Review by ricklg 
UPDATED: 11 days ago
member for 5.6 years, 1798 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 Laurel,Anne Arundel,MD
 $43 per month (month by month)
 about 1 days
 "Connection Speed, Reliability"
 "Tech Support"
 "Quite satisfied overall"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Latest Review at the bottom.
6/15/2004 Original Review:
After having various dial up services since 1992 (remember Prodigy at 2400 bps?) I decided to try Comcast HSI. Dial up was OK, but I had seen what broadband was like at work. In February 2004 I saw the Best Buy offer for Comcast HSI at $19.99 for 3 months ($42.95 after), Motorola SB5100 (free with rebate), Comcast self install kit (free with rebate), and a $75 Best Buy Gift card. The gift card was good for a router and a few bucks more. This looked like a good deal so I took the plunge.
Self install was a snap (sort of). I already had Comcast Cable TV service so there was no need for a technician to come out. I spent about an hour cabling up and running the self install software. I ran the connection software and it wouldn't connect. I tried and tried. I finally called Comcast to register the modem MAC address. Best Buy supposedly registered the modem with Comcast when I bought it, but Comcast had no record of it. After a few calls to get the right MAC address installed and their database updated (twice!) everything worked fine. The Indian lady was very hard to understand tho. It was about 6 hours from opening the box to being on line.
The service is 3Mb down, 256Kb up. The DSLreports benchmark shows 3.1 Mb down, 240Kb up. This has been consistent for the 4 months I've had Comcast HSI. It is sometimes a bit pokey (down to 2Mb  ), but I've also seen 4.7Mb at times. I've only been down 3 times in 4 months and one of those times was during a storm where I lost power for 6 hours. The other 2 times were 10 to 45 minutes long. My area is a new installation for Comcast HSI so my mileage may be different than yours.
Tech support is terrible if you don't have a configuration question. I tried the on line chat help to ask about a port 123 (network time) network routing problem. It had been working then it stopped after a month. The chat guy was nasty and clueless. I called the 800 number and the first person I talked to was pleasant, but clueless. Neither knew what I was talking about and assumed I was stupid. I got to the next support level and finally talked to a knowledgeable person. It shouldn't take 3 hours to find someone who understands your question.
Overall I'm quite satisfied. As long as my service remains reliable and I don't have to call tech support I'll be very happy. I have other broadband choices (Millennium Cable and Verizon DSL), but Comcast seems to be the best available. I'm still thinking about the price difference from ATT Worldnet dial up ($16.95/mo) and Comcast, but I think I'm hooked on broadband.
4/15/2005 Update:
After 1 year with Comcast I'm truly hooked on broadband. My service suffered during the October 2004 through January 2005 speed upgrade. There were speed and modem sync problems during that time. Since they announced the upgrade complete in January 2005 I have had nothing but good, reliable service. I now have 4000/384 service with the upgrade. Speed tests consistently show 3700/350 or better.
They have had several bad DNS outages in April 2005, but I put an alternate DNS address in the router and never noticed the problem.
I haven't had to call tech support in a while (thank goodness), but I assume it's as abysmal as ever. I would go with someone else with comparable service and good tech support, but they don't exist.
11/15/2005 Update:
I'm still very satisfied with my Comcast HSI service. The Summer speed upgrades went well. I have been consistently getting 6Mbit/s down and 350Kbits up since August.
I had to call customer service (sigh) in July when a thunderstorm knocked the cable out. I called and found out it was a big outage. Two days later I called again (service rep was surprised I was still out) and got a truck roll 2 days later. The technician was very accommodating and spent about an hour troubleshooting. He determined the problem was in the distribution system. He put in a work order, but he couldn't confirm a completion date. Sigh. Not his fault, that's just the way it works. Late the next day my Internet connection came up.
I was without Internet service for 5 days. I can't blame them for the thunderstorm, but anything past a day or two (especially when it's in their distribution system) seems grossly inefficient to me. This outage also affected my neighbors so I would have expected a bit more alacrity in their response.
Besides this act of God, the service has been reasonably solid with only 3 outages in the last 6 months that lasted about an hour each. I don't think this is too bad.
Although I can't complain about the Internet connection, the price is still a bit high. I'll consider going to Verizon FIOS if the price is right.
4/15/2007 Update:
I still can't complain. My ratings remain the same. Service since my last update has been pretty solid. Download speed is very close to the advertised 6 Mb/s and I'm seeing 640Kb/s upload with the upgrade a few months ago. Power Boost works fine. There were a couple of short down times, but I guess they have to do maintenance sometime They didn't bother me in any event.
I haven't needed to call them for anything recently, but my previous opinions about tech support remain. I'm still biased and they haven't done anything to change that. (Not necessarily their fault, but I still have a bad taste in my mouth.)
Verizon finally put a connection box in front of my house, so I'm definitely FIOS ready at the curb. Verizon prices are commensurate with Comcast prices so I'm not ready to explore new ground by changing (yet). It's good to know I have a viable alternative to Comcast if they get unreliable or more expensive than Verizon. Comcast is making waves about ditching analog cable. If they try to charge me for the digital TV box(es) that may be my clue to go FIOS. I'm hanging tough for now.
5/25/2008 Update:
My opinion remains unchanged. The network has been reliable except for when Mother Nature causes problems. These outages were taken care of quickly. I made 1 service call during the last rating period. I asked for a line tech and got an installer. When he got here he told me I should have asked for a line tech...sigh. I fixed the problem myself (corroded connector). The installer magnanimously said he wouldn't charge me.
I'm still quite satisfied although tech support still needs a lot of work (but you already knew that!)
3/27/2009 Update:
I'm still quite pleased with the Comcast service and reliability. My service was upgraded to 12Mbit/1Mbit in December with no price increase (still $42.95). This upgrade is working very well. I am still using my original SB5100 modem (I'm glad I didn't rent it!).
The 250GB cap doesn't affect me yet so there's no reason to complain. I am concerned that if I use more streaming video that this could be a problem in the future. I was lucky to not need to call tech support in the past year so I avoided that frustration.
I received a Christmas gift of an HD TV. This has got me thinking again. Comcast HD choices are severely limited in my area despite advertising to the contrary. So far it's OK, but my choice of TV providers could affect my choice of ISP.
10/28/2009 Update:
Comcast has been very reliable since the last update. Because I haven't needed to call customer support I'm still quite happy.
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