comcast

Customer: You Will Hold
[02:16:30] matt [wronka.org]/Psi.generay After dealing with multi-hour gaps in Internet service from Comcast and spotty HD channels since last year, we've finally scheduled a tech to come visit. The video service was quite quick to schedule (it only required to phone calls and an hour wait inbetween) but they couldn't include the Internet connection in the same service call without sending us over to that department first even though the logical conclusion is that both failures were related.

While the television department representitive appeared in under three minutes (including phone tree), there was about five minutes of hold time once transferred to the network department which included a startling command of "Customer: Please hold for a representatve." followed shortly by a reminder that our call was very important. Finally, after reaching a person and convincing him to look at the existing ticket just placed there he ran some diagnostics (apparently the script referrs to the coaxial cable as the "cable plugged into the wall", despite in my situation that best describes the power cable, and even then only through a lose definition of "inside"). After sufficient reassurances that he was convinced that my service was all out to my premise—apparently that's a magic encantation to short circuit further diagnosing, since I assured him that while the Internet and broadcast/live television was out Comcast's On-Demand functionality worked—he added the Internet service to the work order.

Meanwhile, and while I type this, our Verizon FTTH service hasn't had any loss of service in the two months it's been here.

Comcast Installation
[17:59:56] matt [wronka.org]/Psi.dementia We just transferred Comcast to a new address. Initially, we scheduled a move of an existing account, and they configured us for a self-installation, and when we called to explain there wasn't actually a coaxial connection coming into the house they got confused and it proved quicker and possibly cheaper to just cancel and schedule a new service.

After some initial issues scheduling the service, we got a weekday afternoon scheduled installation, and had Internet and television, for two hours or so. After this, the Internet dropped-out. Calling Comcast, the scheduled someone to come out the next day (Saturday), which was actually very convenient.

Apparently, the most economical option was the Comcast Tripple Play, which included Television, Internet, and Telephony hook-ups. This cost the same as just Television, but had the discounted rate for a full year; our Comcast representative woudn't sell us Television and Internet without the Telephony. The issue we appeared to be having, as explained when the service agent came out Saturday, is that the contracted installer who came on Friday hadn't completed the telephony set-up which confused (either the Comcast system or) the provided modem, and reset the service.

Following this correction, I had some issues with the Arris Touchstone DOCIS 2.0 modem. Apparently, after several minutes of running (somewhere between fifteen minutes and ninety minutes) the Arris modem will refuse to respond to DHCP offer requests (it might actually be that it'll only do this once per session, even when the same device requests a renewal). This has caused my Internet connection to routinely drop until I restart the modem. I've fixed this by adding static routes to the gateway device based on the initial response from the modem so that it won't try to renew and drop the connection because the modem doesn't respond.

Another thing I noted is that Comcast provided a DOCIS 2.0 modem. This was surprising on two levels, a) they were supposed to use my provided modem: the installer who came on Saturday said that they would have to charge me a *higher* tariff to use my own modem; and b) the modem they provided was a DOCIS 2.0 modem ("Our best modem!" said the Saturday installer), although this should be sufficient for the maximal bandwidth in the plan sold to me, 30Mbps down. It turns out it's definitely able to handle the 10Mbps down, 2Mbps up that I'm actually seeing between Comcast-based hosts.