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Review by Archangel22 See Profile

  • Location: Ecorse, Wayne, MI, USA
  • Cost: $40 per month
  • Install: about 2 days
Good, consistent speed
Infrequent outages
Good Service, a little slow to know what's going on.
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

I ordered the standard cable modem home package from Comcast. I regularly get 900/123 speed tests at BBR. They were quick to install and repair my service. The line outside failed due to size and age. They gave the traditional 3-4 hr window. At 15 mins to the end of the period I called, aslking if they would be out that dayn thinking it wasn't going to happen. The guy arrived 2 mins after I hung up. They have always come when they said they would. That is rare in my experience. In the beginning there were frequent outages, but it has run smoothly for quite awhile since. I am very satisfied.

member for 21.5 years, 1566 visits, last login: 11 years ago
lodged 21.2 years ago


Review by FusionToast See Profile

  • Location: Washington, Warren, NJ, USA
  • Cost: $45 per month
Good speeds... finally two-way in my area.
Have noticed that the connection was down a few times.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)

Originally had Comcast back when it was still telco return in my area. I finally got fed up with it and went to DirecTV DSL... now that that is history (and Comcast is now two-way) I decided to go back to Comcast. So far it's been good, I have good speeds and there have only been a few times when the connection was lost (which I've blamed on the recent conversion to two-way service). Now... call Verizon and get rid of my land line.

member for 23 years, 1339 visits, last login: 7.1 years ago
lodged 21.2 years ago


Review by postmaniii See Profile

  • Location: Glen Gardner, Hunterdon, NJ, USA
  • Cost: $45 per month
  • Install: about 30 days
Reliability and uptime are consistent
No issues in the last year (i.e, 2004)
good choice - I recommend the service
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

I continue to recommend the Comcast HSI service.

member for 21.3 years, 185 visits, last login: 13.6 years ago
lodged 21.2 years ago







Review by sbs0518 See Profile

  • Location: Lakehurst, Ocean, NJ, USA
  • Cost: $49 per month
  • Install: about 3 days
Very Fast (depending on various factors)
Inexperienced Tech support, Unreliable sales information
Pricey but quick
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

Not really much to say. Downstream speed is great but Upstream is bad.

*Still provides a pretty good VPN and/or remote control connection.

*Connection is supposed to use DHCP but I grab the IP settings and hard-code into the router since they don't seem to expire the lease that often which allows me to run my web server.

*Current Comcast segment is provided my Comcast of Toms River, NJ. Before it was provided by Comcast of Brick, NJ which was terrible (at the time).

*When we first signed up, I knew that I had email accounts available to me but nobody from comcast gave me the information to use them and I had to call them to get the ball rolling. Also had terrible experience getting news groups going since they use a 3rd party group provider and the groups deal kinda sucks since you are limited to a 1gb transfer limit per month.

member for 21.3 years, 5 visits, last login: 19.3 years ago
lodged 21.3 years ago

voodoo_gravy
All Shall Dip In The Gravy
Premium Member
join:2002-10-04
Nashville, TN

voodoo_gravy

Premium Member

Why the bad rating?

If your downstream is good, you can vpn, you can even run a webserver against the TOS. Why are you giving them a bad rating? I don't understand why people seem convinced that when they recieve good service they still are not happy. Even when that person is breaking the TOS. I think that you need to be gratefull that you have service and that comcast does not shut you off for breaking the TOS. So in the future you probably need to say..service is great because I feel that I deserve more service than the rest of you out there.

V.
sbs0518
join:2002-12-14
Lakehurst, NJ

sbs0518

Member

Re: Why the bad rating?

1st- I didn't give them a "Bad" rating.
2nd- Who died and made you the god of broadband?. When I want your advice, I'll ask someone who knows.
3rd- We all break the TOS in many ways (and you know which ways those are).
voodoo_gravy
All Shall Dip In The Gravy
Premium Member
join:2002-10-04
Nashville, TN

voodoo_gravy

Premium Member

I don't feel that I am the god of broadband. I am just honest. I don't break my TOS for my broadband because I am not so arrogant as to assume that I deserve more service than what I agree to. If you vpn and have a pro account then I'm wrong But if you are running a webserver thanks for making sure in the future that my price will go up because you break the rules. It is always those few who ruin the good's for the the most.

Next time you don't want someone's opinion then I would suggest that you don't post within a public forum about the service you have received. So yes you did ask "my" opinion.

I would further more suggest that you don't post how you are abusing your service because anyone reading this "public" forum could turn you in for abuse. Don't worry because I don't care if you abuse it or not..it's not going be me disconnected for abuse

V.

paulinkc
join:2000-12-30
Lees Summit, MO

paulinkc to voodoo_gravy

Member

to voodoo_gravy
You consider this a "bad rating"? I've watched your posts and yes some people do rate Comcast bad, but this guy gave them an all around good rating. In his ratings, the Perfomance category was probably based upon his opionion of both Up and Down and not just the Down stream speed. Basic Up sometimes does not perform up to the Basic standard of 128kbit up. Before I went PRO my up was around 11kbit up or 1/10 of the 128kbit cap. Just because one category rates lower than another does NOT mean the entire rating is bad. Try to see the forest before the trees in the future. That usually allows a person to better understand a rating....
voodoo_gravy
All Shall Dip In The Gravy
Premium Member
join:2002-10-04
Nashville, TN

voodoo_gravy

Premium Member

My My whole point was that yes..he gave a decent rating. It was a bad review because he is flouting that he knowingly breaks the TOS and is complaining about it. If I were breaking the rules of a company that I subscribed any service to then I would rate them better because I am Knowingly cheating someone. My whole thing is that this gut doesn't care about the service he is receiving except the upload...which is clearly explained when they sign up. It is not a guaranteed upload because cable fluctuates. So I may not have seen the forest because all the tree's where being poached by this user but I do know not to cheat someone out of service..see I was raised to be honest and forthcoming.

V.

paulinkc
join:2000-12-30
Lees Summit, MO

paulinkc

Member

Re: Why the bad rating?

Ok that makes sense to me. See if you had stated it that way in the beginning, people wouldn't have ripped you wide open for the wolverines who are high on angel dust to come and finish you off.
voodoo_gravy
All Shall Dip In The Gravy
Premium Member
join:2002-10-04
Nashville, TN

voodoo_gravy

Premium Member

never considered my self wide open. Considering all my post stated the same thing I feel that i got my point across rather well. Notice no reply from original poster since the short little post about nothing.

i am now done with this post

V.
sbs0518
join:2002-12-14
Lakehurst, NJ

sbs0518

Member

Re: Why the bad rating?

Oh yeah...you put put me in my place. You're rates should be through the roof at any moment now....
voodoo_gravy
All Shall Dip In The Gravy
Premium Member
join:2002-10-04
Nashville, TN

voodoo_gravy

Premium Member

If your downstream is good, you can vpn, you can even run a webserver against the TOS. Why are you giving them a bad rating? I don't understand why people seem convinced that when they receive good service they still are not happy. Even when that person is breaking the TOS. I think that you need to be grateful that you have service and that comcast does not shut you off for breaking the TOS. So in the future you probably need to say..service is great because I feel that I deserve more service than the rest of you out there.

V.
Rebel72542
join:2002-11-11
Johnson City, TN

Rebel72542

Member

Re: Why the bad rating?

He said the upstream was bad. He didn't give them a bad rating anyway, just not the best rating.

SanFrancisco
Premium Member
join:2002-05-04
San Francisco, CA

SanFrancisco to voodoo_gravy

Premium Member

to voodoo_gravy
The upstream Comcast uses is the most common amongst broadband providers which is 128. Comcast is doing nothing wrong.

Enlade
@union01.nj.comcast.n

Enlade

Anon

One thing that bothers me about most of these Broadband access reviews is that people don't really compare one of the most important features of a broadband service. Newsgroups are a very important feature to anyone that is really using the service that they are paying for. I would love to see some website set up where people specifically compare their broadband service provider’s newsgroup support. Things like retention time, posting censorship, reading censorship, download limits, upload limits, alt support, binary support, etc. etc. etc.

Most broadband services are pretty much the same when it comes to access speeds for web surfing, email, connectivity, etc. So, the only real service comparison is how ISPs handle their newsgroup service. It is only this type of comparison that allows you to really see some major disparities between the different broadband ISPs.

There might be a few people out there that think that newsgroups are not important. I would say that the vast majority of those people just don't understand what it is that newsgroups can do for them. If everyone understood the potential of newsgroups then only a small number of people would not find them extremely useful. Odds are that most everyone that is reading this message would find newsgroups very beneficial even if they don't understand what they are or how they are used at this moment. The key is to come to that understanding before you get stuck with an ISP that doesn't supply a quality newsgroup service.

I should also mention that ISP's don't like newsgroups much because they are a cost to them in all sorts of ways. Anyone working for an ISP would probably disagree with my assessment, but in reality they disagree only because it is beneficial to their company.

Now, with that all said lets get back to Comcast. As I see it, Comcast has the most pathetic, horrible, laughable, completely useless, truly insulting newsgroup service in all the universe. There are other problems with Comcast, but to me this is one that sets Comcast clearly behind other Broadband service providers. Speed comparisons are not going to get you too far when you compare between different broadband providers, but you will find clear distinctions between newsgroups. Comcast falls far short in this area. If you have come to understand the value of newsgroups then you should most definitely avoid Comcast.

hoju
join:2002-11-17
Phoenixville, PA

hoju

Member

Re: Enlade

i agree with "Comcast has the most pathetic, horrible, laughable, completely useless" this statement and cannot wait until comcast burns in broadband hell. But being realistic, the 3 hours-a-day i spend setting voodoo curses on comcast probably is for nothing.

Honestly overall i feel the the money comcast makes could be much better spent on utilizing and training employees to understand what they are doing(Like config on my netbus would really solve packetloss-nice try ) at least they are making a horrible effort(unlike rogers/at&t which shows no effort to improve at all).

"you should most definitely avoid Comcast."- couldnt have said it better myself
voodoo_gravy
All Shall Dip In The Gravy
Premium Member
join:2002-10-04
Nashville, TN

voodoo_gravy

Premium Member

Well..you clearly laid out a good argument for newsgroups. I would be one of the few people that see no good in them because of the pirate software. Please give me some good examples of what newsgroups are good for since i havent been told anything yet that deems them necessary? Im not being sarcastic..really curious.

V.

jamesj55
@telocity.com

jamesj55

Anon

Re: What good are newsgroups?

I check the alt.sailing, rec.boats, rec.boats.cruising, rec.boat.building and a variety of programming and sys admin groups( cobol, unix, solaris). I get lots of practical advice and experiances for both at home (boating) and work. Not all newsgroup users do the alt.binaries stuff. Steriotyping is almost always inaccurate.

JJ
voodoo_gravy
All Shall Dip In The Gravy
Premium Member
join:2002-10-04
Nashville, TN

voodoo_gravy

Premium Member

wasnt trying to steriotype..like i said no one has given me a good anwer yet. Yours it the best so far. I would bet though that 99% of people who use newsgroups download illegal files

V.

Review by jimemac4 See Profile

  • Location: Mount Laurel, Burlington, NJ, USA
  • Cost: $44 per month
Always on, and it doesn't tie up the phone line.
128k upstream, customer service and poor response time for service.
As long as the cable plant is sound, the modem service is very reliable.
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

My initial cable modem experience started off really bad. They were rebuilding the cable plant in my area and the service was going out almost every day. Ever since they got the cable plant issues resolved it's been smooth sailing ever since. I'm guessing I'm up about 98 to 99 percent of the time.

member for 23 years, 227 visits, last login: 17.6 years ago
updated 21.3 years ago

jimemac4
join:2001-03-31
Browns Mills, NJ

jimemac4

Member

Outage logs, pathetic

Comcast @Home Cable Modem Outage Log for 1 week
Log start date: 03/24/2001 Location: Mount Laurel, NJ 08054
Outage Type Date Start Time End Time Duration
Full 03/24/2001 12:00pm to 9:45pm 9hrs 45min Checked all day, never came on
Full 03/24/2001 10:00pm to Bet.2&7am Overnight Came back on sometime overnight
Full 03/25/2001 2:40pm to 6:10pm 3 hrs 30 min
Full 03/27/2001 9:11pm to 10:40pm 1 hr 30 min
Full 03/28/2001 5:55pm to Bet.12&7am At least 6 hrs Came back on sometime overnight
Full 03/29/2001 5:45pm to 1:10am 7 hrs 25 min
Full 03/30/2001 10:10am to 11:40am 1 hr 30 min
Full 03/30/2001 12:00pm to 12:40pm 40 min
Full 03/31/2001 9:50am to 9:05pm 11 hrs 15 min

koolforcats
@home.com

koolforcats

Anon

Re: Outage logs, pathetic

Sorry to hear about your problems with COMCAST. I haven't had any real problems here in Woodbridge NJ - I'm part of the Avenel Network for the Internet service. I've only been down twice since October when it was installed. Sometimes it gets slow, but many of those times it's the server's fault where I'm requesting info from. My Dad has DSL in Toms River and he had problems for 5 months. Now it's better after an infinate number of calls to tech support, but when we talk on the phone, his phone line sounds like crap.

There's got to be a better way. So much for indistries regulating themselves. Some things need government intervention no matter what some of those antigovernment boneheads say!!! IT'S TRUE!!!!

Now if you want to talk about COMCAST cable TV service. THAT'S a different story!!
System

to jimemac4

Anon

to jimemac4
Hey, the reason you have had so many outages is because there were problems on your nodegroup, adubn7 and adubn8, the scheduled repairs where set for april 10th, there were intermittent power problems at the station, these have now been fixed and you should be up and running smoothly
jimemac4
join:2001-03-31
Browns Mills, NJ

jimemac4

Member

Re: Outage logs, pathetic

I have to admit, I have definitely seen some improvement in the service recently. It hasn't been going down nearly as much as it was last month. I also notice they capped the upstream bandwidth. We'll see how it goes I guess. It's good to know at least someone is trying maintain the RF plant in my area.
prefont
join:2000-11-13
Randolph, NJ

prefont

Member

Comcast @Home is THE WORST

We have had Comcast@home in Pitman, NJ 08071 for 3 months.. It disconnects 6 to 8 times per day, 5 technicians have come out and tested the line. 3 days ago we swaped modems for a brand new one.....we have had no connection now for 75 + hours, we have been provisioned about 3 times on the new modem with no luck. We even resorted to borrowing a friends modem and another modem from another source, neither worked. We have had the entire line replaced from the box to the modem and all new fittings. They even tried pulling the trap completely off (we are not TV customers) which didn't do a damn thing. we are throughly disgusted with this pathetic excuse for a broadband provider. on a sidenote we were previously DSL customers with Covad/Flashcom and never had an outage, although more exspensive and slower than Cable, I would switch back in a heartbeat.
--prefont
prefont78@hotmail.com

brder
@mindspring.com

brder

Anon

Re: Comcast @Home is THE WORST

C'mon of course using another modem is not going to work (it is not provisioned to your account). At least you get techs to come out, I am with earthlink DSL and I cant get any help. And as far as speed, I am better off getting in my truck with a zip disk and driving to the server!
prefont
join:2000-11-13
Randolph, NJ

prefont

Member

Re: Comcast @Home is THE WORST

yeah I didn't think the different modems would work on our line, but do they actually provision the modems per the actual line? it seems that would be tough do, although I am not an expert on the cable company, just a network/computer tech. oh well we still have no connection, my guess is an RF problem ......dialup for now!
prefont

prefont

Member

Re: Comcast @Home is THE WORST

Ok, I have found out that any modem, as long as it is DOCSIS compliant and has been provisoned to Comcast@Home should work on our line or any line where Comcast@Home is coming through the lines.
System

Anon

Re: Comcast @Home is THE WORST

the problem in your area should have been fixed, there was a power problem on your nodegroup, it should have been fix on april 10th, are you having any other problems??
prefont
join:2000-11-13
Randolph, NJ

prefont

Member

Still having problems....

The tech came out (a very nice and very knowledgeable one) who actually took the time to fix our problem, he made two trips one initial to diagnose and try a new modem and even called us back and asked if it was working when we told him no he came back and tried again. We went through 4 modems, two of them Brand new 3Com TailFin (manufactured 2/18/2001) out of the box and they both refused to work, neither got an upstream or downstream lock. The last modem he tried (an older modem same model) locked in under 5 minutes of being provisioned. Now that night it disconnected around 9pm and did not reconnect until we power cycled (which is the original problem) On Sunday night the modem did the same thing and as soon as we power cycled it reconnected. Now we are back at starting point A. I do not understand a few things here, 1) Why do the newer 3Com Tail Fin modems NOT work in our area, 2) Why doesn't the modem reconnect by itself after it loses its downstream lock. So now we are connected but have to power cycle EVERY time it disconnects which is becoming a REAL PAIN IN THE ASS. I think I am gonna code a bash script that determines if we are connected and if not send a power off and power on signal to my x10 firecracker..heh that is a huge ass workaround to a problem that should not exist!!!!!
suggestions to prefont78@yahoo.com
[text was edited by author 2001-04-16 10:19:18]

Aazzin
@aerotek.com

Aazzin to prefont

Anon

to prefont
I will have to agree with this. I had DSL for over a year and NEVER had a problem with the service. I had the tele surfer pro which was 1.5 down and 384 up. It was fast and cost me about $80.00 a month with static IP.

Comcast @home internet just became available in my area although they had been my cable provider for over a year now after buying out my old cable company.

I have had the service for 3 weeks now and it sucks! I get disconnected, have tons of packet loss and cannot reliably download anything, play games or even load webpages because of the packet loss and timeouts. I have talked to at least 20 people on their helpdesk and they simply are not trained to troubleshoot. Their tier2 is pretty competent but it is impossible to even get to tier2 unless you have exhausted the first line of dumbasses. I have been a network engineer for over 10 years, I explained this to them from the beginning not to insult them but to let them know I do not need to reboot my computer to fix a signaling problem. DUH!

Here is one example. I can send a steady stream of pings to their DNS server to show when packet loss occurs.

ping
ping
ping
time out
time out
time out
time out
ping

etc....

THAT is an RF issue. The modem is losing signal to their network. I told their tech this and I almost fell out of my chair when he responded.

"I can ping our DNS server with no problem it must be your computer." He then began asking me about what type of machine I had. Processor speed, hard drive space etc...

After I thoroughly blasted him I got to tier2 after 3 weeks of shitty to no service and now they are attempting to install an amplifier on my line to increase the signal strength.
System

Anon

No problems in Belleville NJ

Comcast@home in service for over 1 year, no major problems here EVER! The worst thing I have expierienced has been outages of E-mail service occasionally. Speed has been good and consistent since I have had it. Service up in this area has been excellent. At first, when I was a newbie with Cable service and Lan's, as I have a home network, Comcast techs were wonderfull with me, getting me back online after reformatting my hardrive or when I set up my home network.
I'm surprised we have such different results from the same company, I feel for you, good LUCK!!!!!!!!
hunghing
join:2000-12-22
Washington, DC

hunghing

Member

COMCAST@HOME owns!

Comcast@HOME owns! Maybe it's just my area, cause everyone(almost) said they suck. I got low ping times and had 1 outage so far, I got fast speeds! I might be able to take down aol! OH NO! :>

antishockforgotmypas

Anon

speeded started low, increased suddenly, died agai

ive had comcast@home for well over 2 years now, im right outside princeton NJ and they speeds are .. low. Service started out as 600 kb/128 kb and i was extremeley unhappy with the upload bandwith, we ordered high speed "100x dialup speed". Lets do a little calculation lets say you have an old 28.8 modem and you connect at the full 28.8 speed (which i don't btw) you upload and download @ about 3.6 KB / sec so1 if you multiply that by 100 you should theoretically get 360 KB in both directions. Now im not asking for 360 KB up because that it like dual T1 speed, but something in the range of 50 KB would be much more acceptible, anyway about 3 months ago they replaced my modem for the new docsis modems and the speed was off the wall, almost as good as OOL, 3.5 mb/1 mb! i was exstatic about this new speed!!!
then 2 months after that (about a month ago) speed drops... 1 mb / 128 kb

back again to the same old speeds and i have a lurking feeling they will do absoltley nothing about it, but i have no other options except for this deal they made with earthlink that may provide some needed bandwith ... hopefully

ManSun
@plsntvlle1.nj.home.c

ManSun

Anon

Re: speeded started low, increased suddenly, died agai

Everything's been pretty good here in Absecon. I only had the service for a month though and there's been 1 outage so far but other then that it seems like it's been ok. No real problem for me here.

-SunMan
jroberto
join:2002-01-06
Westfield, NJ

jroberto

Member

Comcast & Customer Service

I am very disappointed at the way Comcast handled the cut over. Their Customer Service Dept *USED TO BE* the best in the industry. THey were even written up as having the best.

It is my fervent hope that this new lack of support is just that Comcast is overwhelmed.

When you consider they had to roll out a complete national backbone replacing Excite with a limited time frame, they had quite a task at hand. They should provide credit back to cover the inconvenience.

Emilee
@esper.com

Emilee

Anon

Re: Comcast & Customer Service

Well, I cant even surf. I got the @home service just about 1 month ago. It was on for 2 weeks. Then they changed over to Comcast. I was down for 4 days, came back for one day, and now out for 5 more days. They say because I am not in the new data base with Comcast, and not provisioned. However, this is whats in my DNS suffix in WinXP.norris01.tn.comcast.net.

You can clearly see that I am converted over to Comcast. No one can tell me why my service came on for one day, and is now back out. There is never a supervisor I can talk to, and they dont know when Ill be back online.

Its getting old, very fast.
ofernandez
join:2002-01-21
Plainfield, NJ

ofernandez to jroberto

Member

to jroberto
said by jroberto:
I am very disappointed at the way Comcast handled the cut over. Their Customer Service Dept *USED TO BE* the best in the industry. THey were even written up as having the best.

It is my fervent hope that this new lack of support is just that Comcast is overwhelmed.

When you consider they had to roll out a complete national backbone replacing Excite with a limited time frame, they had quite a task at hand. They should provide credit back to cover the inconvenience.
I too am totally disgusted with the turn over. I was an @home subscriber for over a year and the service and access speed was great. Now I'm getting less than modem upload and download, unreliable email access, and occassional internet access to certain sites (ironically one of the sites I can't get to is the comcast site!). I already told them I'm not paying for the month of January and that if they don't get their act together I'm cancelling my service and going dsl!
Jason Branco
join:2002-01-21
Hillside, NJ

Jason Branco

Member

comcast switch over

i think that comcast is doing pretty good job switching over, and they are not going to charge for the time ur service was down
cgengo
join:2002-01-08
Tallahassee, FL

cgengo

Member

Just switched from @Home to Comcast HSI

Our switch in Tallahassee went through this weekend. I had HORRIBLE troubles with @Home (about a 90% downtime) and had a tech come out this morning (took them 3 weeks to get one out, I was having troubles at the time). It's working fine now, it's been up for 2 days straight, and that's amazing for here considering it would usually only be up for 2 hours or so and then down for 12. Anyway, in talking with the tech, this is what he told me:

1. Where @Home generally capped the lines at 3000k, Comcast has placed a lower cap, he thought it was 1500k, my speeds since the switchover have been pathetic (300-600k) but he said that was because their OC3 was down and were having to use a backup data pipe through Qwest, we'll see if it improves.

2. They are dumping their current technical support and going for someone worth a damn, so that should improve.

I'm going to give them another few weeks, if I start losing my connection again or the speeds don't increase then I'll be dropping the internet connection and the regular TV, but I'm hoping I don't have to do that.






Review by MisManager See Profile

  • Location: Reston, Fairfax, VA, USA
  • Cost: $59 per month
  • Install: about 2 days
Fast setup, good speed typically, good uptime
Some trouble during the switch from @home to Comcast's own network
In Reston, it's the ONLY way to go, but if you live on my block, ask me and I'll bad-mouth it for you!
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

I really can't say that I am any less than pleased with Comcast's service. I began subscribing in March 2001 (when Comcast was using @home), and had zero problems until the switch to Comcast's own network. During that time, there were some outages, and there were certainly some questionable policy moves on Comcast's part. They seem to have backed off from the more egregious of these policies (such as caching your URLs), which is good to see.

Installation was painless - I ordered it on a Tuesday, and the technician came out on Thursday - a TWO DAY turnaround. I get great download speeds, often in excess of 1Gbit/sec, but the upload speeds could be better (typically around 90-100 Mbit/sec). I rented their cable modem, which has given me no trouble, and pay about $7/month for it. I am considering getting my own modem, now that the prices have come down closer to earth. My one complaint is the dynamic IP. Comcast insists on it, and I of course don't like it. Leaving the machine on 24/7, though, makes it functionally a static IP in any case. And, if I ever get enough juice to my den and get my home network set up, my router will keep the IP static for me as well.

Cable service in Reston is unique - it was established before the rest of Fairfax County, and as a result is on a separate network from the rest of the county. Thus, the infrastructure in place only serves the 80,000 or so residents of Reston, not the 1 million residents of Fairfax County. I have no doubt that this is a significant contributing factor to the good service I've had, as Comcast's network in Reston is not in danger of being overtaxed (on the other hand, Cox's network in Fairfax seems to have trouble from time to time).

Of course, if you live in Reston and are reading this, DON'T GET IT. IT'S AWFUL! Heh heh. I sure don't need you sucking up my bandwidth!

Eric

member for 23.4 years, 735 visits, last login: 15.1 years ago
updated 21.3 years ago

jwlehman4
join:2002-12-11
Arlington, VA

jwlehman4

Member

FREE CABLE MODEM @ RADIO SHACK!

Don't wait...you have to pay $80, but get the full amount back as a rebate. It's an RCA DCM245R modem, which has not had any problems whatsoever for me and the posts on various sites concur.

Let's hope Comcast keeps up the good work in N.Va, I'm in Arlington and have great service.

cowspotter
join:2000-09-11
Ashburn, VA

cowspotter

Member

hmmm, what's up with those speeds?

Dude! I live at a college with an OC-3 to internet1 and an OC-3 to internet2, and I could never hope to get that bandwith even if i had the whole network to myself. You might wanna check those. Could it be 1 Megabit/sec download? That upload is also ridiculous.

Review by famu96 See Profile

  • Location: Tallahassee, Leon, FL, USA
  • Cost: $39 per month (12 month contract)
  • Install: about 9 days
Price....
Tech Support..Capped Speeds...E-mail
Price...cheaper than DSL
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

The problem that I have with Comcast is there SERVICE ! One day you are up running and the next day, your e-mail is 12 hours late or no IP. I'm tired of powering down the cable modem to reset it or have to call to "reset" the modem with Tech Support (which is unless).

member for 21.3 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 21.3 years ago

Riceboy369
join:2003-01-06
Tallahassee, FL

Riceboy369

Member

Comcast... Hmm

I just signed up for Comcast today...Could be stupid mistake, i know ... but i have no other choice... My area has No DSL provider, and the "Ethernet" is crap with all the Kazaa users around here sucking up all the bandwidth...

Anyway, i got it set up pretty quick .. Went to their location, picked up a self-install kit ... set everything up in about 30 minutes .. and Baam .. Im on the internet ... and of course, i HAD to check the speed ... At www.bandwidthplace.com, it gave me

1) 2.1 mbps
2) 1.2 mbps
3) 1.9 mbps

Which was quite a shock .. After reading all the HORRIBLE reviews about comcast in my area, i basically expected poor service before even signing up! it doesnt seem so bad right now .. then again, we'll see how it goes later down the road ... Seems like the problems arise a month or two after they sign up .. I hope that doesnt happen to me =P.. Hey, one can hope right?

P.S - haha, you'll probably hear my complaining soon too =)

chickengrease169
@tallah01.fl.comcast.

chickengrease169

Anon

not as bad as people say...

i must agree with the other guy... the self install kit was easy, the people were nice to talk to (even walked me through directions to the place since i was new in town) and it hasn't been much of a problem. the speed is great. however, every now and then it goes down, and it seems like it always goes down when i or my roommates need something. but its up 99% of the time.






Review by ZCincinnatus See Profile

  • Location: Pasadena, Anne Arundel, MD, USA
  • Cost: $39 per month (month by month)
  • Install: about 21 days
Stable service, exceeds criteria for a baseline cable modem
Pings can get dubiously high (250+) for playing online games
Comcast has finally gotten their act together
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

The install was a breeze; it took them a while to get around to it, but there weren't any physical problems with it. The guys who came out were professional and by-the-book, even though some of the things they did were silly - it's all part of following procedure, I guess. Being an experienced Windows guru, I chose to throw aside the proprietary Comcast software which sets up your network (I'm sure it WORKS, but I don't want the icon sitting in my systray, nor do I want to registry hunt to remove it.) When I installed the service, they still used static IPs so I had to call tech support and get it *LOL*. That's what I get for throwing aside the software. Well anyway, now they use dynamic lookup so I basically left the LAN settings to completely default in Win XP and it works. I will say, though, that I have gone through THREE poor-quality Comcast-rented modems before I finally decided to BUY a D-Link modem. It's an off brand, but it is an outstanding modem. The other three modems always seemed to have some strange quirk. One was RCA and the other two were different models of Motorola. Stay away from those brands, I'd suggest. When having problems setting up a new computer, or calling about the defective modems, Comcast tech support gave me the basic run-around to make sure it wasn't something simple, and it took a considerable amount of time to convince them that my problem was, indeed, what I said it was. However, they were still patient and proactive. I have read the "horror stories" about the awful Comcast of the past, but I honestly think they should call their company "Comcast 2" or something to that effect; they are WAY different now. Stability, performance, everything has improved since I signed on.

Other sign-on bonuses they gave me, which have long since been forgotten, but were nice anyway: half price monthly fee for the first 3 months and free installation.

One little gripe - e-mail ads, banner ads, and telemarketing asking me to buy Comcast cable. *LOL* Wish they'd learn how to filter out the people who are already faithful customers.....

I've had Comcast cable for 3 years and Internet service for almost 2 years now. Comcast has never offered 1-way cable service (unlike [grrrrr....] Milennium Digital...) which impresses me. After our regional provider, Excite @Home, went out of business, they had service back online through their own network (or maybe they hooked us in through some other huge provider in the area?) within a couple days. That's pretty good for recreating a whole ISP imho. I'll say this: I have been through the ups and downs with Comcast, most of the downs having occurred over a year ago. Part of the problem, I discovered, was having a low Rwin on most of my computers, and a wacked out MTU (that's what you get for transferring from 1B ISDN!) The service is up most of the time, and the longest interval of outage (not including the transition period from @Home to their independent network) was 2.5 days. It seems they also have about 6-8 hours of downtime on one day every month; routine maintenance, perfectly understandable. Besides that, my service tends to represent the general state of the 'net; when the major backbones are up and running, so is my connection. I found consistently lower pings (by about 25 msec) on a 56kbps modem through AT&T and Earthlink, but I download LOTS of things - patches, mp3s, game demos, etc. so I couldn't stand the 56k any longer. Still, the ping is tolerable, and depending on the game server and time of day, the pings CAN theoretically get quite impressive (my ping time to my 'node' is a mere 6-12 msec, and I believe most of the ride from there is out of Comcast's hands.) Also, I have tried on different days and at different times to maximize the upstream/downstream and found that it meets or exceeds the basic stats for a cable modem. The most impressive statistic was when I ran the PC Pitstop upload test at 9:30 pm EST on a Saturday and got 129 kbps; the advertised speed is 128 kbps! Then, I ran the download test shortly after, and got 1707 kbps, with the typical cable modem doing 1500 kbps! I got even higher numbers during off-hours like 2 AM on a Thursday in April 2002 - but getting over 100% of the advertised speeds during prime time is VERY impressive.

To serious gamers: as long as you aren't hosting a 32 player, dedicated, Battlefield 1942 server under memory hog Win XP Pro, you should have more than enough bandwidth, sufficient stability, and low enough pings to have a stellar gaming experience.

To addicted internet surfers who occasionally download big files: This will be more than enough for you, since ping is not very relevant to 'net browsing unless it is inordinately high, and Comcast's strong point is, like I said, stability and high transfer rates.

To casual internet surfers: Get a 56k. MUCH cheaper. It costs a pretty penny, but at least it's the same price or cheaper than T1, DSL, and most assuredly Satellite. You can find a million $9.95/month 56k ISPs and buy a Winmodem for another $20, so if you're looking for the extremely cheap route, Comcast isn't it.



member for 21.3 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 21.3 years ago

Rebel72542
join:2002-11-11
Johnson City, TN

Rebel72542

Member

Maybe they are coming around

I live in TN and I've had Comcast HSI for just over a month now. It's brand new to the area and they had some problems the first few weeks. But now speeds are good. I can stay at or under 100 ms ping most of the time when I play Unreal Tournament 2003 online. So I'm fairly happy with it right now. They gave me a $19.98 credit for the horrible speeds I endured during the first couple of weeks.

As for the modem issues, I'm using a Motorola Surfboard 4200 cablemodem and it works just fine. I've read many, many more positive reviews of Motorola cablemodems than negative.
[text was edited by author 2002-12-11 01:43:55]

[text was edited by author 2002-12-11 01:44:18]
joegstein
join:2001-02-07
Norwalk, OH

joegstein

Member

comcast has been good to me

I have read all of the bad press on Comcast and am glad to see some positive - since other than startup problems I have had only good experience with them. I was not pleased dropping from 2.5M/500K to 1.5M/128K (usually 1M/100K) when they switch from @home but I was only offline a few hours when they switched. The longest outage I ever noticed was less then 5 hours and probably less then 40 hours grand total of the times I wanted on and was unable to in the 2 years or so I have been using them (between my wife and I we are usually on 4 hrs plus a day) - it is not cheap but I think well worth the cost. I have had no problems with their Surfboard Modem and likewise did not load any of their provided software nor use their email and stuff.

Review by mgundel See Profile

  • Location: Midlothian, Chesterfield, VA, USA
  • Cost: $42 per month
  • Install: about 7 days
Fast d/l, always on
slow u/l, mail&dns servers flaky
Best option in my area
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

I've been with Comcast/@home since their inception in my area. @home was much faster and more stable. Comcast has intermittent problems with their DNS and Mail servers and has cut the d/l speeds to 1.5Mbps (up=128kbps). I cannot get DSL here and even if I could, I doubt it would be any faster. I am getting dhcp from them, which occasionally wreaks havoc on my mail/dns/web/ftp server, but it's easy enough to fix the problem when my IP changes.

Overall, I am satisfied with the service. I wish they had a better NNTP service, but they do include 1GB of Giganews monthly, which is better than some I've heard of.

member for 21.9 years, 1149 visits, last login: 9.4 years ago
lodged 21.3 years ago


Review by jzyg See Profile

  • Location: Olathe, Johnson, KS, USA
  • Cost: $20 per month
  • Install: about 7 days
Ordering was easy, installation was as simple as it gets, reliability is great so far, speeds are great
none yet
better than directtvdsl which we just had for about 45 days and then cancelled cause their sales people and techs are morons and
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)

try to screw ya.

My wife is a DSL tech for a major telecommunications company and I am a computer science degree holder and self grown geek with enough sys admin, programming, and tech skills to know my ass from a hole in the ground, which is more than I can say for some people in this world.

When we had Direct TV DSL, my wife ran them through their paces when we were deciding to get broadband (finally, I can work from home) and they barely kept up. They suck and do things incorrectly, from the ground up. But we had very few choices at that time Before we signed on to them ($30 for the first 2 months and then $50 for the rest of a 12 month contract, but with free S&H and free Modem) they said that when we decide to move and have our dsl moved with us, we would experience only minimal downtime. I don't know what they consider minimal downtime, but 3 weeks is not exceptable to us. So we said screw them and signed on to Comcast cable internet ( we have very few options here) and things have been fine so far.

Comcast was easily installed and running immediatley. We had it delivered the first day we moved in, and they gave us plenty of extra cable to snake around the house. We got a deal with $20 for the first 3 months and of course, $50 for each month afterward and we don't have a specific contract length.

I will say for Direct TV DSL, that it actually ran fine while I had it, and installed realitvely easily ( for us) but with a vanilla config, the speeds are no match for a vanilla Cable broadband that we have now.

I guess the real question will be answered when we try to move while we have this cable service. I really don't anticipate any issues though. But you never know what kind of morons (wannabe geeks) are out there. I will post any new updates.

Thank you for letting me rant.

Until next time, may the force be with you.

member for 21.3 years, driveby review (so far)
lodged 21.3 years ago


andrewe77
Gonads And Strife
join:2000-09-17
Blue Springs, MO

2 recommendations

andrewe77

Member

Sorry to give you the bad news...

Comcast tech support are also morons...
Silent_Cobra
join:2002-08-14
Chicago, IL

Silent_Cobra

Member

Re: Sorry to give you the bad news...

how about some speeds

LiLTizz
Back with comcast
Premium Member
join:2001-11-11
Ypsilanti, MI

LiLTizz

Premium Member

DSL and Cable great options

Having the option for dsl and cable I wouldn't say you dont have many options. There are still alot of people that have satt. as an ONLY option. Is DTV dsl your only dsl option? what kind of distance are you from co? im stuck with cable or idsn/idsl 144/144 until Jan when the r/t Ameritech Project Pronto put in this summer which they are finally making "operational" Mid Jan they said. 1,300 ft from me
fastforward0
join:2002-11-21
Katy, TX

fastforward0

Member

directv dsl

so you switched from dsl to cable eh?well directv offers a free static ip which is pretty nice.but cable beats dsl in speed.