Jinwu
join:2002-07-30
Miami, FL
| reply to klinsek_c
Re: [Connectivity] Broward County/Wilma-affected a
Scratch my previous post, I've been out of connection for almost a week again. Had a tech come out Thursday and said they were replacing lines in the neighborhood, blah blah. Days later, still no connection, had a tech come out today (Monday) and he couldnt sync up at the house either, showed me the signal levels on his Channelizer and it showed there was an extremely weak signal coming to the house. Said it was a problem with the amplifier on the pole?
He said he would report it, I shoudl've gotten a ticket number to verify but he said it would be 24-48 hours. I still have no connection, not sure if I should just cancel and get DSL til I move or wait it out. Anyway I can reinforce the outtage at my pole/area? This is getting frustrating |
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klinsek_c
@bellsouth.net
| reply to fullman
Having massive issues in Miami Shores 33138.
Conection has been up and down steady for 2 weeks now. It was great after initial post Wilma restoration. I don't know what happened.
When it is up, getting about 25%-60% packetloss, so basically unuseable. Of course, Comcast says it's me. I know this isn't possible since 4 friends in the neighborhood are having the same issues as me.
A tech came to my house today, a sub-contracter who shared in with me on my rants about Comcast. He informed me that it is most likely a signal booster that needs to be replaced on a pole, but until they find the problem it will go on. So I am just supposed to sit around and wait for these people to check every pole? I highly doubt that is something they would do, as lazy as they are.
What is their malfunction?? What does it take to get an outage verified by these people and someone out to check a neighborhood!? |
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renamed
join:2005-06-11
Fort Lauderdale, FL | reply to fullman
funny that today comcast is raising there cable bills to 6% next year and yet they cannot get people back up as quick as possible like the power company did. |
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fullman
join:2001-12-30
Fort Lauderdale, FL
| reply to CableTool
CableTool, I'm confused who you're responding to...
If it was to me, regarding the tech putting a limiter on my line, and that indeed was the case, about them rebuilding the area, I'm surprised Comcast reps and the tech didn't tell me that in the first place.
According to the reps that checked the area, "Oh no sir, you should be fine. We'll have to schedule a service call!" Oh boy, they're so excitable! Meh.  |
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Jinwu
join:2002-07-30
Miami, FL
| reply to fullman
UPDATE:
Well yesterday I'd JUST missed my "all day" appointment, I was on my way out the door from work, taking a half day, but something told me to call home and check my messages, and I did, and guess what? Tech called not even 5 minutes before I just called to say he was at the house and waited but no one was there, to schedule another appointment. I about threw my phone into my monitor at work. The ONE time I get an all-day appointment and the tech is there at a reasonable time.
I called Comcast from work to schedule another appointment and see if there are still any new outtages reported. Closest they could give me was Thursday as an all-day again, or a day next week with a definite time. I booked for Thursday cause I cant go another week without broadband, I have work to do at home. Anyway... nearly to the point of calling again and cancelling and just taking my losses with DSL (had Bellsouth before since 1999 but left due to speed and continuous line problems), I stay the whole day at work and get home.
I walk into my bedroom and guess what, my Linksys modem is synced! Still in slight disbelief, I log into my modem to check and its connected, however, my signals are kind of all over the place. My SNR was decent (36), downstream power level was +8 or something though (usually -2?). Upstream power level is what had me worried though, it was showing up consistently all night at 61!! But then, thats the reason i got the Linksys modem, this thing has been flawless since I got it. I had no disconnects all night surprisingly, and took several speed tests from different sites at the course of the night, getting an average of 5.8mb and a peak consistent download of a 58MB driver file at 800k/s.
It was up this morning as well, knock on wood, it stays that way. Im still going to keep my appointment anyway, just to have the tech check the line into my house to see why my signals are so erratic. I'll keep you all posted, and good luck to those of you still not online  .
said by fullman  :Come on Verizon FiOS! Come here quickly! You said it brother. |
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CableTool
Poorly Representing MYSELF.
Premium
join:2004-11-12
1 edit | reply to fullman
I know this wont offer any solace and Im not speaking from disaster clean up experience, only plant experience.
I believe what is happening in your area is basically a rebuild. If enough of the equipment is damaged or the right componants are damaged the field staff might do a quick swap to get the areas up as fast as possible. What then will happen is the network techs will run back to the begining of the run and start balancing, again, the entire run. This would explain why Video might work, but on demand will not. Surfing is erratic and uploads are horrible, packet loww rampant.
When an area is first rebuilt nothing is balanced until all the cascades are in place usually. What this leaves is a pretty choppy system until the end of the project. Sometimes cable cos will build out new plant right next to old and not switch subs until the new plant is hot and balanced.
In other situations this may not be possible and you will be disrupting service for weeks until its complete and THEN balance.
In any event it sounds like that is the case. They are getting service back as fast as possible but things like reverse and such will take a little fine tunning when all is done.
It probably doenst make you any happier but it is what it is.
Im sure the original tech knew this. If your tap was hot and he gave you something to pad the signal as opposed to calling it in to have that area balanced he was probably aware all signal tilts were out of whack until the run with all the new or repaired equipment was balanced. |
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fullman
join:2001-12-30
Fort Lauderdale, FL
| reply to pcfabix
Not to go too far off topic, but SpeakEasy insisted it wasn't them. So much, in fact, that once they found out what happened, that I literally got rerouted around the city, that basically made the DSL line "unfeasible" and nullified my contract with them. Not only that, but they had refunded me 4.5 months of service from when this rerouting took place.
Mind you, they had records of me calling to complain about the terrible dialup speeds and signal drops from that time, so it's not like I worked up any old story and they believed me. I don't think they would have gone that far and beyond the call of duty if it was their fault, they would have just shrugged it off and told me too bad, it's not their fault.
So, my experience with them was extremely good. However, thanks to BS, I won't try DSL again unless I'm forced to.
Now... a little birdy told me to call between the hours of 8am and 11am, select the Cable TV option (#1), not the High Speed Internet option (#2), explain your issues, that your downstream speeds are "ok" and your upstream speeds are terrible, rendering your "high speed connection" utterly, virtually and technically useless, and you believe there is an issue with the line, not necessarily the drop, but the lines on the poles. They will *usually* place a higher priority in that, meaning that any repair work or appointments *may* be accelerated.
I just want Verizon FiOS to come around the area. Comcast and BS will crap their pants. |
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pcfabix
join:2002-09-08
Fort Lauderdale, FL
| reply to fullman
There is ways around the contract, bring your own modem (they really hate that) I prefer speedstream, but they are real A holes and say only Westell's work on there network. Truth betold anything with an 8/35 config will work on there network more then likely. There are lots of modems for sale on e*ay and the like....
As for going to another DSL provider, that is true they all use the same lines, but it isn't bellsouth that screws your routing. It is the NSP (IE Speakeasy as mentioned) and there back end to the internet that can screw the routing.
Again DSL is far from perfect hence why I refuse to go back to it. Ther is just to many things that can screwup a decent DSL line, IE are you comeing from the CO, are you comeing from a remote in your neighborhood, are your lines fiber (THat is a big one) most NSP's will not do service for fiber lines...do you have an alaram on the same phone line, how much equipment do you have on that same line, they all add up to degragate the line and your over all connection and beleive me Bell will blame everying but the devil for connection issues, and I feel bad if you are not one of the few lucky people that have a succesful DSL connection. I dunno how many hours I wasted with Bellsouth playing who is smarter and what can we blame next to try to get anything over 700K down and 100K up...and I supposidly qualified for a 3Mb service.
As bad as comcast is right now and for how poorly they are treating us I can see wanting to move. I would love to move my service, but to were? LOL |
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fullman
join:2001-12-30
Fort Lauderdale, FL
| reply to DaisyGirl
The only problem with BS is that you're stuck with a contract.
Oh, and if you use anyone other than BellSouth, as had happened to me when I had SpeakEasy, BS will reroute you all over the city and push you beyond the range of decent speeds. They claim that they are "optimizing the network for their priority customers" (ie, "if you ain't one of them, you is screwed").
Aren't they wonderful?
Guess we just gotta figure out who the least evil ISP is in the area.
Come on Verizon FiOS! Come here quickly! |
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DaisyGirl
join:2003-07-20
Miami, FL | reply to pcfabix
I know what you mean. I have not had internet service since October 14th !!!! And they are still trying to find the problem. Bellsouth DSL looks like it will be my next choice. |
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pcfabix
join:2002-09-08
Fort Lauderdale, FL
| reply to Jinwu
Ah lies and deception that is all I seem to be able to get at Comcast.
I call back today, and I don't know why everytime I call they refuse to connect me to a supervisor, I know I know I worked in a many call centers my self and the supes always say the same thing to the reps tell them no one is availible or we are in a meeting.
Funny when I called at midnight a few nights ago and everyone was in a "meeting" today they are in a meeting. BS I know for a fact from my past jobs that there has to be someone to take escalations and to answer a technical question that is out of the ordinary.
So today's rep says she can help me suprise, she CAN'T. I advised her what happened yesterday and she stated that the contracter that came out shouldn't of said anything other then someone will contact you for with an apointment to fix your problem. So she says that tomorrow someone will come to my residence to fix my cable. At this point I beleive a G-D thing Comcast tells me. Come on week 6 of NO service, I doubt I will have cable befor next year some time seeing as we are rolling into December. |
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Jinwu
join:2002-07-30
Miami, FL
| reply to fullman
Nothing yet for me either. I did notice the 2 days I was up that my modem said I was provisioned for 6600k/s or something, and I was consistently getting download speeds close to 6mb with my Linksys modem. But it means nothing if I cant connect (since Friday).
Same thing as always, downstream connects instantly, upstream hasnt found a connection in several days. I even went straight to the line that comes in my house and removed the splitter and plugged my modem into that to make sure, and still the same thing. Im going to be calling Bellsouth soon to see if my line qualifies for the 6mb service if I dont hear anything soon. Whats funny is I also called last night to ask if there were any new outtages reported in my area, none. |
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cosmini
join:2003-02-10
Fort Lauderdale, FL | reply to jdmatl
Re: [Connectivity] Broward County/Wilma-affected area - Spd/Pckt
unfortunately same crap, no internet connection after 5 weeks and yet plenty of promises. I had to cancel my service but frankly, I don't know that bellsouth dsl is any better. I might have to go wireless with verizon... |
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pcfabix
join:2002-09-08
Fort Lauderdale, FL
| reply to jdmatl
Well an independant contracter for comcast just come by the house asked if we had cable and was it working...Someone came by last week (independant) and checked the drop and said it was fine.
This contracter checked everything...went up the pole and came back in the house and said the drop is damaged and needs to be replaced.
When can I expect service? Sometime the end of this week or next, there are supposidly 15 houses befor me!I knew I would see snow in south florida befor I would get cable service back.
As for DSL that is not even an option, at the NID the best I got with a speedstream modem and there westell modem was 700 down and that was on a good day. Unless bell puts a remote in this area I am staying away from DSL. |
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jdmatl
join:2000-04-27
Deerfield Beach, FL
| reply to fullman
I am in Plantation and i was without cable for 30 days. Came back up and I am getting my 6megs download speed. with zero issues so far. I did notice that now the dhcp lease renew time is 1 hour, before that DHCP never renewed. Only way to get a new IP was to replace your edge device that connects to the cable modem (ie Linksys wrt54g).
Bellsouth is offering 6meg DSL. don't know if you can get DSL, but I am looking into it. Screw Comcast. Look fo as many or more hurricanes next year. Comcast will be down more and more. They just "patch" the lines together. |
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pcfabix
join:2002-09-08
Fort Lauderdale, FL
| reply to fullman
Re: Not feeling very "COMCASTIC"
I think that might be an oxymoron for Comcastical Comcast "regular and flawless" that's almost as good as Microsoft Works...
2 weeks befor Wilma I was loosing block synch since there last downgrade ERR I mean upgrade, and my speeds were everywere. Timeouts when pinging yahoo with a 100 byte packet, timeing out on the second hop (of course we all know it was my router right?). Was getting allot better right befor Wilma tore through here.
I am still waiting for the internet tech to show though (as tech support stated my signal was weak) when I spoke to Comcast last wednesday they asked if I knew I still had an open ticket from early October for internet issues and asked if anyone ever came out to my house :-/ |
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fullman
join:2001-12-30
Fort Lauderdale, FL
| reply to pcfabix
Yeah, I've had similar issues with their phone reps. They "care," yet there is nothing to prove it. The 2 week credit for 3.5 weeks of 100% downtime was amazing.
I had an idea for an editorial comic for that one Comcastic 10k Pyramid commercial, just have to find someone to jot it down. It's great 
Hopefully you get "something" back soon, if not regular, flawless service. |
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pcfabix
join:2002-09-08
Fort Lauderdale, FL
1 edit | reply to renamed
Sunrise area here...
5 weeks and counting still no service. I just got off the phone with Comcast, there concern overwhelms me. Soon as I get a live rep call drops, call back wait another 15 minutes and GET THIS as soon as she pulls up my account she says you are in an outage sir. DUH....she further stated that I "Need to be patient" Sunrise and in particular my area was hit extremly hard and these things take time to fix.
So I get a supervisor on the phone, he actually almost convinced me that he cared. Not till I said I want to just cancel my service did he offer to call dispatch. Sit on hold 10 minutes, he comes back and gives me a street address were the technican is currently working (2 blocks away) so I decided to call his bluff and drive down there and sure enough there is one comcast truck, and one technican working on the main box (for lack of a better word) for this area. I didn't stop to ask him anything, just wanted to see if it was another Comcastic lye.
Hopefully soon we will get cable back out here...but I am not holding my breath. I also have a feeling I would have a better chance of seeing snow in South florida then to receive cable service again.
Anyone else with cable issues sick of seeing these COMCASTIC commercials. Everytime they come on I feel like destroying something in my house :-/ |
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renamed
join:2005-06-11
Fort Lauderdale, FL | reply to fullman
Re: [Connectivity] Broward County/Wilma-affected a
I live in Sunrise area, i have not had an issue with comcast HSI. No dropped connections. My service came back like 2 weeks after the storm and with no problem. As far as comcast credit, i got back like $48. |
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captainlynne
Awesome 9
join:2000-03-07
Miami, FL
 ·Comcast
| reply to fullman
I've had the same problems in Coconut Grove. Sometimes I am getting very fast and other times the pages will time out and not load. Sometimes I show sync as fine and other times my "online" light blinks. I've called them several times to make sure they record the fact that my connection is spotty at best and I'm going to call for the credit this week. It was totally down for 3 full weeks so I expect at least that much back for the month, if not some compensation for the current "more down than up" service. Last time I called they told me they are replacing lines so sometimes service will be off and that they had just tried to get everyone to get some service so it'll be erratic. I guess that would be an accurate description! |
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