 Review by Scree 
UPDATED: 161 days ago
member for 8.5 years, 2774 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Mount Laurel,Burlington,NJ
 $52 per month
 about 16 days
 "Hot download speed"
 "Could use better upload speed"
 "Surely worth it (when no other choice)"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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[Was @Home when got back in 1999] Install took place about 10 days after ordering via their web site. Installation was smooth, all they did was split my existing cable and set the tcp/ip etc. settings in Windows. They didn't install any software, but I was sure to tell them I didn't want anything they offered. They said the modem could take up to an hour to synchronize, and they left. Well, hours went by, and no go. So I finally called, and the rep said he'll check stuff there and to call back the next day if it didn't sync yet. Still no go, so he schedules a service call that's 10 days later because they're so understaffed! So there sits the modem blinking, but "luckily" for only 6 days, as this very nice lady rep calls around 6 pm to ask if I still had a problem (was dinner time, but no big deal in this case -hehe). And problem solved... The culprit was the installer told them the wrong modem serial number when he called to get it activated! He read one digit wrong. Well, as you can imagine, it was a tough 6 days, thinking "why didn't the installer test the cable line quality" because he didn't, etc. etc. And the techs at the office should have known better, being a brand new install, that a wrong serial number could have been a possibility. Well, now they know better, I HOPE. ['Days from order to success' would have been 10 days instead of 16 if they didn't make that stupid mistake.] Anyway, it was a static IP, but later was forced to change to dynamic. The service rocks most of the time. It does go out now and then, sometimes for 30 seconds, sometimes for 5 hours, but rarely -- some days were "bad" in terms of annoying mini-outages, but never had a very serious outage time other than one in almost a year now. Things were pretty cool for another six months, then there was this major problem that caused the modem to not sync anymore, the cause having been their attempt to send out a modem update that backfired on modems that had some bad revision of the firmware (so they said). So after calling about the problem, it took 16 days for that service call! (modem was replaced) Finally, just recently my area had a pathetic cap on upload speed implemented, which SUCKS BIGTIME! Upload speed is no better than ISDN now, and terrible compared to same-priced DSL. Now while uploading, web browsing stalls a bit because the upload stream is maxed out at the time. Luckily download speed remains decent, but that has been seriously capped now as well. To further take away service value, newsgroup access is now pathetic with a 1gb a MONTH limit! Value to cost ratio, hello?!!! Anyway, Comcast is still definitely worth the money because it's simply superior to trying to do anything on 56K or worse anymore, that's for sure.
[AS OF 7/05] Over time they increased speeds to much better value (competition?), and newsgroups are now 2gb a month.
[AS OF 6/08] Since last update, bought own modem to get rid of the rental fee to reduce the charge by $3 (was $42.95, went to $39.95). Later they raised the normal price to $42.95. A while later I added $10 for the increased speed tier (double the download and much better upload). Since then Comcast has been pressured by competition (though there is STILL no alternative in my area!) and increased the speeds further on all tiers, including implementing "powerboost" or "blast!" (or whatever it's called by the time I finish writing -lol). Newsgroups are still 2gb a month, but now especially pathetic if go over because they seem to lock you out for two months instead of resetting on the next month! (So I'm done with that for good now.) -- Newsgroups officially killed some time later, of course with no reduction in service cost.
[AS OF 5/09] The $52.95 speed tier was recently increased to 18 Mbps down (22 powerboostblast - Was 16/20) and 3 Mbps up (5 powerboostblast - Was 2/4). And just when I was seriously considering going back down to the $42.95 speed tier because the upload speeds were the same for both before. Smart move, comcast! Maybe. lol
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