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Okay I am getting Comcast serverices for free because the wife works for them and I am about ready to say I'd rather pay for reliable service.

I am getting

Internet
Digital Cable
High Def Cable
A digital recorder
half price on VOIP for 2 lines a home and a business

Pretty good you would think. Lets take a look at whats going on shall we.

Since getting the service my DVR has craped out 3 times. Now the DVR is the digital/High def box. So when it craps out I lost all recorded movies and access to my television stations. The internet service has craped out twice. This seems it was not a modem issue but a signal issue.

After ordering everything it only took 3 weeks for them to get a tech out to set up my VOIP. That is it only took me 3 weeks to get 911 service. So I called verizon who turned on my service 2 days later to gap the time it took for comcast to get thier only VOIP tech in the county to come out and make a phone call to thier center to hit the box and activate it. I guess letting a customer make this call is way too much of a burden on comcast bare bonse call center.

The voip has been up and worked great for 3 weeks now. But today... You guessed it, it craped out on me. No dial tone. No 911 service. I called the 1800-Comcast. Let me walk you through the teleprompt.

For english press 1
Something somethin es spaniol dous

> I press 1

For comcast television press 1
for comcast highspeed internet press 2

> I wait for Comcast digital voice(thier brand name for VOIP)

For comcast television press 1
For Comcast highspeed internet press 2

> I Press 2 figureing VOIP is closer to internet than tv

I get a phone jocky who knows nothing. They quickly realise I know what I am talking about and transfer me to another phone jocky. This guy tells me I dialed into the wrong center and transfers me to.... Another tele prompter, but doesn't give me the number or a chance to ask for it. As a matter of fact I was saying, Hold on wait wait wait.... To late I was transfered

For comcast existing customers press 1
For new Comcast customers press 2

> I press 1

For Comcast television press 1
For comcast Highspeed internet press 2
For comcast Digital voice comcasts new telephone service press 3

> Holy bat terds this might be a go, I press 3

I get a phone jocky... frown

Hello sir how can I help you today. I describe how I have no dial tone and the lights are out on my box. I advise I have a 4 year old daughter and no 911 service. They ask if i tryed to dail 911.

Now for the non tech and retards out there.

1.) no dial tone means don't bother calling, you have no tip and ring. In other words the [censored] is broke

2.) you do not just call 911 to make sure you can. That is a good way to get fined and have the police visit you.

I advise the tech he is retarded and tell him how the phone works. Then I explain how 911 laws work. He promptly advises me this is Comcast digital voice. I advise him it is VOIP and I know what the [censored] it is and how it works and about how is ATM back bone works with his edge routers to provide thier VOIP network.

He advises me he can have a truck out in the morning. I advise him my daughter is choking and I can not call 911. He says but you have a cell phone. I tell him I am bloging this whole conversation. I also advise I work for verizon and know they can not put off getting 911 back up. He asks if my daughter is really choking. I tell him no but imagine if she was or does later and I have a record of this conversation. He asks me to hold and apologises.

Not we have the token manager at his cubicle. The manager asks if i tryed making any calls. I take into account they deal with ID10T's all day. I advise the manager I have no dial tone, no I can not make a call that I have no 911 srvice and a child at home, that they must get my 911 back up.

Now at this time the lights on my VOIP modem come back up. I check. I'll be damed I have dial tone. I do not tell my wonderful tech support on the cell phone. I ask if they can at least test the line. They tell me no. lol. Now I know in Verizon we can test a line in 10 seconds flat. I figure the manager is about as technical as our janitor at this point. This explains his tech's knowledge.

I decide to tell them I now have dial tone back and will not be needing thier help today but want a tech out in the morning to check the signal strength at the tap as a possible reason why my box might have droped out. It took them 45 minutes to set up a disspatch. So some time between 08:00 and noon on 11/6/2005 a tech will be here. Lets see if the VOIP is fixed 100% and what he takes out of service to get it fixed. I know if he puts an amp on the line my internet will be [censored] because it will mess up the data stream. I would assume that this would also mess up the data stream for the VOIP box also.

My guess is the bridger needs to be turned up to allow a stronger signal to get to the tap. But what do I know, I am a dumb [censored] customer.

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I only trust PVR's, if I where to go the DVR approach I'd get a TIVO and be done with it; I'd never trust something from the company I have services through as 90% of the time it's [censored] I could get cheaper or build myself (hence PVR).

I'd also not trust their VoIP; but you're getting it free so it doesn't count wink ... You need to get me your # btw...


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Well they came out... They didn't take signal levels from the tap outside because I was not home.

Today my modem droped out...

I guess you really do get what you pay for. Oh my phone droped out yesterday for a few hours again.

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Hey man, I got to thinking... If you have ComCast at home AND DSL frm Verizon you could load balance and use both lines :x... Fairly cheap too, just snag a WRT54GS and haveatu... Look for an older box if you go to buy one, newer versions are shitty...


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You are missing the point.

Comcast is selling phone service and therfore are billing themselves as a utility. If they can't keep things reliable for a month? A month a stability on a phone line... When is the last time your phone went out? If they were a true utility is in reliable maybe my other [censored] wouldn't go out so often.

Here is the problem with the cable companies vs telco.

When you get able first turned up and lets say you are the first tap... Let me back up a bit


Code
  /      
 |        -------------
||==D     |           |
||        |           |
| \       |  |-----|  |     ^^^^^
|         |  |     |  |     |   |     --     --
|=========|  |    o|  |=====|   |====|  |===|  |
|         |  |     |  |     |   |    |  |   |  |
=================================================
comcast        Comcast      Bridger   Tap    Tap
satelite       Head end
feed           (servers, 
                filters 
                and such)
Cable companies get thier feed from satelite. Now this is better than your satelite for a few reasons.

1.) they clean up the signal a bit and have a bit of a buffer to replace missing bits(this means less picture freeze in theory)

2.) The signal they get and dishes they have are stronger

3.) They told me it was better /me shrugs

Okay so satelite, then head end(where they buffer, filter, ATM cloud, and stuff btw for you CO exploreres I would love to see pics inside these buildings but I belive the are a bit more secure than CO's) Then we have a bridger, than a tap.

Now the last two items in thier MAN(Metropolitan network) are what I want to point out here.

The Bridger allows thier maint techs to adjust signal strength. That is good to know when you learn about the taps. A tap works like this...

You move into a new development. Comcast runs a new Tap out to your location straight from the bridger. You are happy as [censored], you have a 6 meg connection to the net, high def channels are clean and crisp, VOIP or CDV*snicker* is clear sounding. But wait a tick, they are building a new development with 75 new homes... Your TV goes to [censored], net is now droping out, and VOIP sounds like a cell phone under water. What happened?

Well they ran a line from your tap then connected a new tap. From the new tap they ran a line and connected yet another tap. Meanwhile no one put in a tkt to up the signal strength on the Bridger. You great signal strength is not droped to half what it was maybe not even that far. But your service has droped a bit. The tech who comes to your site can't touch the bridger so if he or she puts in the order... It will still be a week or so. Now that is only good till the next tap goes in.

Compare that to telco(I will not draw thier network because you can read about it in any one of a billion docs on line) which give you your own coper pair to a home. If you call repair they can test your line right then and there. They can see forigen voltage, opens and LOW SIGNAL STRENGTH. But in the cable world you have to wait a while to get a tech out who doesn't understand as much as I just explained about his own network.

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1. My satelite rarely freezes; only exception is when the wind is pounding which rarely happens as we're in a gorge.

2. Yeh I'd immagine their dishes are stronger the 30' dishes can't be just for show...

3. Thats you first mistake.

I've had my Vonage for about a year now; never had issues when i got it and I am using Comcast for my internet...

I think you need a tech out to run a few tests wink ...


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Quote:

1. My satelite rarely freezes; only exception is when the wind is pounding which rarely happens as we're in a gorge.

2. Yeh I'd immagine their dishes are stronger the 30' dishes can't be just for show...

3. Thats you first mistake.
I was making half jokes there. No doubt the dish and signal are stronger. They are taped right into HBO, Showtime, TMC, etc etc etc. But I was joking about because they told me. Sarcasm.


This is one of the fastest growing areas in the nation. That is the problem you see. They keep adding new taps to an already strained signal. I plan further investigation into thier network as I deal with thier techs and tier II.

I do know they have an ATM cloud as thier backbone. That much I figured but was confirmed when I took an interview. They could not afford me. laugh

But they guy told me all my tech skills were there and he questioned me on a few things, then told me the Video feed is all transported county to county via ATM conections. I am guessing OC-3's or more to each county.

Maybe each channel gets a ATM PVC(Permanet Virtual Connection)

This would mean (if I am right) that every TV channel has a VPI/VCI(think of these as ip addresses in the ATM world) They would be something like

VPI 001
VCI 034

Quality of sercvice would have to support real time communication. blah blah blah.

I need to find this damned bridger so I can amp up my own [censored] from here out.

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Is there some reason you don't just amp it in your basement? We had purchased a $500 amp that was connected in our basement from TCI (now Comcast); we don't use it anymore due to all electricity in the basement being burnt out; but it did boost the signal quite well (though when the power went out down there it dropped my signal to [censored])


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Amps mess up the modem and the VOIP signal. They slow down your return time. Picture it like putting a rock in the stream. It takes the signal and kind of puts it on a different signal. I am surprised you didn't notice that.

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I just noticed a faster connection; which is all that mattered when it was hooked up; i didn't have VoIP then though...


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