 Review by JTC 
UPDATED: 1.2 years ago
member for 7.8 years, 2024 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Beaverton,Washington,OR
 $68 per month (24 month contract)
 about 9 days
 "Cheap for a 'business class' service, flexable compared to the residental service"
 "It's Comcast with it's shared node design and weird provisioning setups"
 "Not bad, but not what I would call a 'real' business class service"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings below consensus)
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My previous ISP (Integra Telecom), while being a very good role model for what a business class service should be, sadly could not provide me with the speed that I needed and wanted. Due to loop length issues and an aging copper infrastructure that VZ really doesn't seem too concerned about doing anything with now that FIOS is in my area, just not my neighborhood, I was never able to get more than a 700/600 connection (I was provisioned for an up to 1.5 mbit symmetrical connection).
Enter Comcast Business. I signed up for two years with the low end to start (6 down, 1 up). Installation fee is waved for long term (two year minimum) contracts.
Pre Sales information - While the sales rep answered my questions and did seem to check with tech support on a few questions he didn't have the answers for, some of his answers were incorrect. He also failed to mention a few things on how billing was done.
Question: Can I run my own DNS, including reverse lookups?
Answer (after checking): Yes
Correct Answer: Forward DNS yes, reverse lookups are handled by Tier 2 tech support, they will not allow someone to handle rDNS on the client side.
Question: The modem, can I put it into bridge mode and use my own router/firewall/$FOO device?
Answer: Yes
Correct Answer: After a fashion. Due to the way static IP's are provisioned, the modem (a SMC-8014) does have router and firewall functions, but they do not have to be used. Machines that are to have a public IP are to be configured to use them and attached to the SMC, after the firewall functions are turned off. The default router for the machines is the IP assigned to the SMC. Best way I can explain it is that the router that connects to the world is the SMC at the customer site, not some black box on the ISP's side.
Billing: Comcast uses a pre-paid method of billing (pay the monthly bill and you have service for the upcoming month). This resulted in a surprise to me when I received my first bill stating that was past due on my account and I owed two months worth of service, never mind that I have had the service for less than a month. This detail was never communicated to me. Also, when I received my bill, I saw that the credit that I was promised by exec escalations (a 'sorry our installer screwed up so badly' credit) was not applied. When I called billing, I was told by a nice person in billing that it appeared that it was not approved yet and would probably take a billing cycle to kick in.
Fortunately, one call to my contact as exec escalations fixed this issue and the full amount was credited to my account.
Install Co-ordination - While the installer showed up on time and didn't take a long time to get everything working, the install was a mess for many reasons. I won't go into details, as it has already been posted to the forums (see »[Business] Less than stellar install... for more), but in summary, the installer disconnected all the existing jacks in my place, didn't clean up, and left a very unprofessional install behind.
Connection Reliability - As I've only had the service for less than a month, I can't really comment too much on this, but I did mark it above average as the connection is very clean and strong (»Finally got around to checking my signal levels...), does seem to have the speeds that were sold to me, and has not gone down yet. Pings are pretty good and doesn't appear to fluctuate much (I'm monitoring the connection using smokeping).
Tech Support - Support for Comcast Business is 24/7. I've had to call tech support a few times (get the correct IP's ranges, figure out the fake bridging setup, set up rDNS), and after we were all sure we were talking about the same thing, they were helpful and actually seemed to know what they are talking about, what they are doing, and how the 'net in general works. I received no hint of script monkeyness with these guys, even when I called in at 1AM to get a new rDNS setup, which was up and working that afternoon.
Services: 6 mbit down, 1 mbit up (personally, I'd rather have a faster up, but my options are limited), five statics (you get your own /29 subnet) for an extra $10 a month, no caps, no blocked ports for under $70 a month. Usenet access is available, I apparently just need to talk to tech support to get a @comcast.net account set up (which I've not done yet). The rest of the stuff listed on the Comcast business site, I can't comment on as I have not tried to use it, nor do I have any use for them.
Value for the Money - All things being equal, they are a good value for a business data service. However, what they call a 'business class' I would call somewhere in between a true business class and residential class service (Integra is a hard act to follow, much less beat). One doesn't have the limits that are put on the residential accounts, but the cost for a given speed is higher than said residential.
Overall, I'm OK with the service so far. The speeds are much nicer and the connection, so far, is stable. I do have reservations due to the billing issues (not being told how it works, the missing credit), the way the network is set up (business runs off of the same infrastructure as residential accounts), and the questionable rep that the SMC modem/gateway has (will a tech deliver a new modem to me if it goes out at 8PM at night? I won’t hold my breath. A traditional setup would have their NOC techs at the keyboards working to get everything back up ASAP and not forcing their customers to wait until business hours), but these are not enough cons for me to drop the service.
Looks like I'm going to have an account with Comcast for the full two years I signed up for.
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