The latest in my Comcast saga
I’ve been having connectivity and slowdown issues since last fall. You’ll find my November post on the saga here, but I thought I’d give you an update.
For various reasons, although there are alternatives to Comcast where I live, they aren’t very good ones. So I kept working with Comcast. They gave me two new modems along the way, and in addition I tried buying one myself, but nothing helped. Every now and then the whole problem would go away for several weeks, and I’d fool myself into thinking they’d fixed it. But then it would return.
So a couple of days ago I called them again, although talking with them is a bit like wrestling with alligators. The task was to convince them to send still another service person here and investigate more thoroughly (one had visited back in November and found nothing wrong). They keep trying to say it’s my computer that’s at fault, but I pointed out that my computer seems to do just fine when it’s away from home.
So yesterday the guy came, and you won’t believe what he found. Or maybe you will.
A segment of cable that was part of a grouping running to the modem had been hooked up backwards. I don’t know the terminology for the thing, but it was white and about a foot long. He said that the “in” end had been put where the “out” should have been, and vice versa. Both ends were clearly marked. All he did yesterday was to unfasten that thing and reverse it and voila! Instant improvement, which I hope will last, although it will take a few weeks to know for sure.
So, to summarize: the last Comcast service person—the one who had brought me the spiffy new modem—fastened it in wrong, in an egregious error. In fact, the new guy said he was surprised I’d been getting any service at all, there was so little signal coming in.
I see this as some sort of metaphor for the way this country is headed. Would that the solution were as simple!
That’s funny, I’ve had some of the same issues with my connectivity with Comcast as well and as they have been pestering me in emails and regular mail about getting a new modem I finally relented and they sent a new modem and it came yesterday and I looked at it last night and started to have second thoughts about hooking it up. So now it’s sitting on the floor out of fear of making a minor problem (spotty connectivity) into a major one (no connectivity). And I absolutely hate calling them so now I’m not sure what to do.
The good part of living in the country? No Comcast or other cable company to ruin my day. The bad part? Very limited options for high-speed internet.
When I had a dial-up line, the connection was so bad the best connection speed was 22.4kbs, slower than the Pony Express, and even today my voice landline has constant static. Telephone company is not interested in fixing it, they are only investing in wireless these days, as the landlines age out.
High speed choices are two, a wireless provider similar to cellphone service, or satellite. Neighbors who have satellite are not happy with it, and my wireless promises 2.5mps speeds but rarely delivers even 1meg per second. Technicians, when needed, are nice though, and generally competent.
Lots of trade people these days seem distracted and bored, so I can see how your technician went through the activities to set up your modem but missed a key detail And so often these details are something consumers cannot identify and fix themselves. Seems like everybody has a horror story about setting up their home wireless network, it’s always more complicated than the directions indicate.
A one foot white cable running to the modem? Can’t imagine what that’s for. What’s it plugged into?
Do you have wireless service? How is your PC connected to the modem (if it’s not wireless)? Do you have telephone service thru Comcast? Not having wireless or telephone does not mean your modem cannot handle them and this may affect how it is wired.
The ultimate correction for poor service is more competition and less regulation — Freer markets. Comcast and others do not agree. They want their money guaranteed and the government can provide.
My better half would be so lost if her spouse didn’t have a substantial geek element to him. Of course if she had George Clooney, she probably wouldn’t care about those internet thingees.
If the part is marked “in” & “out” then, in all probability, it is a filter. Connecting it backwards will cause unwanted signal degradation to and from the modem.
rt, exactly. There’s probably a small plastic box in-line for the filter assembly as well. I have to have one on every phone line in the house to filter out the DSL signal, otherwise all you get is white noise (hiss for for non-tech types).
http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/16/technology/security/comcast-wifi-hotspot/index.html
This illustrates a basic “life lesson” – when people are doing something complicated, they pay attention to what they’re doing.
It’s when they do something simple that they screw up.
Comcast employees/contractors have recently been busted for falling asleep during installs, puncturing gas lines leading to house explosions killing two people, and a Chicago area contractor being held as a suspect in a double murder.
Installing a filter bass-ackwards is trivial thing compared to what could have happened when you let poorly trained unmotivated individuals play with power tools around your house.
it was white and about a foot long
wow.
Are you sure that was a cable? LOL.
You shouldn’t have to call. Connect the modem and wait a couple of minutes for it to provision itself and update firmware. Open a new window in your browser and go to http://www.comcast.com/activate. Enter the info requested(account # and phone #) and you should be good to go.