How to get comcast to actually do something

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nysmo

Gawd
Joined
Jan 7, 2016
Messages
948
We've all been there, you have a legitimate transient network failure within comcast's network, usually after the first couple of hops resulting in a stream of packet loss or other undesirables outside of your control. However if you attempt to call support of course you'll spend the next few hours rebooting your modem incessantly, screwing and unscrewing the coax cable, having them "resend the signal" which just reboots your modem, and if you're really lucky sending out a highschool dropout to your house just for him to plug his handheld line tester in and verify that the signal strength is ok. You could show them the WinMTR traceroute and they'd just stare at it like "huh? whats that?"

Soooo... does anybody know how you actually get Tier 3 level support from Comcast? How to actually get a network engineer to take a look at that node in your city block and say "hmm, you know what this thing is totally overloaded! We need to spend a million bucks and upgrade this baby!" Or is it basically until droves of customers start canceling for unusable service, comcast will never really lift a finger if it requires this much effort.

My lease is ending and I am seriously considering relocating across fucking town just to put myself on a different routing path so I can use the fucking internet again.
 
Can't talk about Comcast but with TWC it got to the point where I had the escalation manager's direct line to save him and me frustration. To paraphrase his words I see that every issues you've ever called us on has been our problem and not yours. What initiated that exchange was TWC giving me a 4 hour window so they could check my inside wiring which I refused. I hung up and moved my bridge to the curb using a short piece of coax and a long ethernet cable and called them back. I of course had the same issue and they course wanted to setup the 4 hour window. I then told them what I had done and that the the issue was their equipment or their cable and that the bridge would be on my porch for them test with and that I would not be home to do their job for them. An hour later the manager called me and agreed and gave me his direct line for future use. I never had to deal with any bs troubleshooting from that time forward. I made use the number many times over the next 2 or so years but after that TWC, here at least, improved their service and I have maybe only called twice in the last 10 years.
 
I am a high school dropout, whatch yourself :p

I say dump them and go elsewhere. Xfinity is an option where I am moving and I paid more to go to centurylink business DSL. I have used them in the past w/o issue, so let's see :)
 
So all of this and you are positive it's comcast service and not somewhere downstream from a different company?
 
wizzi01 said:
So all of this and you are positive it's comcast service and not somewhere downstream from a different company?
Click to expand...
It's the second hop outside of my modem with a comcast branded server name. 6-10% packet loss that is replicated across every other hop before it even leaves comcast's network.
 
Have you checked to see if you are just seeing the effect of their speed tier enforcement? One common method of traffic shaping involves dropping packets above the enforced speed (which, when done on a TCP stream, tends to interact with the ack windows and settle quickly to operate at the enforced speed - but sucks on non-acknowledged streams). its actually a bit more involved than just a packet drop, but from outside the router doing the enforcement i'm not sure you could see the fine details).

Try sending traffic at specific speeds up to the speed you subscribe to, and then go over it. If the packet loss only appears when you cross the speed limit Comcast will probably just respond with "working per design and contract".
 
nysmo said:
It's the second hop outside of my modem with a comcast branded server name. 6-10% packet loss that is replicated across every other hop before it even leaves comcast's network.
Click to expand...

That sucks. It shouldn't be that hard to get someone out there to check that problem out. I have had Comcast for quite a while now, and they have been pretty good. I had an issue with the diy channel not working right. The issue was the drop cable. They changed all the cable out to be safe even though the cable inside the house was newer than the drop cable. They didn't charge me a thing for it either.
 
The issue is that no one has to come out and check that, at all. Each node has diagnostics for both the coax coming out of it and the link to the headend. The first hop outside of your modem is typically the CMTS, second is an edge router, 3rd is a core router.

The first thing that you need to do is check your signal levels and check for errors. Log into the modem to do that. Post em up just to be sure they are okay.

If the node is overloaded they likely already know and are working on splitting the node. The link between the CMTS and the node is RFoG and if there was issues with that everyone would be having video problems too.

Your most likely option? You have a problem in your house or on your drop, possibly at an amp. 2nd is you are on an overloaded node.
 
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