reps are stupid and have no idea what they are doing. I despise having to call them for anything. If you do get your own modem know that the app that they try to get you to use to activate service doesn't work with customer bought modems, you have to call in to activate it and they hassle you for not using the app.