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 Review by ncherry 
UPDATED: 1.8 years ago
member for 6.3 years, 2074 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Monroe Township,Middlesex,NJ
 $46 per month
 about 14 days
 "4/1 Mbps speed, stable other than a bad (old) modem. Tech support is more courteou."
 "Tech support is still a weak point or hinderence."
 "Some annoyances but I think it's still worth it."
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Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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New review from 2007
I have given Comcast a better review on their support because they are much more courteous than in the past, they haven't demanded a Windows PC for problems, and they've been more tolerant of my firewall. The reason they haven't gotten better than a 3 is that the support center isn't made aware of what the rest of Comcast is doing. I recently had a problem where Comcast changed their email port for use with Thunderbird. A call to support was of no help as they weren't aware of the change. I did receive an email weeks earlier but it was for Outlook users and it was sent by a third party (not to be trusted). Also they're SPAM filters are becoming more intolerant of mail list subscriptions and I'm losing more incoming and outgoing mail. I using domain, email and hosting service outside of Comcast to remedy these problems.
Old review from 2005 (?)
I've had cable internet access since @Home ran beta tests (better than 4500 download speed). At that time it took 2 weeks to install (1998) but the installer was really good and left no mess behind. He even ignored my computer rack next to where the cable entered the house. I've since had to call in for a bad drop cable. Water in the cable running from the telephone pole to the my home and the field engineer really knew what he was doing. The drop was not the newer cable run for internet access.
I've also had to call into @Homes telephone service center and their wait time were on the order of 20 minutes. After Comcast picked up @Homes customers I've called into Comcast's service center a few times and their wait time has dropped considerably. Unfortunately their tier 1 support reads from a canned script and the people have very little knowledge of anything else including when to escalate to the next tier. When you can get a problem escalated to the next tier you will probably end up playing phone tag. And there is no way to send email to tech support, it must be done through a web page (very annoying). Recently, I used live chat support and that went well. I had a quick answer with no wait.
I've had less SPAM than expected so their SPAM filters seem to work half way decently. I still get SPAM but my filters take care of the rest (I get a lot of mail!). When trying to report abuse by Comcast users or scams purporting to be from Comcast you'll need to use the web page again. And don't expect anything other than the automated response from them. Any mail sent to abuse@comcast.net will be automatically responded to with a canned email stating: 'use the web page'. I've found their support web page reporting system to be useless. I also used it to tell them what I thought of their support web page. I was polite but I sent an earful. I've yet to hear back from them (6 months now).
On the subject of web pages, my home page works and I've had very little trouble with it.
My internet access has been pretty consistent ,it just works. I've got a dynamic address that seems to change only when I power down the Teradyne cable modem. The cable modem has no web page to report line conditions but at 3 dollars a month rental it's a little hard to justify purchasing a newer unit. Comcast swapped out the previous non-docsis Motorola modem for the current one. I just brought in the old one and they gave me a new one. I think there was an option for a tech to come and swap the unit but I only remember that I wanted to do it when it it was easy for me to do it.
I'd recommend at least a hardware firewall and good virus software. This has nothing to do with Comcast just broadband internet access. If you get a firewall be prepared for tech support asking you to by-pass it when you have problems. They use canned scripts and never deviate from it. If you use an OS other than what they support be prepared to have a Windows machine to get you past the script. Their upper tiers don't have this problem as long as you're not calling in with an OS specific problem.
As for DNS it works most of the time. I have had problems with a few weird sites that wouldn't resolve from time to time. The News service seems sluggish but it does work.
Edit update (10/11/2005)
Well I've avoided calling the tech support (they havne't gotten better but their wait time are less). We now have new speeds which are supposed to be around 6M/384K. I never reach 6M but this may be as much a machine tuning problem as it is a busy network. No problems that can be attributed to Comcast and I feel that the Internet service is worth it. Now ask me about the cable TV and I have a completely different opinion. There I'm not happy about the constant switching of the packages and sneaking in a dollar here a dollar there into the bill. The price of the Internet with out cable TV is $10 more and the speeds are not as high. I can't wait for Verizion to bring competiion to my are at least then I'll have a choice.
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