Since I am now working from home, its important for me to have very little packet loss.

So, Monday rolls around ~ 9:30AM, I start seeing huge packet loss. Now Mind you I haven't had a BAD problem with Comcast for at least a YEAR. Sure a few small outages or networking issues, but all manageable.

This was not one of them thar manageable ones.

This is the same part everyday ----
I call Comcast, wait is long. The automated phone support asks me what my problem is (with examples of what I can say) I choose to say: "Fuc^W I can't access the internet."

She then asks: Is there is big red "install software" button on my screen, I answer: *NO*.

Then: "Are you performing a self install?" *NO*

Then: "Have you unplugged power your cable modem and re-plugged it in?" *YES*

Then: "Have you shutdown you machine and restarted?" *YES* (no not really as I don't have ANY Windows, plus I use a router in any case and have power cycled that just in case)

Then: "Please hold for the next available representative"
End of the same part everyday ----


I get a rep, First things first, verify my account info. OK Fine. Next, she has me go through the same *G*ood *D*ern steps the automated attendant did...

Next she wants to schedule a Tech Visit. I politely explain, with machines available to me outside Comcast's networks and the fact I have Cellular Broadband and that I have other machines available to me as well. I have narrowed down the problem to my first hop router. She blatantly informs me that is *NOT* the issue, as she has never seen the server on the first hop having any problems EVER. And proceeds to tell me that she is scheduling a tech for Wednesday. I stop her right there and ask, "Is this going to cost me money if he finds no problem with my stuff?" She answers affirmatively, as she doesn't see any problem currently on the monitoring systems and she *THINKS* I have a cabling issue. I retort: over the past few years (7), every tech visit has resulted in them finding NOTHING wrong. Except the very first one in 2000, which replaced the 25 year old Cable from the pole to my house. And in 2001, 2003, 2005, all replaced my cable as it was "bad" but it wasn't... this proves "troubleshooting by rote". I politely refuse a tech visit, but tell her to note the problematic IPs on the router or "DOCSIS head end" that I have discovered. I found 7 IPs associated with this device displaying exactly the same problems. I hang-up and suffer until ~ 7PM when everything just started working right again. Good enough, or so I thought.


So, I am doing work just fine, until ~ 10AM. packet loss @ 100% for long periods... though some periods only ~20% packet loss. I call Comcast again. This is Tuesday.

See same part thing above:

I asked the operator if they could bring up history, yes and I asked if IPs were notated, she didn't write them down... GRRR.

We got through the whole bit again, this one got my attention, she said: Oh, you know your Cable modem is End Of Life?

Needless to say she tried to schedule a Tech, again I explained my methodologies and techniques used to track down the problem. Etc... explain about that I've had regional NOC personnel, Comcast networking vendors, the FCC, and other high level people at my house. They've measured everything with EXPENSIVE testing equipment and found my stuff to be within 1% of optimal spec.

She still tries to schedule. Gah, I asked if she was sure this would help out, she said that they would replace my Cable Modem this time... with a crappy (name I've never heard of) Cable Modem. I declined as it would have cost my $200 because I owned my old one plus installation costs. Obviously, I went and bought a new one for $80 and had it allocated and authorized to my account on Wednesday. Having used my cellular broadband to work from home. At least the new Cable Modem (a Motorola Surfboard SB5101), which reduces the packet loss from 20-100% packet loss... to ~5-7% packet loss average, but still long periods of disconnectedness. Except after about 6PM this day.


9AM the next morning Thursday, trouble earlier then before. I train my tools from outside Comcast and find the EXACT same issues, but . It is STILL those same IPs causing problems. I call, (see same stuff different day). I am getting to the point where this is wearing thin. I explain I've called 4 days in a row now. Its not my cables or my cable modem or my house wiring or freakish weather or the connectors being corroded or anything like that. I have determined where the problem lies and it is the cable DOCSIS headend that services my particular cable segment. I ask for an escalation at this point (just like every other day, I forgot to mention and was refused), as I had just gotten done explaining explaining what I did for network analysis to determine the problematic machine. I went through things step by step and even had created dynamic webpages for this lady to view. She was dumbfounded that someone could map out Comcast's network like that and get the "internal/non-public" addressing from it. I asked, do you believe me now when I say I know what I am talking about? She was going to report this to her manager anyway... but somehow her manager got a NOC person involved and he validated my evidence.

I ended up talking this over with him and got a NOC support ticket out of it, not one of the Customer Service tickets... noooooo, this one was a much more "internal" number. And he told me how to help the people get to NOC right away when something like this happens again.

By Thursday afternoon, most packet problems were gone and by 5PM they disappeared completely. Friday was no problems.

The resolution on the ticket was that they had the wrong settings for "spanning tree" in place and it was set on Philadelphia settings. And that those setting were introduced early Monday Morning ~ 2AM ET. And that it would make sense that it could handle traffic UPTO a certain amount before it would start flailing wildly.

All in all, it cost me TONS of down time for work and and un-needed new Cable modem and a bunch of talk time on my cell phone.

GRRR, when Comcast works, it works fine. BUt when some person screws something up, the whole infrastructure to support people with is now setup as a profit center. It si hard to get through to the REAL people that made the stupid mistake in the first place.