This month I had to two connections. RCN I was able to get 120+Mbps on my router. I was able to get no more than 31Mbps on it with Comcast(on blast). This was not an issue directly wired. I honestly just switched the cable on the back of the modem and saw this huge difference from provider to provider. What does Comcast do that is limiting my wifi speed and what can I do about it?
Router is a Cisco E3000 running Tomato 1.28
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[Speed] How does one get full Wifi speed on Comcast with their router?
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[Connectivity] IPv6 dropping randomly
This is a reoccurring issue for me that I have posted about before. I notice the connectivity issue because "some" sites show sluggish performance. I can log in to Facebook fine but photos and profile image photos begin not displaying, etc.
Anyway I discovered if I simply reboot the modem(5341j) or the router (Asus RT-AC66R) I get my IPv6 connectivity back. I also verify using the test-ipv6.com site. Which always confirms the failure. Speeds tests always show fine during the loss of IPv6 connectivity.
This has been going on for perhaps a year now. My connection may be fine for a day or 2 or 3 and then notice the issue while surfing. At times I simply turn off IPv6 at the router just to avoid the random issue.
So a little over 2 weeks ago I finally changed my router's DNS entry to use Google's DNS servers 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. It ran fine for 15 days without a single IPv6 issue. Two days ago I changed the router back to default DNS settings and used the Comcast Anycast servers. Worked fine 2 days and then had the IPv6 connectivity issue again. Just swapped back to Google DNS servers. I perhaps need to try someone else's DNS servers.
So maybe I'm on to something here. I'm not a network engineer or programmer but just a home enthusiast. I know random IPv6 issues have been popping up for many that I see posted here. I know I have been pulling teeth with mine but just basically living with it and hoping the next router firmware update might fix the issue. I got a modem firmware update back during the summer but that didn't make the issue go away either. May be you network types can use this info to help come up with more ideas.
The one thing I have not done is remove the router from the equation as that would kill my network connections to all but one computer.
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[Equip] New Zoom 5370 Activated
I got the new Zoom 5370 activated yesterday, got it from Amazon for $89.99 + free shipping. I have included pics of GUI pages. Like most Zoom modems, this one also shows config. file name on connection page.
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[Equip] Comcast says Arris TM822G won't work with voice service
This came up in another discussion but some there thought it was worthy of it own topic.
A Comcast employee has posted this in Comcast's own forums: http://forums.comcast.com/t5/Voice-Service-and-Equipment/TM822G-is-not-an-approved-retail-device-for-phone/td-p/2528169
"Hi all,
It has come to my attention that some customers are having issues with TM822G for voice service. The TM822G is not an approved retail device for voice service and as a result will lose phone provisioning as well as dial tone. There are only two approved retail devices for phone service, these are the TM722G and TG862G. If you have purchase a device outside of these two, it could work for some time, but eventually the issues will begin with the phone service. I apologize for the inconvenience regarding this.
This might change in the future, to look at an updated list of retail devices for phone service go to http://mydeviceinfo.comcast.net/ click on the retail check mark and look for the Telephony devices."
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[CustSvc] Comcast Data Usage Metering Products are misleading
Having already read through some of the other posts I am going to vent my sac on this subject,
Here's my problem with the whole scenario. The data tools provided are crap.
July 2015 285 GB
Aug 2015 265 GB
Sep 2015 248 GB
Oct 2015 300 GB (as of noon)
When I go to the website https://customer.xfinity.com/MyServices/Internet
I can see the short form of the meter w/MAC address, etc.
(No notice here about the currency of the data)
Clicking onto the "view data usage details" link, another page is brought up
This shows the same basic data, but adds
Data Usage from October 01, 2015 October 31, 2015
Data used in the last 24 hours may not be displayed.
You have three monthly courtesy overages available. After using all three overages, you will be charged $10.00 for each 50GB of additional data provided.
But I have also downloaded and installed the desktop data usage meter
It says I used 298 GB. More importantly I says I used that amount as of 7 minutes ago.
Yes from the FAQ as part of the desktop application
Q.: The information displayed in the XFINITY Usage Meter application does not match whats on the usage meter page in My Account. Why?
A. The XFINITY Usage Meter application receives usage information based on the update frequency setting. By default, the usage information is updated every 3 hours, but could be set to refresh up to every 12 hours. Depending on this setting, the information displayed in the XFINITY Usage Meter application could differ from the display in My Account. Note that in both displays usage shown is not real-time and could be delayed up to 24 hours.
IF I sign out of the application and then sign back in the data refresh frequency should be irrelevant, especially if I have it set to three hours but I never see the "as of" value higher that about 60 minutes.
So this scenario suffers from multiple failures.
1. Depending on the tool used, the data provided by Comcast is different. These are their tools, and I am assuming (perhaps naively) that the data source queried is a unified system.
2. The verbiage associated with the displays is inaccurate and possibly purposefully misleading.
a. Web Site: (October 31 2015 at 12:42PM)
Data Usage from October 01, 2015 October 31, 2015
Data used in the last 24 hours may not be displayed.
It can't be both. It can't be "October 31, 2015" AND "data used in the last 24 hours may not be displayed"
b. Desktop App:
"Data as of 7 minutes ago." This is a definitive unqualified statement which is apparently total BS.
I think the 300 GB cap is just another money grab, but that is not the argument of this post. That is for another post.
The argument for this post is that it is essentially impossible to get close to the allotment with the tools available. Comcast expects its users to do one of four things:
0. Get a business account for unlimited use.
1. Stay substantially below the allotment, essentially avoiding potential overage charges by avoiding usage of the system up to the announced limit. This is like paying for gasoline in a car without an accurate gas gauge, knowing that if you run out there will be a service charge to add more to the tank. Also, when you go back to the gas station before you can add more to the tank you first have to empty whatever remains (first of month). So pay for 300GB/mo. and avoiding using a significant percentage, ever.
2. Use the system without attention to usage at all, and accepting that during some or all months extra fees will accrue to the account. This is essentially the extraction of customers money for using the system at the end of the month in the same way as it was used earlier in the month. Which means that the allotment is not based on any load or stress on the system but purely as a mechanism to control what users will use the system for.
3. Go somewhere else entirely. Which is the same as Comcast saying Get Stuffed to its customers, we're Comcast, and we're a functional monopoly. Eat it.
Does all this crap bother me. You bet. Because it isn't necessary. If Comcast is going to screw its customers, it should do so honestly. Make the tools accurately reflect the reality.
If you are going to hose me down, don't tell me you're using champagne.
PS. I just killed the desktop app, and then reloaded it, and logged in. Now it says my usage is 292GB as of 15 mins ago (at 1:28 PM) So somehow I unused 6GB of data in the last 45 mins.
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.sig under development
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[Connectivity] WAN IP Lease Renewal - New Public IP - No MAC Editing/Cloning
What I need:
I need to change my public-facing, wide-area-network Internet protocol address.
TL : DR:
IP was attacked. Need to change IP. Need to have IP flagged as recently attacked. Comcast customer service fails and facepalm moments. Comcast refuses to change my IP. Customer unwilling to edit MAC addresses as a workaround. 98.222.50.41
Gratitude:
Thanks for your time reading my post and contributing to my solution!
Sincerely appreciated,
Chris
Some Nitty Gritty (More available on request):
Summary:
Since 10:30am cst 10/30/2015 I have spent over seven hours working with Comcast technical support.
Overview of who I spoke with:
From a technical support supervisor to levels one and two of security assurance, to customer solutions(to cancel services after being refused a new IP), back to a technical support supervisor, to a scheduled on-site technician (for no good reason), back to a technical support supervisor, ending up here, I have spent over 7 hours unsuccessfully troubleshooting what should be a simple production change control ticket to a technician with command line access to my local DHCP server ( or a utility in the employee customer service portal at some point in the process to access this functionality)
Summary of intrusion incident and followup:
From 2:30am cst to 5:30am cst my network had unauthorized access on an open RDP port to my media center. They jumped from a user account to an admin account at about 5:00am cst (I assume they brute forced my admin account's password in that 2.5 hours). According to my event logs they messed around in my registry, specificity with windows dev utilities and WindowsMail. I assume they were setting me up for email spam and bot net purposes. Ive switched up the ports I plan on running servers on and have shut down all traffic for the interim. I rolled my system back to before the attack and have checked my drives individually for hidden partitions to clear out a root-kit if it was there. At this point I am not assuming the worst and trying to reset my CMOS, pull my ram for a day or two, and all those other levels of shenanigans.
What I need at this point, and cannot do for myself, is have my current public Comcast IP of 98.222.50.41 flagged as an attacked IP and get a new public IP assigned to my router's MAC address.
Adventures with Customer Support:
During my adventures I've been informed that I have both a dynamic and a static IP at different points and from different employees. I've been told that 98.222.50.41 is not owned or operated by Comcast and that there is no record of that IP at Comcast and that if I were to pay for Norton's tech support I could figure out who owns the IP. The Internet at-large does not agree.
Network
Net Range 98.192.0.0 - 98.255.255.255
CIDR 98.192.0.0/10
Name JUMPSTART-5
Handle NET-98-192-0-0-1
Parent NET98 (NET-98-0-0-0-0)
Net Type Direct Allocation
Origin AS
Organization Comcast Cable Communications, Inc. (CMCS)
Registration Date 2007-04-20
Last Updated 2012-03-02
Comments
RESTful Link http://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-98-192-0-0-1
Function Point of Contact
Abuse NAPO-ARIN (NAPO-ARIN)
Tech IC161-ARIN (IC161-ARIN)
See Also Related organization's POC records.
See Also Related delegations.
I was told (by the Comcast employee trying to sell my Norton) that I should try and use GeekSquad to try and resolve my router issues. Even though its not the solution to the issue, if you're going to mention a competitor why not at least try and sell me Comcast in-house support instead?
Continued adventures and the Escapades of Elliot:
Elliot, at level two of security assurance, wanted to make sure I understood that I had a static IP, that at no time did I ever have a dynamic IP with Comcast, that Comcast does not hand out dynamic IPs, that under no circumstances will Comcast ever change my IP, and that Comcast cannot flag my IP as having been attacked without a police report. Elliot was happy to transfer me to Customer Solutions to cancel all of my services since this could not be resolved.
Customer Solutions and On-site Tech Visit on Halloween:
Customer Solutions tried to save me as a customer and got me back in communication with a supervisor at technical support who scheduled an on-site technician to resolve the MAC address issue wherein Comcast hardcodes IPs to MAC addresses on the DHCP server. Sending a tech out on-site didn't really make sense to me. This seemed like an issue to be solved remotely, but I was tired of the issue at that point in the day, was happy enough to let Comcast waste the money on the tech visit for no good reason, and intended to address the issue again the following day during the visit. On the phone with tech support, again, during the tech visit I had a technician walk me through a check of my public WAN IP while bypassing my router. Initially it appeared as though his reset progress did indeed change my public IP. I ended the call and the visit with dreams of success. After putting my router back in I troubleshooted the underlying issue, Comcast's DHCP server can pull the MAC of my router out of my packets when the router is doing the packet handling and the modem is acting like a glorified bridge (most normal home networks). Comcast also has 98.222.50.41 hardcoded to the MAC of my router not my modem.
Conclusion:
So i'm stuck. I am not going to edit the MAC on my router to do a workaround for Comcast. This doesn't handle flagging the IP as having been recently attacked. That doesn't handle why the employees are not equipped or educated to handle this issue competently in the first 20 minutes of me calling in. I need a new IP.
Edit 1:
Since posting this I contacted the Abuse and Tech points of contact (abuse@comcast.net and CNIPEO-Ip-registration@cable.comcast.com) registered for the IP range 98.192.0.0 - 98.255.255.255 with the following email:
I am including NAPO-ARIN, the Abuse PoC, in on this conversation
Forwarded Message:
TABLE FROM ABOVE
So. IC161-ARIN is listed as the Tech PoC for this block of IPs. This PoC provides your e-mail as contact.
98.222.50.41 is assigned to the MAC address of a ROUTER MODEL I own. This IP has had malicious activity on it. I have reported this activity to Comcast during an ongoing 8 hour tech support tree over the last 48 hours since 10:30am CST 10/30/2015
Multiple employees, with Elliot as level two in Security Assurance being the highest ranking employee I worked with, all clearly explained that I could not get this IP flagged without a police report. I was also clearly explained that there is no way to unassign 98.222.50.41 from my MAC address on Comcast's DHCP server.
I am hoping you could clear some of this up for me.
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Ordering Xfinity Internet
I could use some help/advice ordering Xfinity Internet. I called the 1-800 number to order Xfinity Internet Performance expecting to get the price I saw online for my location, which is $44.99/mo for the first 12 months.
Instead the CSR quoted $49.99/mo for first 12 months. He was not seeing $44.99 on his end for my address. I was told that the $44.99/mo is an internet only price and that I would have to order online for that price. He said he couldn't offer the lower price.
Based on what I read here I thought that calling to order would yield a better price versus ordering online. What should I do? Order online? Call a different CSR?
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[Connectivity] New Cisco DPC3941 Gateway Horrible Performance
When Comcast sent me this new gateway, did I just luck out and get a dog device?
History.. Have the Blast! service with the Triple Play. Everything was trucking along fine while using the Arris 722g EMTA.. Internet @ 120mbps, no lag or latency of note.. Telco worked fine, crystal clear & no issues.
THEN.. I start getting daily calls from Comcast all but demanding I accept a new gateway device - that the DOCSIS 3.0 device I was using is now obsolete and will stop working - because I guess of the Blast! speed increase to 150mbps.
Whatever, so I finally relent and let them send the new gateway.
When I got it and saw that it was a Cisco made device I was cool with it, because of my familiarity with Cisco devices on the enterprise level I figured this box should be good.
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT BOY WAS I WRONG.
First of all.. Telco sound quality is horrible. It sounds like an old POTS line with squirrel chew and water in the line. Static static static.. sometimes very quiet most of the time loud as hell. Incoming calls have been unreliable at best - sometimes a caller will get through but at least half the time they say it goes right to voice mail. Oh when this happens, when the caller does not hear a ring and the call goes to voicemail - on my end the phone will ring and ring and ring until the caller finishes leaving the message. Pick up the line it is dead, hang up it starts ringing again.
Oh and it's hit or miss if the voicemail that's left is even saved.
Internet.. it seems the only thing reliable with that is going to the Xfinity and speedtest.net speed test sites. I can go all day and get 150-190mbps download speeds - but the second I try to go to a regular website.. facebook, cnn, dslreports, it doesn't matter - I get the "waiting for xxx.xxx.com..." Sometimes it will time out sometimes the pages will load - slowly. Go back after to a speed test site and all is fine.. sub 20ms ping and super high transfer speeds.
Streaming video? I do not know what that is anymore.. Ask me about buffering video, I have plenty of that. In fact it buffers so much I wonder if I have a Janitorial service instead of an Internet service..
If I want to watch a youtube video or any other video I have to download the damn thing in order to watch it uninterrupted.
All Comcast support can do is suggest a reboot and or send a refresh signal to the modem. Don't even get me started on support. If Comcast wants to have people read from and strictly follow their script, at least hire people who can understand and speak in clear English. Oh and please do something about your scripted lines - after 5 minutes speaking with "technical support" I feel as if my IQ dropped 20-30 points. Anyway...
I have replaced the cable connecting to the phone block, even replaced the ethernet cables - twice. Replaced the two way splitter several times as well and I even relocated the modem to where the drop off the splitter is now less than 3' long, along with the new drop new compression fittings were put on all the video drops.. I even redid the bonding and while I was at it I ran a new power drop so the modem is all by itself on it's own circuit. Verified no ground loop and zero voltage on any of the lines. Basically I re-worked or replaced everything I could past the demarc.
I have two computers which are connected directly to the gateway via ethernet - the gateway is setup to be the router / firewall. Also have one laptop and several tablets that access via wireless. All see the same shitty network performance - except for the speed tests, again those work perfect- the only two sites that do seem to work.
Prior to all of this, with the original EMTA, my network performance was fine. Setup was simple.. EMTA into an Asus Router then to all my computers. Speeds were fine, performance was near flawless. New setup, EMTA/Gateway to all my computers, performance on Internet and telco is absolutely horrible.
Signal levels are fine..
[att=1] [att=2] [att=3]
The logs show nothing of note. The only thing hinkey I see are with the Codewords.. across all 16 channels the numbers are all exactly the same.. the same # of unerrored codewords, the exact same # of correctable codewords and the exact same # of uncorrectable codewords.. that all 16 channels being exactly the same seems real odd to me.
Since support doesn't seem to be willing to send anybody out, can I just go to the office to pick up a different gateway to swap out - or do I need a service call to do that?
Any suggestions? As of right now, I am at the point where I am willing to take the speed hit or downgrade my Internet package just so I could go back to the old EMTA that worked.
The only thing I did not try was putting the gateway into Bridge mode and going back to the old router - I didn't do that because from what I read on Comcast's and other message boards that option is pretty much a useless one. Anyone here have problems bridging these new gateways?
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Xfinity Performance 75
I placed an order for Xfinity Performance at 75/5 for $44.99/mo. On my order summary it shows Performance 25 Internet - $39.99, then Speed Increase - $5.00, for a total of $44.99/mo. Is this how Comcast displays the 75/5 tier or did I get Performance 25 at 25 MB?
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Question about cable splitters--are they all pretty similar?
Hi all, I'm trying to set up my sister with cable internet and her house only has one cable outlet. Since she gets cable TV, we need to use a splitter so one length of coax goes go the cable modem and one to the cable box. I found an old splitter in the rat's nest of cables behind my TV/entertainment area, and did the physical hookup for her the other night. We got the cable TV working (apparently--there's still some question about her getting HBO which is part of the deal she worked out), but they couldn't provision the modem, even after talking to a person.
Now that failure to provision the modem is most likely due 1) to the fact that it's a Surfboard 6120 which is labeled as "end of life" equipment but which was working at my house just last week at Blast 105 speeds (and she's signing up for Performance 25). The latter fact points to the other possible reason, namely that Comcast still has the S/N and HFC MAC address of the modem associated with my account, even after I replaced the SB6120 with an SB6141.
Still, I have a lingering doubt about whether I need a special splitter or something. Anyone care to weigh in?
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How to suggest new Xfinity WiFi hotspot location?
Is there any way to suggest a location for a public WiFi hotspot? Our local high school football field has no WiFi coverage, even though the street behind the bleachers is served by Comcast. I know it won't get done for this season, but I'd like to suggest they put a hotspot there. This is in Somerset County, NJ.
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Correctable and Uncorrectable Errors
I have the new SB6190 and previously had the SB6183. I have correctable and uncorrectable errors on 2 of the 16 channels. This is consistent on both modems. The last reboot of the modem ws a few hours ago. Any suggestions on how to fix this issue? Thanks.
Jim
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[Rant] Meter still not working on web, wrong readings
This is driving me nuts.... 5 months now I still can not see any equipment on my account page for one of my houses, no TV boxes, no EMTA, no modems, nothing... everything worked great until then... talked to numerous people about this everyone "fixed" it but nothing ever was...
well now I find out there is a desktop meter app, figured ok if that doesn't work why should this... I log in and boom it works wtf?!
problem is even though it works it doesn't work... I know for a fact I downloaded 531.26GB of data in October on my WAN port and uploaded 23.5GB (few large game updates gawd they are getting huge now, Netflix at HD for many many hours, and reinstalled and updated 6 systems to windows 10, among a lot of other stuff)... now I've never seen my WAN monitor off in its count compared to Comcast's meter until now it was usually within 10%... but the desktop app is saying I used 395GB in oct... that's a far cry from 554.76 total GB used on my WAN port monitor... and that's 554.76 GB I can actually account for... so why the discrepancies? because I KNOW I used that much..
and before someone says wait I thought you were on windows 10, that one shot is windows 7 basic... yeah I'm writing this from work were we still are on windows 7...
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Suddenly getting four upstream channels on SB 6120
Nice update or finally doing what it should have all along?
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.sig under development
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[Speed] Performance Starter speed increase
With all the big gun tiers getting upgraded this month, Comcast also quietly increased the speed of Performance Starter tier from 6/1 to 10/2. The website reflects the new speed and I just reset my modem, testing consistently 11.4 / 2.4 (standard 25% over-provision) in Houston, TX. Looks like the Economy and Economy Plus did not change.
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[Plan] Upload speed of 6mb tier?
What is the upload speed for the 6mb tier? I notice they like to tell how fast the download is on their site but no mention what so ever of what the upload speed is. It looks like I am going to have to make some cut backs here soon.
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New Arris/Moto SBG6900-AC on Amazon
Looks like Moto has another product in line waiting in Amazon. Good to see a 16x4 gateway finally.
http://www.amazon.com/SURFboard-SBG6900AC-DOCSIS-AC1900-Router/dp/B016PE1WZQ/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1446511637&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=sbg6900ac
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[Connectivity] Comcast WebProxy
Does all of Comcast use a WebProxy? I am getting really poor performance. Is there anyway to solve the performance issue through their WebProxy?
"You may be behind a web PROXY - 1.1 atlt2-notify01.s3woodstock.ga.atlanta.comcast.net (squid/3.4.3)! The results may be influenced or the test may return an error."
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[CustSvc] New Virtual CSR Bot Ashley
I thought I was going to faint. I think they fired Chris Bot. LOL ;)
Ref: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r28336149-CustSvc-Chris-Comcast-Products-Specialist-amusing
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In God we trust; all others bring data!
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[DOCSIS] What is docsis 3.1?
How much will the speed increase. Will it lower latency? And do they charge you for the new equipment?
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