Comcast, outbound dropouts, questions - Resolved

Posts: 6 · Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 8:54 am Post subject:

Had a useful chat with online tech support just now - best interaction I've ever had with a comcast rep.

We were able to do side-by-side ping tests while connected straight through, PC to cable modem. When he pinged from his end to my modem, he saw 0% packet loss. When I pinged out from my modem to comcast.net, I saw 16% packet loss. This seems consistent with the Voip dropped audio outbound but no problems with inbound audio.

Next we looked at the modem signals/levels - all looked well, but I drew his attention to an error message that keeps popping up in the modem log - "T3 timeouts" There have been 16 such time outs over the last two days. He said this was not normal.

Finally, I was able to learn that the issue has indeed been referred to Plant Operations, so at least it's making its way up the food chain.

I'm considering taking my cable modem into the local office and swapping it out - anyone think this has any chance of helping? I still think it's an external comcast network issue, but I'm willing to try anything at this point!

Posts: 28 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: May 15, 2006 Posts: 28

kdog -

I feel your pain, and if you read this thread through you will see you are not alone. I'm STILL trying to get my issue resolved. They claim it's been escalated, but i haven't heard anything from them in a week.

Swapping your cable modem out probably won't help a bit - i've tried 3 of them already and all 3 behaved the same way (2 different motorola's and an RCA). I am now in the process of going to each of my neighbors and testing their lines. I hope to show that everyone in my neighborhood is having the same problem and having everyone call it in. If we all say we aren't paying until it works properly, maybe that will get comca$t$ attention...

Jeff

Posts: 114 · Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2006 10:52 am Post subject:

Jeff,

Hang in there. We were on cell phones for a few weeks during our Comcast trial and error period. Call them up daily and ask if the notes have been entered into the system. I believe each call is logged, and once they see that you've been calling over, and over, and over with an unresolved issue, it may trigger something in their system. Call twice a day - once morning, once evening. Or better yet, call each time you see a drop out. Smile

The ping test from Comcast to your cable modem probably won't show a packet loss. During the last visit by the normal tech, he was on the phone with the office, who pinged my modem, and during an outage from my end, she didn't see anything from her end. What she did see was an abnormal measurement of something or other (I can't remember the term). It was enough to convince her that something in the lines were bad.

-Craig

Posts: 28 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: May 15, 2006 Posts: 28

Just got off the phone with Comcast again. They say my issue is still open and it will take 7 - 10 business days for someone to respond to it (it's been since 5/2 Cool

. They say i should call back again to check tomorrow.

Jeff

Posts: 28 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: May 15, 2006 Posts: 28

OK - now this is funny...

I was on my way home from work yesterday when i get a call from a comcast tech. He's on his way over to my house. I say, OK - and i know i don't have to be there. The tech says "yes you do, i need to get into your house to see what's going on"

So - i start to explain to the tech what the problem is - again (his notes said "Can't connect to the internet," when the tech says - oh yeah, i remember this one - i was there already.

Ahhhh. Same tech from 5/27 - the one who said it was his first day on High Speed Internet. OMG. Comcast has no idea which way is up.

So, i got a call 10 minutes later - another comcast guy - so, i see here you cancelled your appointment with a tech. Yes, i say, and i proceed to explain. He then says, ok, looks like we need a maintenance tech to monitor the line from Chelmsford to see what's going on. Perhaps this is progress????

On a side note, i talked to another person today that i know who lives in another town who is having the exact same problem. Comcast definitely has issues. I find it hard to believe that they don't know that they have issues.

Jeff

Posts: 6 · Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2006 3:36 pm Post subject:

Jeff,

Your experiences sound a lot like mine - the same tech keeps coming back to my house and rolling his eyes. He seems as frustrated with comcast as I am right now.

The good thing is that he has managed to escalate the issue to plant operations. I just got off the phone with comcast and they confirmed the ticket is open and has been escalated to an engineer to look at the lines.

It's clear now that the packet loss issue is only affecting the upstream traffic, not the downstream, which makes it hard to diagnose and hard to convince comast that there's a real problem.

Fingers crossed for another week. Good luck at your end.

Kevin

Posts: 5 · Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2006 3:01 pm Post subject: Similar problem

Hi everyone - I have had almost the exact same issue that both the OP and Kdog have had, but I think I've solved it.

This morning I spent a while on the phone with Comcast (I'm in Ann Arbor, MI) - I was having packet loss up to 70% and the tech on the phone could see up to 60% packet loss from her side. So there definitely was an issue.

After I they scheduled a truck roll, I had an idea - I hooked up the cable modem directly to the cable drop from the pole. ie: so that none of the wiring in the house affected anything.

After that, I was having no packet loss - so I suspect that it was the wiring in the house. I had had techs out before - they never suggested changing any cable. That's is probably because the SNR, upstream and downstream numbers were all very good (there was only one cable run from the outside connect to the modem - no TVs).

I've had it connected directly to the drop using another cable for about 4 hours no - no problems and no packet loss.

So - a suggestion for those in the same situation - try hooking up as close to pole as to eliminate any inside wiring. Yeah, it looked funny with the cable modem and all this other wiring in the driveway, but I think I figured it out.

Posts: 114 · Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2006 11:52 am Post subject:

Interesting testing method. By "cable drop from the pole", do you mean where it enters your house? I ask because we have a green plastic "box" (about 2 feet high, 1 foot wide/deep) sitting on the side of our house that contains the connection of the underground wiring hookup. From there it goes underground again and pops back up on the side of our house, from which it then enters our house. I don't think it would be "legal" for me to open up that green box and connect a cable modem, but I suppose I could connect to the side of the house.

But in the end, the issue appears to be the same - bad wiring.

-Craig

Posts: 28 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: May 15, 2006 Posts: 28

I know for me at least this did not fix my problem... The last tech that came to my house ran a long test line from the green box to my cable modem - no better or worse.

What's interesting is that this whole problem seemed to start when comcast came out and replaced the existing underground wire with a new line. Maybe it's just coincidence...

Jeff

Posts: 31 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Jun 11, 2006 Posts: 31

Hi Craig,
Gina south of Boston in Holbrook - family in Abington - we're all having the same problem. Read my post - 'Breaking up, dropping out, Comcast + Vonage blame each other'. We both need tier 3 support, not techs coming to the house. I don't know about you but they've all put me through enough hoops at this point - I see the time outs on THEIR servers.
Keep in touch - you're not alone and jumping to another Voip won't save either one of us.
Gina