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Review by SeattleMatt See Profile

  • Location: Seattle, King, WA, USA
  • Cost: $60 per month
  • Install: about 6 days
Solid Internet
HD Channels and HD Quality
They're the best Internet in Seattle
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)

**UPDATE 1/25/2016**
Since my last update - we have left the East coast and moved to Seattle. Comcast internet here is ROCK solid - we are on the 150/10 package which usually comes out to around 170/12 on tests.

20 downstream channels and 4 upstream channels are currently in use in the greater Seattle area - so the PNW is definitely leaps ahead of the bigger East Coast cities when it comes to upgrades.

I don't believe we've had a single outage in almost 10 months of living here - only when a tree fell and took out our drop. Not really Comcast's fault there. LOL.

We are using DirecTV for our television - and I couldn't be happier. Best HD picture quality and selection currently out there.

**UPDATE 2/12/2013**

I left FIOS for Comcast in July of 2012. A month later, also picked up the Xfinity Home product, which blows away our archaic ADT system, and at a cheaper price.

Internet is solid at 50/10 - I don't think we've had an issue once.

Phone - does what it's supposed to.

TV - really disappointed w/ the amount of HD channels Comcast is missing. They're sitting on gobs of QAM capacity right now, and I'll remain perplexed as to why they aren't being more aggressive on the HD front.

3 weeks ago, was finally able to swap out my STB's for the new X1 DVR and HD boxes. This platform is amazing. Sure a few small hiccups here and there - but it so blows away the I-guide, if you have even the slightest chance of getting one of these boxes - DO IT NOW.

Frankly, I think it is better than the FIOS TV IMG, which I had used for years.

**UPDATE 11/20/07** Comcast TV

Anyone on this site knows the nightmare I went through with FIOS TV. Well, i've been back with Comcast for TV for a little over a month now. Awesome picture quality, decent HD offerings, and, unlike FIOS - reception that doesn't pixellate or drop out every other week.

**UPDATE 12/10/05 - Digital Voice**
Well-
I just had my Digital Voice install completed! Took the tech less than 45 minutes - and he arrived at the BEGINNING of my 8-11am window.

I currently own my own modem - and have a dedicated split up to my office. The tech installed the Arris telephony modem in my basement, mounted it on the wall - and then split the 2nd line into the house (used for TV)with a 2-way splitter. Ran 1 end to the Arris - the other to the 3-way splitter servicing the TV's. Even after all this, all levels are great - even the person at the CDV center that confirmed the levels for the tech thought they were great.

He then hard-wired the telephone line from the Arris into the existing house wiring (something I Never had with Vonage). I was then able to plug my phone into the regular jack in the kitchen - BAMM - all up and running - and on my old ported Vonage #! I set up the voicemail - which also has online access, email notification, etc. So far i'm very impressed. One thing I have to get used to is dialing a "1" with every call again. Apparently you need to use 11 digit dialing. I was given a promotional $27/month rate for the first year - however I do have one issue - there is a $3 monthly modem rental charge on my work assignment. This was NOT expected - so i'll need to call them to get that straightend up. All in all - very much a success - the call quality is clearer than Vonage - and the voicemail much more intuitive. They also have ACR - which Vonage did not.

PS - Internet service continues to be excellent.
--

**UPDATE- 8/4/05**

Latest round of upgrades has made it to Delaware. I'm now officially on the 8/768 Gold Tier. Continued EXCELLENT service.

Last Result:
Download Speed: 8198 kbps (1024.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 717 kbps (89.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

Latency is INCREDIBLE - internal Comcast pings are 15ms to the boarder hops.

**UPDATE- 4/11/05**

Just finished up moving this past weekend to my new home in DE. I'm on the same 6000/768 plan as before - but ping times are averaging about 6ms better to the outside world.

Have to say i'm a happy man! The install tech was VERY professional - spent at least an hour at my house - and made sure everything was perfect before leaving.

He had to have the 6 meg bootfile sent again as at first I was only on the 4 meg one - and he also replaced the splitter outside to pad the signal levels.

So far i'm impressed with the level of service in New Castle County.

**UPDATE- 1/27/05**

Well, the latest (and best yet) Comcast upgrade went into effect today for no extra charge. I'm on the Home Networking (Gold) tier - I went from 4000/384 to 6000/768.

Speed tests are now showing:

2005-01-27 06:39:25 EST: 6141 / 719
Your download speed : 6288920 bps, or 6141 kbps.
A 767.6 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 737010 bps, or 719 kbps.

Not bad...no change in ping times. THANKS COMCAST!

**UPDATE - 7/19/04**

All is well in Comcast land - my area's system recently went through a rebuild and my signal levels are the best since i've signed on back in 2001. Literally a 10dB increase in downstream signal without anything done on my end.

Speeds continue 24/7 around 4100/360 - BBR Line Quality test from the East Coast averages ~ 17ms the entire day.

Thanks Comcast! Keep it up.

**UPDATE - 1/3/04**

Keep on rockin' Comcast...a recent fix for some issues in areas that had the new Cadent routers installed was pushed through and now i'm enjoyin' my internet life to it's fullest! Getting 4200+/370 down 24/7 and pings EXCELLENT!

Thanks!!!!

**UPDATE - 11/12/03**
Signed up for and had the new "Home Networking" package installed yesterday. $52.95/mo plus $5/mo rental for the Linksys / Comcast branded router / modem combo. Speeds are 4000 down / 384 up. Had my desktop and wireless laptop hooked up - have the ability to add 3 other connections either via wireless or ethernet. Installation charge was $99.

Speeds are currently running around 3850/365 - check out zip 19025 for my results.

Who needs the 3.0 upgrade!??!? Great work Comcast. I'm still a very happy customer.

**UPDATE - 4/2/03**
We received the 256k upgrade maybe a month or so ago -and everything has been going strong - I now average around 1720/220 on EVERY speed test I do - so something else was done with the download speed since I never really hit above 1500 previously.

»/quali ··· /1040065

Awesome job Comcast!

**UPDATE - 1/29/03**
So far so good with the new year! Anxiously awaiting the new 256k Upload speeds. Recent routing changes in my area to Level 3 have kept latency to a minimum, even during prime times. Max pings around 50ms at that time. Too bad I don't game or anything..lol.

Tracing route to dslreports.com [209.123.109.175]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 9 ms 7 ms 8 ms 10.97.56.1
2 9 ms 8 ms 7 ms 172.30.146.209
3 8 ms 7 ms 14 ms 172.30.146.250
4 13 ms 12 ms 12 ms 172.30.146.123
5 17 ms 8 ms 7 ms 172.30.141.250
6 8 ms 11 ms 16 ms 172.30.139.59
7 9 ms 9 ms 13 ms 68.80.0.62
8 9 ms 9 ms 9 ms POS4-0.hsipaccess2.Philadelphia1.Level3.net [63.
208.100.69]
9 13 ms 10 ms 9 ms ge-6-2-1.mp2.Philadelphia1.level3.net [209.247.9
.37]
10 12 ms 11 ms 13 ms so-3-0-0.mp1.NewYork1.Level3.net [64.159.1.41]
11 13 ms 11 ms 11 ms gigabitethernet2-1.core1.NewYork1.Level3.net [64
.159.17.69]
12 16 ms 12 ms 11 ms unknown.wcg.net [209.244.160.138]
13 17 ms 14 ms 13 ms nycmny2wcx1-netaccess-atm.wcg.net [64.200.86.178
]
14 19 ms 20 ms 13 ms 0095.gi-1-1.msfc1.oct.nac.net [64.21.102.2]
15 14 ms 19 ms 13 ms www.dslreports.com [209.123.109.175]

Keep up the great work Comcast.

**UPDATE - 11/25**

Well, my one year anniversary of having HSI is coming up soon - and I don't know how I lived without the service. In almost a year i've only seen about 2 or 3 downtimes (lightning & upgrades), and ping times have been fairly awesome. They've done some rerouting in the past week with Sprint/AT&T/Level 3 to try and alleviate some of the prime-time slowdowns we've been seeing on the East Coast. Also, i've discovered that there are quite a bit of upgrades to local nodes (splitting, etc.) to keep up with the demand of the service.

All in all - if you check out my zip (19025), you'll see I am always around 1400-1500 down... not bad...and I really can't complain.

**UPDATE - 3/11**

Just thought I'd give another update -- so far, so good..speeds continue in the 1200-1350 range constantly -- pings no higher than 30ms EVER -- email (for me at least) working fine -- have experienced ZERO down time since New Years - only about 2 slow downs (updating DHCP server in my area) -- even though "dynamic" IP address -- mine has not changed once -- it may not be great for everyone -- but if you can't get DSL -- and all you know is AOL - Comcast cannot be beat.

**UPDATE - 2/14*****

Well -- the transition has come and gone -- my area lucked out -- our proxy server was setup from the start to run very well -- only experienced one night of slowdown other than the actual off time for the transition -- new email account setup yesterday - and everything continues to run fine -- new cap at 1500/128 - and I regularly receive speeds of 1200-1350 ... all okay with me. overall -- give it a thumbs up!

**1 month UPDATE***

Well, I have now had the service for almost a month - I can't say enough about it -- even during peak prime-time hours, I have not seen my dl speeds below 1800 or so ..which to me is great - yeah the uploads are capped at 128 -- but hey, thats twice as nice as my old AOL upload..so i'll take it..my first bill arrived -- my free month was there -- and every date listed for activation was correct -- they bumped the start date up a week due to the provisioning problems I saw at first..

The big test will now happen in 10 days -- when I get moved to the new Comcast.net service -- i'll post again with an update on how that goes -- hopefully since my area is pretty new -- and the nodes are spankin' new -- it'll go off without a hitch.

--------------------------------
My area was finally upgraded for Comcast internet service in the Philly suburbs.. so I called and got everything setup last Friday -- well, since I was a new area -- the "node" they had me assigned to was incorrect -- so after a technician visit Wednesday, and another phone call last night -- I was finally locked in after changing my "Computer name" a second time and being re-provisioned.

The speed is incredible..and i'm already loving this over my crappy dial-up AOL i've used my whole life..

I'm not going to rely on the email a whole lot since in the next two weeks we're getting switched over to Comcast's OWN service -- so we'll see how that works out..and oh yeah, I have XP -- and it works FINE! you don't even really need the @Home software...thats what the tech service told me -- and they were 1000% nicer than Comcast's CABLE tech support...

Thanks for finally upgrading me Comcast!

member for 22.2 years, 9313 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 7.8 years ago


mattman4
join:1999-10-25

mattman4

Member

Maybe me too?

Hey, Im in Lafayette Hill, is it possible that my area is available now? I'm on vacation now, so I'm not going to call Comcast, but maybe I can get it now. How did you find out it was available to you now? Did they call you, or did you call them, or did you go to their website to find out?

SeattleMatt
Streaming Tech Director
Premium Member
join:2001-12-28
Seattle, WA

SeattleMatt

Premium Member

Re: Maybe me too?

Mattman-
I've had a contact at Comcast since about March 2001 when i first started asking about it -- she finally emailed me last week and said my area was up -- if you go to their site - it still tells you that you can't get it -- so maybe they're waiting to get all the kinks worked out (like the ones I had)-- i'm in Dresher -- they just rolled out service in my area, Ambler, and in Springfield and Whitemarsh townships.. I was in one of the old Adelphia areas that got switched over at the beginning of the year..

I'd say give em a call...

mattman4
join:1999-10-25

mattman4

Member

Re: Maybe me too?

Thanks - Im in Whitemarsh township, so this looks promising. Would you mind giving me this contacts email address, because I always get stonewalled when I call comcast about service. You could email it or pm it to me if you don't want to post it on the public forum. Thanks

SeattleMatt
Streaming Tech Director
Premium Member
join:2001-12-28
Seattle, WA

SeattleMatt

Premium Member

Re: Maybe me too?

Mattman -- since I didn't want to give out her email address, I asked her for you myself.. here is the reply I just received:

"Also, two-way service is available in Lafayette Hill. If you provide me
with an address, I can confirm availability or your friend can call our
customer service number at 1-800-220-7920."

So it looks like you're finally in business too!
SeattleMatt

SeattleMatt to mattman4

Premium Member

to mattman4
Mattman-
You can get the service in L'Hill.... she confirmed it for me! And you just need to call and sign up!

mattman4
join:1999-10-25

mattman4

Member

Re: Maybe me too?

Thanks Jeep Matt. Just got home from Orlando, Fl this evening, will call tomorrow (Sunday) and order it! Did you do the self install or the pro install? I'm leaning towards the pro install, that way I can have them run a fresh drop right to the computer. I guess it all depends on how long it takes to get an appointment. Thanks

SeattleMatt
Streaming Tech Director
Premium Member
join:2001-12-28
Seattle, WA

SeattleMatt

Premium Member

Re: Maybe me too?

Whoa -- thats crazy -- i'm going to Orlando next saturday for a week!

I did the self-install -- was way too easy - and my friends ran a fresh cable line into my den for me..

Hope everyting works out for you.
Zukimanus8
join:2002-03-13
North Augusta, SC

Zukimanus8 to mattman4

Member

to mattman4

Transition for the better.

Hello, I am writing from the east coast. South Carolina to be exact. Before the transition I was getting 700-900 kbs download and 15-25 upload. After the transition I am at 1.2 download and 100-110 upload. My pings have dropped into the 30-40 range. It was a pain but I think it is going to be better now.
ps. I was also spoiled by the high speed connectivity about 2 years ago. I was a beta tester for my area and must have been close to the only one on my node. I didn't know about the dsl speed test at the time but my downloads were in excess of 500 kbs from about anywhere that wasn't conjested.

AdamE
@dialinx.net

AdamE

Anon

I need to know!

I'm in Collegeville and bought a Self Install Kit at the King of Prussia Mall ($50 for Modem, software and splitter with $100 rebate). I called to have it provisioned 9 days ago (Dec 20) and am still waiting.

How long did it take for guys? What number did you call?

Comcast just keeps lying to me.

NPire
join:2001-05-01
New York, NY

NPire

Member

Re: I need to know!

I too am a new customer near you, it took me three days to get provisioned. I referred a friend who got the kit two days after me, and he is still waiting (day 5) to get provisioned. They are claiming it is the holiday rush...

SeattleMatt
Streaming Tech Director
Premium Member
join:2001-12-28
Seattle, WA

SeattleMatt

Premium Member

Re: I need to know!

I live in Dresher -- i got provisioned instantly this past week -- not sure why they're giving you guys a runaround!

I'm up and running perfect.

mjritche
join:2001-07-09
Hershey, PA

mjritche

Member

I'd rather be new 2 comcast than transitioned.

I'm glad your happy with your service. Many people who are coming from 56k, or bad DSL providers to Comcast (post transition) think the service is great. You get what you are paying for (for the most part), in near 1500/128. However, everyone should understand why a good amount of past Comcast@Home customers are complaining about their service. I for one was in the Hershey, PA area with Comcast since this past July. My download speeds through them were 2900/128 CONSTANTLY. Hershey had its own node, and not many people used it. No matter what time of day you did a speed test, it would be in the 2700 to 2900 download range.

Also, my ping times were OUTSTANDING. You have to remember, we are not paying the 150+ dollars people with great ISP's like Megapath and Speakeasy are, yet alot of us with Comcast@Home got equivilent ping times, and twice as much download bandwidth. I was routed locally, and I pinged 20-30 to all of my favorite gaming servers.

So look at it like this, for under 40 dollars I was (and many people were) getting 2900/128 speeds and 20-30 pings to their favorite gaming servers at ALL times during the day or night.

Now I am getting 1300/120 speeds and 70-100 pings on all of those same servers. I am being routed through Chicago, instead of locally, and my service has gone up 5 dollars a month.

People who made the switch, or are new to the service, and have a more reliable connection: God bless you, your lucky. But there are alot more of us out there who got the shaft by this new service. Being spoiled with the 2900kbit downloads and 20 pings now is making me considering switching to Speakeasy to get the 15-25ms pings back, even if I have to pay 149 a month.

I do have to say, regardless of how much worse my service is now than what I had, it's still better than Verizon Online DSL.

Thanks for reading.

-Mark R.
Hershey, PA
finortis
join:2001-11-30

finortis

Member

Re: I'd rather be new 2 comcast than transitioned.

$149 per month? Are you unable to get ADSL or hmm... The 608/128 RADSL package I signed up for is about $59 per month. The 1,500/128 package would be about $89 per month. Are you sure you weren't looking at Megapath's prices (which are a bit higher)? Or is it that you would need IDSL or something?

mjritche
join:2001-07-09
Hershey, PA

mjritche

Member

Re: I'd rather be new 2 comcast than transitioned.

1.1Mbit/1.1Mbit Speakeasy and Megapath SDSL are in that price range.

-Mark R.
esteiro
join:2000-12-20
Harrison, NJ

esteiro to mjritche

Member

to mjritche
hi mjritche... Here in New Jersey download/upload speeds are cap like everywhere else... but the ping time still good

ICMP (ping) check
Minimum ping: 12 ms
Maximum ping: 27 ms
Ping stability:
14 16 19 23 27 19 18 20 13 12

My ping in all the eastern coast servers... are good 20-40 ping, I'm talking about Quake3 Arena, and Medal of Honor servers...
Kinslayer
join:2001-08-23
Flint, MI

Kinslayer

Member

Some were faster yet!

Before Comcast's transition from @Home to Comcast.net I was testing 3500-4000 down and 1000-1500 up any time of day. Now after the transition the best I can test at is 1000 down and 90 up. That is why a lot of us are upset with the change.
boneman
join:2002-03-15
Indianapolis, IN

boneman

Member

I registered Comcrap.com

Indianapolis Area, I've been on Comcast cable for 3 years. For the first two, I had 3-4mb down and 1.4 Mb up all day, every day. When they capped me a year ago I went to 1-1.2 Down and about 60k up and no service about 30% of the time. SUCK! I've had techs out to the house. No Help. I've had Tech support on and they suck too. After the conversion, I'm at 128 up which still blows. My ISDN from Amerishmeck was better than that. As for email, forget it, I use yahoo. So now my bill has gone up to 39.95 plus 7.95 modem rental, that's 48 a month. That means I'm paying more and getting less. I can no longer do video conferencing with my friend and I get lagged out of every game I try to play. My friends with DSL Laugh at me... Takes an hour to send a file
and it usually times out ~

I did have the same IP for 3 years, now I've had 3 in 3 weeks. SUCK!

I registered comcrap.com, I think I'll put an oficial comcast sucks site up...

Who was the dumb@ss in charge of @home anyway? How could you run something like that into the ground? Jesus, where do they get these people?
sdgeiger
join:2001-11-26
Phoenixville, PA

1 recommendation

sdgeiger

Member

Your Comcast Digital Voice review

Hi Matt,

I was just reading through your Comcast Digital Voice review. The item I want to comment on is this statement:

"I was then able to plug my phone into the regular jack in the kitchen "

I have Vonage and I am also able to plug my phones into a regular jack. No hard wiring was required. All I had to do was plug in a phone into a jack, as long as I knew for certain the line was dead. To ensure it stays dead, I unplugged the Telco wires from the jacks in my box and put a lock on the box.

-Scott