Comcast, outbound dropouts, questions - Resolved

Posts: 34 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Jun 20, 2006 Posts: 34

Bozman,

Your solution is to have them roll it back, contact comcast and ask for a level 2 tech.

Inform them that you are having a problem with their "power boost" and need to roll back to DOCSIS 1.1 or a new modem that does not support DOCSIS 2.0 i.e. SB4100 or SB3100.

Basically comcast's "power boost" is a big flop, almost everyone that has been rolled over to it is having problems, Vonage or not.

If you have an older modem you might want to call them and forcefully tell them to change the mac adress registered to your account, make sure once they change it over that they register it to your account, I spent nearly 1.5 hours getting them to fix that easy mistake. Someone should file a class action lawsuit against comcast.

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

You don't need a class action lawsuit to hurt comcast...

1. Demand that you get a refund for the months that you've had interrupted service (i.e. months since they've rolled out speedboost)

2. Stop spending extra $ on services offered by comcast - i personally have taken my cable down to basic cable (use Directv) and lowered my internet service to the standard level. My bill has dropped from around $140/month to about $60/month.

As soon as i have an alternative for high speed internet, then i cancel all my comcast service. Comcast will get the hint if enough people do that.

Jeff

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 07, 2006 Posts: 2

Any updates on this issue w/ Comcast and 5120 modems? I have the problem where I can hear the person I'm talking to but they can't hear me. It has rendered Vonage useless.

Do I have to suck it up and order an older Cable Modem from eBay? I don't have the time to mess around with Comcast support trying to find someone that understands the issue.

Please let me know if there is an easy way to address this!

Posts: 34 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Jun 20, 2006 Posts: 34

You can contact comcast and ask them to downgrade you to Docsis 1.1 or you can purchase a modem that is only docsis 1.1 compatible not Docsis 2.0. If your located in north west Mass. , I am unsure if he can help someone outside this area but you can certainly try, contact Steve Stacio at 888-301-5400 x8002. He is a level 2 tech. that was helping with the issue, he is looking for people with this problem to work out a possible solution with the Engineers. Good luck.

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

Hey again - just checking back as we're having all the same problems as you since April as well in Holbrook (12 miles south of Boston) and cousins in Abington too (same distance south of Boston) and likewise we've been through EVERYTHING from swapping out our modem (SB5120 docsys 1.1), having the line replaced pole to house, the ping things, the trace routes (they've got some bum servers that consistently time out every run), the Voip tests - Comcast will tell me I'm losing signal hundreds of times a day BUT goes into the blame game (Vonage, our router, the dog next door) - since it's an intermittent issue it's always looking good when the tech comes - so we had to go swap out the modem ourselves (they said it wasn't company policy for them to come out do that - despite their own DX) Grrr..... I can't make a quality call to save my life - they can't hear half of what I'm saying, I'm a broken up mess video conferencing, and now I'm even seeing issues on data transmission when surfing the net - ie have to click links several times to get the info sent and pages to load. Comcast is of NO help. This is going on with friends in Michigan as well (Detroit area) that they gave up and switched to DSL, believing the problems to be Comcasts NETWORK - and it's looking that way to me too at this point. I may give your teir 2 tech a little jingle later as this must be resolved or we'll have to bail to another service - problem is we need good bandwidth here so I'm somewhat a hostage as well. Don't want to pay more on the phone either... all worked well for 3 years and as someone noted - all coinciding with their superspeed rollout..... any further comments toward a successful resolution would be much appreciated and gawd forbid anyone wanting me jumping through all these useless hoops again - Comcast has to come clean and address this - there are TOO MANY people with the same problem, all our modems didn't go bad at the same time. Good luck and condolances - Gina

Posts: 34 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Jun 20, 2006 Posts: 34

The quickest and easiest solution is to go to a DOCSIS 1.1 "ONLY" modem. Ironically everyone's modems did all go bad at once. This is what I found out from the Tier 2 Tech, basically before "Comcast's" rollout of this "new" technology, which was simply lying dormant in your modems capabilities, everyone was using DOCSIS 1.1 with their 5120, 5100 modems! What comcast did without asking, apparantly their right legally since we are attached to their service, is modify our firmware to take advantage of this dormant ability in the modem and yes the problem has been traced back to a few repeat offender routers that Engineering seems to think isn't the problem. I have been working with computers for nearly fifteen years and I am well aware of what isn't working on my computer and what is not working with their service.

Ultimately you can work with the tier 2 tech support and get him to call you back or you can purchase a SB4100 or SB3100 or other DOCSIS 1.1 ONLY modem. Do not replace your current modem with another Docsis 2.0 capable modem as they will modify that firmware automatically as well. The tier 2 tech wanted me to try a rollback on my firmware but I had already reinstalled my SB3100 and was kicking strong. I have had very minimal problems with my audio, back to normal for me. Good luck.

Posts: 34 · Vonage Forum Junior Joined: Jun 20, 2006 Posts: 34

I also forgot to mention that their is no performance difference, pre-"speedboost" to DOCSIS 1.1. Simply because they are running at the same speed without a huge amount of lost data packets.

If the technical support or engineers try to tell you that when you run ping and tracerout that certain routers will show some loss because they don't prioritize pings, tell them they are correct but still wrong. Prioritizing does not cause lost packets, it simply gives a longer wait time. If their prioritization is losing packets then they have a problem with their routers!! Go figure that comcast doesn't want to admit their folley!!! I wish FIOS was available in my area because I would probably switch my internet and cable over to that service, If you can I would suggest looking to that as a possible alternative to comcast.

Posts: 13 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Jun 08, 2006 Posts: 13

FYI - Here in North Dallas Comcast is switching to Time Warner. I hope they don't change anything because I am working ok. 99% QoS. I am sorry to hear that you guys are still struggling. Hang in there.

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

Okay, I actually got encouraged reading up on how this post has progressed - I thought Comcast was finally recognizing the issue and had solutions. I rang the teir 2 tech's number above but got voice mail (left a msg) but figured I'd ring in the usual way and get a positive response. Teir one Dave was loud, obnoxious and combative - complete denial of any Comcast issues whatsoever and they certainly do not support Vonage. I can't video conference anymore either successfully - but of course - they don't support any software out there - what the heck - if they could support their own network like they should - they wouldn't and shouldn't have to support other products - they'd just work! Dave said he could not transfer me to teir 2 - he did not have that capability - so he passed me on to a 'senior tech' Jason. This was all news to Jason as well, has never heard of any such problems. Of course I dropped out during the call and he noted a loss of signal at that time - but - all he could so was send someone out. We just swapped out the modem a week ago (another SB5120 Docsys 1.1) and the wire to the pole has likewise been replaced - what good would it be to come out again when the problem is grander than all that? If you really want the clincher- Dave shouted out my call history - I didn't say a word but was stunned how slanted it was written; from little things like calling in for a movie credit billed twice was instead listed as 'requested info on phone service'... I NEVER requested info on their phone service - I only told her I had phone problems because I kept dropping out during the call - she mentioned they offered phone - I said NO. Another call was listed as a router issue. Yeah - I had to reset it because they'd had a 20 minute outage! OMG every call was noted as so skewed from the truth - what kind of people are we dealing with here and if all this is from their brilliant power boost roll out - why isn't Vonage doing the class action due it prohibiting their customers from receiving service? I've just been told 3 friends of a buddy of mine in Detroit all had to dump Comcast and go to DSL to retain their Vonage - should I ring for a dish and DSL myself or does anyone have any hope for a resolution? I'm simply being shot down every call.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 07, 2006 Posts: 2

I just ordered a SB 4100 cable modem from eBay for $15. We'll see if it fixes the problem. I'll report back when I have an update.