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Review by Morac See Profile

  • Location: Riverside, Burlington, NJ, USA
  • Cost: $150 per month (24 month contract)
  • Install: about 1 days
  • Telco party Verizon
Always On, Great Speeds
Expensive, Frequent problems crop up which can take a long time to fix.
It's great when it works, but if something goes wrong you're screwed.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

Update (9/8/18): Blast speeds are now 250/10 with actual speeds around 300/12 Mbps. More importantly though I’ve been having intermittent downstream and upstream problems for the past 5 months that cause TV breakup and/or loss of Internet. There is no resolution in site. I’ve been told by some techs that it must be my house wiring, while other techs tell me there are ongoing problems in my area. I believe the later, but that doesn’t get things any closer to being fixed.

Update (1/8/16): A lot has changed since my last update. My speeds are now about 150/10 mbps. Internet and TV usually work without issue. I also have a new deal where I'm paying about $140 after tax and fees for literally every channel, plus Blast (Premier Double Play), which is about as good as I'm going to get currently. My previous deal was better $99 double play, but that didn't include Blast or HBO. My new deal includes all the premium channels and Blast.

Update (4/9/13): I got a good deal from Comcast because they screwed up my account last year, but it expired this month. Now I'm paying $145 for TV and Internet (Blast 50/10 mbps). Internet still has occasional issues, but mostly works. TV also sometimes has issues, but mostly works as well.

Update (10/7/11): Since my last update I dropped Comcast's phone service and went with Ooma. That actually caused my Comcast bill to [b]increase[/b]. I complained and ended up on a double play package which ends up costing me about $110 a month. This is with no premium TV channels, though I do have Blast! which has 25/4 speeds. Internet works great most of the time. TV is usually good, with the occasional glitches. I haven't had what's become my annual line problem yet this year, which is good, but it's really only a matter of time. Oh and I just got my bill which states Comcast is jacking up prices again by about $10. My double play price lock expires in April. I'm not sure what will happen at that point.

Update (12/20/10): My credit expired in October so I switched to a different triple play plan which is around $170 a month. I'm not sure how long I'll stay with that though since I think it's still too expensive and the Ooma free home service is pretty good according to someone at my work place. I also had major downstream and upstream issues over the summer where I had packet loss and/or modem reboots do to line and node problems. This appears to have been fixed, though one of the lines currently is running across the street instead of under it. I am still seeing occasion modem reboots on the new DOCSIS 3.0 eMTA I have.

On the positive side, the new plan I'm on comes with Blast! which is 20 Mbps down and 4 Mbps up. The down speeds are very good, exceeding 20 Mbps. I had some problems initially with the up speeds not exceeding 3.2 Mbps, but now they are fairly close to 4 Mbps.

Update (1/6/10): My contract expired a few months ago and the price shot up, but Comcast is giving me a $50 monthly credit until October as long as I don't downgrade so the end result is only about a $15 per month increase. Service has been okay, though my modem reports timeout errors every few days. Comcast's 50 mbps speed is available in my area, but it's not worth the price. I'm sticking with the default 12 mbps speeds which are good enough for now. On the TV side, I got a lot more HD channels so that's good.

Update (11/10/08): Service has now been working fairly well since I last updated. There haven't been many problems, but when a problem does occur it can take a long time to fix. My contract is up in a little under a year at which point, Comcast will jack the price way up (close to $60 more a month). I'm not sure what I'll do at that point.

Update (5/05/08): I now have Triple-Play which means I have TV, phone and Internet. When it works, it works well, but lately I've been getting hit by bouts of packet loss that last anywhere from a few hours to a few days. So far Comcast has been unable to fix it.

Update (8/05/06): Powerboost is enabled in my area which means the first 10 seconds of my downloads are at speeds of about 16 mbps. It then drops back down to 6 mbps. But it does decrease the amount of time to download large files. It also helps with streaming video.

Update (12/22/05): I figured it was time to update this again. Currently speeds are at 6000/384 and most time I exceeed that (at least for the download speed). TV has switched to 100% digital through the cable box which is both good and bad. It's good because there is no snow or fuzzies on channels any more. It's bad because they seem to have issues with their analog to digital conversions. The 2 annoying ones are G4 breaking up on occasion and a number of channels have a vertical interlace problem (see »Vertical Interlacing? ). Comcast refuses to acknowledge or fix either of those 2 problem. Other than that things are okay, but FIOS is drawing ever near....

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Update (2/06/05): Time for the nearly yearly update. Speeds have been upgraded to 4000/384 and for the most part I'm getting that. The TV signals had gotten better, but then got worse. I was told that a local construction crew had nicked the main feed to my development and that the line couldn't be replaced until the Spring. Fortunately it seems to have gotten better lately which I attribute to the colder temperatures (colder temps = stronger signal). I've read that all channels will be digital by years end so that should take care of my problems. Overall I'm pleased, but I really wish they'd lower prices instead of raising them every year.

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Update (3/25/04): DSL is available in my area now, but I'm sticking with Comcast since they are around 4 times as fast. If DSL improves though I might be tempted to switch to Satellite for TV and DSL for broadband. Especially since my TV picture quality is less than stellar and I'm told there is no way to fix it.

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Update (12/18/03): Got my new speeds yesterday. Testing currently at 3100 kbps download. Not bad, not bad

---------------

Ok since I moved to a new town I figured it was time to update my review.

Comcast is the fastest broadband provider in my area with speeds currently at 1800 (3300 in Dec 2003) kbps down and 256 kbps up. It is also the only broadband I can receive since I can't get DSL.

Comcast has gotten much better since they first broke off from @Home. In December I'll get downloads speeds close to what I got with @Home. Upload speeds will remain about 1/4 of what they were though.

Currently I can't really complain. The connection is up a large majority of the time and the speeds are constantly greater than 1.6 Mbps.

Comcast completely revamped their webmail, webspace and account maintenance services (now called Portal). I must say I'm impressed. Each user account (7 per household) gives you a whopping 25 mb of web space and 10 mb of email storage. The web space supports Frontpage and lots of other nifty features. It's easy to maintain either through Comcast's website or via FTP. Their email system is powered by Brightmail, a powerful spam blocking system. Indeed I very rarely get spam anymore at my Comcast email address. All email settings (spam filter, forwarding, etc) and web page settings can be modified using the account maintenance page on the Comcast Portal.

Their tech support has gotten a lot better than it used to be and I can usually talk to a human within a minute of calling. They still recommend truck rolls for almost every possible problem, but they do seem more knowledgable now.

Overall, if you has asked me about Comcast a year ago I would have said they sucked, but now I will actually recommend them. Comcast is still expensive compared to DSL (especially with the recent DSL price drops), but Comcast is faster and more readily available. If you don't need the faster speeds and you can get it I'd say go with DSL, otherwise Comcast is your best bet.

You can read my old @Home installation horror story at:

»groups.google.com/groups ··· ogle.com , »groups.google.com/groups ··· ogle.com and »groups.google.com/groups ··· ogle.com

member for 22.5 years, 5586 visits, last login: 1 day ago
updated 5.5 years ago

Frustrated User

Anon

Sorry support

Same here. Their support is so bad that I would rather call my car mechanic to look at the problem! I went through 32 days of 1st 2nd level support, waves of service technicians coming out to my house to wire and re-wire. I complained every day to these jokers. They finally got is straightened out after 32 days of wiring and three modems! They did credit my account though.

I vow not to ever call their sorry support team unless my modem is on fire!

bmilone2
join:2001-01-26
Mays Landing, NJ

bmilone2

Member

Atlantic County Comcast users unite !!

I also live in Mays Landing and have been a Comcast@home user for about 1 year. About a month ago I noticed that downloads speeds were getting lower. Used to be from 2.5 megs to over 3 megs. Now it is lucky to have a 300kbps download. I called tier 1 and a friendly women by the name of Robin did some tests and advised that yes I did have a major problem and arranged to send a tech out. All he did was check the signal at the street (box is in my front yard) and tell me it is a problem with @home and Comcast is aware of it and trying to get them to fix it. Not being satisfied with the tech's answer due to his lack of meaningful testing, I called tier 1 again and told them I needed a tier 2 tech. They transfered me and I explained the problem. He then had me bring up the Network Diagnostic Tools so he could run some tests. After a few minutes of testing he found that the signal seemed to fall apart once it got into Comcasts hands. He tried to schedule an appointment for Comcast to come out again but the system was down so he told me to call them the next day with my ticket number. I've now got another appointment and if he (or she) tries to push me off I plan to demand that he call a supervisor right then and there. All of Atlantic County seems to be messed up. I personally know 3 others here in Atlantic County with the same problem. I'm the one that talked them into the service !!

We need to track down as many people as we can find in this area and form a loud voice to flood them with calls on a daily basis until they fix this crap!! If you agree lets exchange email addresses and kick some butt !!!
jculby
join:2001-09-25
Absecon, NJ

jculby

Member

Re: Atlantic County Comcast users unite !!

i, too am having difficulties with @ home. same as the others it has been about a month of poor performance. after untold hours with tech support (no one could figure it out, even though my dsl report was showing the problem) they finally sent out a truck. of course speeds were fairly decent at the time he arrived (3 days later!!). but he let on that he suspected they were having problems with their system (no duh). after more untold hours on the phone, i finally got to a tier 2 tech who said he found some "nasty" problems with routers. he stated he would notify his superiors and the problem would be straightened out in no more than 48 hrs. (he apologized that it would take that long). it's been over 72 hrs. and i'm still crawling along. i agree with others that we should get at least a month free for this.

bmilone2
join:2001-01-26
Mays Landing, NJ

bmilone2

Member

Re: Atlantic County Comcast users unite !!

I had another service tech here today (sat) and he spent an hour trying different things. It seems that the jump from Pa. to NJ is messed up. He wasn't sure how long it would take for them to fix but promised that Comcast would telephone me on Monday to give me a better idea on estimated time to correct. I still plan to stay on Comcast's ass. I've sent them a number of frank, but polite emails trying to get answers from them and advising them of my disgust and their lack of meaningful help. I advise that everyone keep the pressure up and email them over and over until your happy with the answer.
System

Anon

everything is good in mid jersey

i had the same initial complaints as the rest of you guys, didn't work right away, after about 1.5 months and constant calls/techs it somehow all by its lonesome worked ... when my area was upgraded to docsis modems (from the propietary ones) it worked right away, and i was greatful for that.
Also, the new modem is much smaller and doesn't get as hot as the other one, 2 good things.

Comcast@home is a good investment once they get it to start working!!
penncomputers
join:2001-01-12
Williamstown, NJ

penncomputers

Member

Re: everything is good in mid jersey

With Docsis protocol, have you noticed a drop in speed during peak hours? I hear that they can control bandwidth with this protocol. This is hear say, so please educate me!
penncomputers

penncomputers

Member

Comcast in Atlantic County with NO SPEED!

Well, I can relate to your problems because I have had the same run around and problems. To make a long story short.

1. Service guys come out have no communication with help desk other than a print out on a service ticket. (Which you can understand why they don't know why they are out there at your house half the time).

2. For 4 weeks now the download speed especially during peak hours is crawling or stalling all together. This is a back-end problem between PA and NJ Gateways (Back End problem Tier 3 Responsibility). They are working on after I called may times with *DSLREPORTS Showing where the lose of packets are coming from. Today, I talked to dispatch I was able to get 3 techs on the phone! And they identified the problem! We should see a speed increase by end of week I'm told. (Oh,but we know how there calendar goes!)

3. Another problem is, that the Suburban area in Atlantic County was activated prior to Line Certification. The first time I had a guy come out (Last week) he comes in the door we look at the modem and in front of our eyes the modem went offline. So he gets on the phone with dispatch and find they are doing a line sweep for line certification. At this point I mad, because I paid for 2 months of service that was not completly working for the past month. SO you should do what I did, call billing up and get a month credited to your account.

* Try doing a line quality test to see a reverse trace from DSLReports. You will see lose of packets between PA & NJ. This report will show large packet lose during peak times between PA & NJ.
amspete
join:2000-09-04
Egg Harbor Township, NJ

amspete

Member

Speed problems

I live in Egg Harbor Township and have the same speed problems you are all describing since around the end of August or beginning of September. My log shows d'load speeds of 4500 kbps in August, and now I'm lucky to break 100 kbps. My friend who also lives in EHT, although in a completely different neighborhood, is having the same problems. My guess was that it has to be a Comcast problem since it happened to both of us at the same time in totally different neighborhoods. I sent an email to Comcast@home explaining the situation and attached my speed logs from dsl reports as in indication of my problem. Their response was to call a technician. From the above posts, it certainly provide much hope. It seems this problem is common to the area. I guess I'll call Comcast as they recommend and see how far I get. Wish me luck! lol
penncomputers
join:2001-01-12
Williamstown, NJ

penncomputers

Member

Re: Speed problems

Well, I'm still in the same boat. Tier 2 did some speed test last night and told me there is no problem. Well, I still lose packets (Especially when streaming data). I can't even view any movie's online now since I drop about 10 packets in a span of 30 seconds. Since I know comcast does look at dslreport's forum. If any of you at comcast have a clue on what is happening off the r1-fe1-0.plsntvlle1.nj.home.net [24.18.63.65]system? It seems like anyone that is gated through this system is having a speed/loss of packets problem.
amspete
join:2000-09-04
Egg Harbor Township, NJ

amspete

Member

Well is looks as though Comcast has figured something out. Today, all the sudden my speeds are back up to where they were in August. I tested to the west coast at better than 4000 down today. That's the first time in a month and a half. I just hope it's back to stay and not just a tempory fix. Is anyone else in the area seeing their speeds back up also?

Morac
Cat god
join:2001-08-30
Riverside, NJ

Morac

Member

NJ to PA problem

The problem is with 10.73.30.98 incoming (10.73.30.97 outgoing). I've been running traces on it for about 2 weeks and every day at about 5:45 PM the ping rate triples and I start getting packet loss. This continues till 12:45 AM. On weekends the times are slightly different.

I have no idea what or where 10.73.30.98 and 10.73.30.97 are but I'm convinced that they are set up wrong or they are purposely being degraded since the problems start and end the same time everyday and the problems started abruptly. If it was a problem with too many users things would gradually start to get slower not instantly.

I've been monitoring the Pleasantville headend at:

»monitor.dslreports.com/m ··· 18.63.78

You can see what I'm talking about.

I'm afraid to call tech support cause all they'll want to do is send a technician out. Apparently that's the only thing they're able to do.

On a positive note, if I connect at offpeak hours (like 4AM) I get pretty fast speeds (about 2000Kpbs to the news server). No where near the 5000 Kpbs speeds I used to get but still respectable.

ThomaDave
join:2002-09-12
Moorestown, NJ

ThomaDave

Member

Teach Support

No, that's not a typo, it's a request. Please Comcast, teach your tech support department how to do their jobs! The only two answers they have to a support call are: 1) power off your modem for one minute, then turn it back on. When that doesn't work you hear 2) we'll send a technician out to your site - how's Tuesday for you... no next Tuesday.

My small business has the "Pro" package, so I thought we'd get a little bit better service than their standard home user package. No such luck. We have frequent outages (about every one to two weeks) lasting anywhere between 10 minutes to 8 days at a time.

joegreen
Polaroids Of Polar Bears
Premium Member
join:2002-09-21
Galloway, NJ

joegreen

Premium Member

Absecon Comcast speeds

I know a few friends from school that are overall pleased with their service with Comcast. A few gamers I know say that their Counter Strike games play excellent on east coast servers and pretty well on other parts of the us. But in other countries it becomes pretty slower. But they have speeds of 1500 kbps + / 135 + speeds. Which is pretty good. And they say they havent had any outages neither. Im still iffy weather to get Comcast, but I guess I will have to being Atlantic County hasnt made any deals with other places, but I talked to an extremely help ful online tech from Earthlink Broadband and he told me they are in process of expanding their avaibility in South Jersey near AC. We probably will be getting Earthlink soon because at BestBuy in the Consumer Square they have a selection to sign up for them. Oh well...I think that Comcast has great potential of being better, but they are fine in some areas, all depending where you live.
joegreen

joegreen

Premium Member

Absecon Comcast Speeds

I know a few friends from school that are overall pleased with their service with Comcast. A few gamers I know say that their Counter Strike games play excellent on east coast servers and pretty well on other parts of the us. But in other countries it becomes pretty slower. But they have speeds of 1500 kbps + / 135 + speeds. Which is pretty good. And they say they havent had any outages neither. Im still iffy weather to get Comcast, but I guess I will have to being Atlantic County hasnt made any deals with other places, but I talked to an extremely help ful online tech from Earthlink Broadband and he told me they are in process of expanding their avaibility in South Jersey near AC. We probably will be getting Earthlink soon because at BestBuy in the Consumer Square they have a selection to sign up for them. Oh well...I think that Comcast has great potential of being better, but they are fine in some areas, all depending where you live.

Kimi H
@comcast.net

Kimi H

Anon

The whirling Comcast.

In your area, you might scream how fast Comcast's speed is, especially if you are related to Comcast, like working for Comcast. But, it is not so in many other areas. Comcast's speed for other areas has been up and down. When it is slow, it could almost as slow as dial up. Comcast has advertised its speed as up to 5 times the speed of DSL (which is about 1750k). When your speed only reaches 200's kbs, it isn't faster than DSL. So, never mind being faster than DSL. When Comcast claims its speed is up to 5 times the speed of DSL (which is about 1750k), the margin different between the average speed and its claim speed (which is about 1750k) shouldn't be too big. If you only reaches 200k, it is too large of a margin (from 1750k). It is like a dial up service is screaming that its speed is faster than DSL. It is misleading advertisements!

Morac
Cat god
join:2001-08-30
Riverside, NJ

Morac

Member

Re: The whirling Comcast.

I don't work for Comcast. I still hate Comcast as a company (I hate most large companies), but I have to admit they've done a complete 180 in my area regarding service and support and their email service went from one of the worst in the industry to one of the best.

I'm sorry that in your area there are speed problems, but have you tried calling and complaining? I wouldn't accept 200 kbps when you are paying for 1500 kbps (Comcast doesn't officially offer anything fast than 1500 kbps currently, though that will change to 3000 kbps soon). If Comcast won't help you then I suggest switching to an ISP that will.

You can also try posting to the Comcast HSI forum as there may be someone there who can help you.