My aging mom is getting pretty tired of paying 90-some bucks for "Performance 25" tier internet + the super-basic TV package (just the locals, community access, religious, MeTV, that sort of thing). Now as it turns out at some point they slipped a 5 dollar "protection" fee onto her bill in case she needs a truck roll. She never authorized it so that's coming off, but that's only 5 bucks.
I told her to do the spiel where she tells them she's going to drop TV entirely (in order to get some kind of deal for a year). The thing is, being an older person, she's pretty far behind in terms of tech*, so ideally that will be an empty threat and they'll give her a deal without too much fuss.
*She has no TVs with digital tuners--still stuck with old 480i CRT TVs and relies on two smallish converters provided by Comcast (not full cable boxes).
However, if she had to make good on the threat, got a smallish Vizio set from Costco and had an antenna put up, is the typical premium for internet-only 20 bucks (in which case after all the dust settled it really would hardly be worth it, except for her being able to get closed captioning and HD content)?
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[Price] ? for cord-cutters in Portland OR (SW, close in)
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[Connectivity] DNS issues
Is anyone else seeing DNS issues?
For example, Comcast's servers are pretty regularly failing to resolve forum.dish.com and with no real pattern. I can be reading the site and click to go to the next article and DNS lookups for it will be failing.
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[Speed] Xfinity Home horks your downlink speed
Recently had Xfinity Home Security installed. Installer came, insisted their security router had to be plugged in ahead of mine. He did his work, left. Afterwards, noticed my downlink speed had been cut in half, had a close look at their router. On the outside, looks like a Netgear 11g/n router, but had fast Ethernet rather than Gigabit ports, so was clipping my bandwidth in half (router clearly had been seriously modified by them, showed up on LAN as Actiontec device).
Worse, it was mapping my external IP as a /24 broadcast address (x.x.x.255), so likely at least some of my return traffic was being sprayed across the entire external subnet, so unless they had explicit static routing in place, a security risk. Needless to say, I was not happy.
Over the next week I talked to about two dozen tech support people at the Internet and Home departments. It was clear that none of them understood the problem, even how TCP/IP works. Finally I talked to an agent or mid-tier manager. She arranged for all the equipment to be taken back, even had the charges removed from my account. Even gave me her three character ID, so I could contact her if I had issues.
In the weeks that followed, they continued to act as if my system was still installed, called Xfinity, tried to contact the agent who helped me. Talked to two different agents, gave them the persons Id. One said she was in charge of equipment something. The other said the ID didn't exist.
If they try to charge me a penalty, or continue to charge me for equipment that isn't installed, this is going to blow back on them, hard.
They are truly the gang that can't shoot straight.
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Splitter or Attenuator?
Hi,
Modem: SB8200 Firmware: D31CM-PEREGRINE-1.0.1.0-GA-01-NOSH
My Comcast tech installed our service such that a grey coax goes into the front of my house, hits a splitter, and splits between modem and cable box. I have no use for the cable box so I unplugged it from the wall and the splitter. I am hearing that the splitter should be capped off on that end. I thought it makes sense to remove the splitter and add a coupler. The problem is that it seems like the splitter I removed was functioning as an attenuator. In the image above you can see the difference: By switching from splitter to coupler downstream power went up 4.24dB and upstream power went down 3.75dB. Tested with this coupler:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HFYGQHU I tried two couplers in the pack of five and got identical results. Splitter is a CommScope SV-2G
In addition to the splitter with 1 coax in and 1 coax out acting as a attenuator inside my house, there is another splitter like this inside my cable box outside. So I think the signal is running through two splitters. It seems to me that the best option is to install a strong attenuator in the cable box and replace the splitter in my house with a coupler.
I dunno which parts to get which would be high quality... left alone I'd just pick whatever has good Amazon ratings.
The problem with attenuators I think, is that it will probably drop downstream and up upstream power by the same amount. This splitter from Comcast reduces down more than it boosts up, which is what I want. Maybe the answer is a cable simulator or forward path attenuator. What is the difference?
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New Modem (Arris SB6183) Signal Help
I just purchased a new SB6183 Modem for an upgrade to 16 channels from 8 and I had a quick question about the Upstream Power.
Everything seems fine according to the normal guide I go by on here. The Arris website is stating that the upstream power should be 45-51 for ATDMA though.
Guide on here:
http://www.dslreports.com/faq/16085
Arris FAQ:
http://arris.force.com/consumers/articles/General_FAQs/SB6183-Cable-Signal-Levels/?l=en_US&fs=RelatedArticle
Is my upstream power good sitting at 40-43 or do I need to fix something?
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[Connectivity] Speed is decent, but bufferbloat is a problem
Hello,
I have an Arris SB6183 cable modem along with an ASUS RT-N66R and have had a bufferbloat issue ever since it was added to the speed testing on DSLReports. I get between a C and an F grade. Tonight, there was just about NO latency on upload, but lag spikes to 2000 ms on download! I have tried connecting directly to the modem with no router and still have the bufferbloat. As a side note, is there a need for the techs to make a coaxial cable so tight that its nearly impossible to loosen? Like, isn't finger tight usually enough for a good connection?
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[Business] Comcast Launches D3.1-Based Gigabit Business Internet Service
FYI:
Comcast Rolls Out DOCSIS 3.1-Based Gigabit Internet Service For Business Customers In Multiple Markets
Unveils Business Internet 1 Gig and Business Internet 500 speed tiers
Comcast press release - January 24, 2017
http://corporate.comcast.com/news-information/news-feed/comcast-rolls-out-docsis-3-1-based-gigabit-internet-service-for-business-customers-in-multiple-marketsquote:Comcast Business today announced it has begun offering DOCSIS 3.1-based internet service to business customers in its Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit and Nashville service areas. "Business Internet 1 Gig" and "Business Internet 500" speed tiers are now available to thousands of business customers in these Comcast service areas using the company’s existing network, without costly and disruptive construction of new network facilities.
"With more business operations moving to a cloud-based model, staying ahead of the bandwidth curve will be an important part of an organization’s migration strategy," said Matt Davis, program director for IDC. "DOCSIS 3.1-based internet will give small, medium and even larger organizations the opportunity to quickly add more network capacity at their locations, supporting new technology applications on-site or in the cloud."
For small and mid-sized businesses in buildings already served by Comcast, upgrading to Business Internet 1 Gig or Business Internet 500 is as simple as calling Comcast or visiting business.comcast.com/gig to change their service, and ordering a new modem. Gigabit service over DOCSIS 3.1 benefits many industries such as retail, healthcare, manufacturing, hospitality, education and government.
:
In addition to the markets announced today, Comcast Business plans to launch Business Internet 1 Gig and Business Internet 500 in the majority of its service areas throughout 2017 and into 2018. Pricing for the services varies based on a business’s location or number of locations to be served and the services to which the business currently subscribes, and customers can contact their local Comcast salesperson or agent/partner for more information. 
Also an article on MCN about this: http://www.multichannel.com/news/cable-operators/comcast-gets-down-business-docsis-31/410373quote:... Pricing for those tiers vary based on customer needs, and include features that are tailored for business customers, including guaranteed up time, night and weekend installation windows, no data plans, static IP addresses, and 24/7 support from business service experts, but general pricing starts at $499 per month for the 1-Gig service, and $399 for the 500 Mbps offering. ...EDIT:quote:Update: The downstream speeds of those tiers are being paired with upstream speeds that max out at 35 Mbps. CableLabs is working on an extention to DOCSIS 3.1, called Full Duplex, that will enable symmetrical speeds.
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[Connectivity] RF/CLI Leakage
I recently got a love letter from Comcast on my door explaining there is RF leakage coming from my house and they "lowered the signal levels" so I went to my ped and don't really know what they put on my tap or what it does but I attached a picture so hopefully someone can explain it.
Could a router, or excess internet usage be causing this at all?
Cheers
(Fun Fact: I saw the tech putting working on my ped, and he did see me enter my house, and walked up to my door stuck a tag and just left without knocking, so that's nice)
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[Connectivity] Unfixable Connectivity Issues - Miffed - Node issue?
Answer these "6" questions first, then answer any of the following questions that are specific to your issue:
1) Your location: Washington DC (NW DC specifically)
2) Ongoing intermittent connectivity issues - there is no specificity to time of day, or day of week.
This is for a business, paying for 150mpbs connection, receiving anywhere from .06mbps to 179mbps (can get those speeds within minutes of each other at times). Intermittent packet loss and extremely high variance in ping times to 8.8.8.8. All components of network have been tested or replaced to include all cable inside the business and outside all the way to the tap. Signal according to techs for that portion at least is good. I've gotten little insight into what is going on with the node, and have been told off the record even is that where the problem lies, Comcast would need a very high number of residents in the area reporting to take action. Other previous issues were very high uncorrectables (in the 5-12k range). A number of events in the event log, most recently today was a TEK invalid (first seen of that error). Others include RCS partial service, SYNC timing synchronization failure, Lost MDD tiemout, received response to broadcast maintenance request but no unicast maintenance opportunities received, and no ranging response received. Last checked modem is locked in on 23 channels. I've also called arris and all signal parameters and logs indicate the modem isn't defective according to their troubleshooting (for the second brand new modem).
4) Your modem make, model & firmware version. Modem is Arris Surfboard 6190 (this is the second brand new one same issues), wifi router is an apple airport extreme (this is the second brand new one, same issues). LAN cable from Modem to Router is a certified Cat 6a cable from bluejeanscable. There are no splitters on the line, either in the building or outside from the tap to the drop. All firmware on the modem is controlled by comcast as I understand it, I don't have that screen accessible at the moment.
6) List any firewall and/or anti-virus software you have installed. Include what version you have. - No firewall or antivirus.
• What HSI Tier you are subscribed to: (i.e. 6/1, 25/5, 50/10, 105/10, 150/10, etc.) - 150 down, 25 up
• Post a Speed Test - speed tests are run in chrome and in safari - numbers can be posted separately if more than above description is needed.
If you have an issue with an intermittent connection or no connection:
• What indicator lights does the modem have and the current status of each. (i.e. constant or blinking) - constant - typically no indications at modem when issues are present.
Overall, very little in way of results from Comcast, at this point I can't identify how the problems can come from anything other than comcast- but I don't know how to verify that or force them to address potential issues with the node. Appreciate any help, advice, thoughts etc.
If I've left anything out please let me know and I'll post/reply asap, I've been telling this story so much for two months that I fear I'll gloss over things now.
Thanks
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[Caps] Data Usage Limit Increased to 2 TB?
I logged into my Comcast account tonight and noticed that the unlimited data has dropped from my account (well, at least from the data usage overview -- it's still listed in the billing section).
The notice was that current month states I have 1933 GB of 2048 GB free.
Did Comcast increase their data limit to 2 TB in select markets as a trial, increase it nationwide, or am I receiving a preview of something to happen? I have gigabit internet in the Atlanta market.
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[Firmware] SB 6190 firmware testing
Not sure why this isn't posted here or the Arris forum. New SB 6190 firmware testing. Maybe it's just a Cox thing.
https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r31340594-ALL-SB6190-and-CM700-latency-fix-firmware-ready-to-test
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[Firmware] New firmware for ARRIS X3 modems?
It looks like a new firmware manifest for the TG1682G and similar has been posted at..
http://rdklicensemanifest.stb.r53.xcal.tv/arrisxb3/2.5s2/
...with a catalog date of March26, 2017. Does this mean new Xfinity firmware will be deployed soon? If so, when can we expect it? Will this firmware fix the Puma6 chipset defect?
Thanks.
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[Cancel] Setting up to cancel Comcast Internet - looking for perspectives
Just looking to get some perspectives.
I've been a long time Comcast customer (15+ years), and I'm getting tired of the annual / bi-annual call to change services or threaten to cancel to lower costs which go up 10-20% every year.
I have Comcast Extreme 250 (~300down/30up) as well as a cable package and "telephone" (I have my own SB6183 which of course is not compatible with phone, but they assigned me a "phone" number years ago) to have a triple play package that went from $200 to $240 when one of the bundle incentives timed out. I am also under a two year contract for Extreme 250, which effectively gives me a cost increase of only $20 to the bundle for the Extreme 250 service.
AT&T fiber was recently installed in the neighborhood, and I went ahead and installed their 1Gbps package for a cost of $70/month.
I have a landline which costs me $62/month, which I am going to cancel once Ooma ports my number over. With Ooma's premier charges, I'll effectively have fiber plus VOIP for about $20/month, once I cancel the landline to offset the costs.
I figure once I cancel my Comcast internet package and "phone" and get a cable TV only package, I will have a cost savings that will offset the $20/month that fiber/VOIP is now costing me. I'll have to pay a termination fee, but within 4-5 months my savings will cover that cost easily.
Given all of this - why wouldn't Comcast do more to keep me as a customer? I explained all of the above to a retentions specialist (before I pulled the trigger on AT&T fiber), and they did nothing to help.
From a basic numbers perspective, it's a no-brainer on my part. So far fiber is 3x faster consistently than my Comcast service, and is uncapped. We are always under our Comcast cap but have come close a few times, but now I have nothing to worry about. The service seems reliable, the setup was simple, but I am keeping Comcast internet around for a month or two to make sure I am happy with the AT&T Fiber arrangements.
Thoughts?
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[Firmware] Comcast DPC3941T New Firmwire Loaded last night
eMTA & DOCSIS Software Version:
DPC3941_2.3p14s2_PROD_sey
Software Image Name:
DPC3941_2.3p14s2_PROD_sey
Advanced Services:
DPC3941T
(sorry don't have the old software version now)
Should I configured from scratch or was reloading saved config fine to do
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[Connectivity] Arris SB8200 Activation Issues (Cisco CMTS)
I just got my new Arris SB8200 from Amazon yesterday. I am having a problem where it just keeps cycling through the downstream, upstream and internet LED indicator lights. I called Comcast twice they both said they don't even see the cable modem connecting to the system. Both times they insisted there was something wrong with the CM and to return it. So I'm doing that just to prove them wrong. I tried a number of things including not plugging in the Ethernet and power cycling the modem manually many times and let it sit for about a hour and a half cycling through. The modem is supported in our area on the Comcast device support page.
I was told in this thread (I am the Anonymous user) (http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r31304106-~time=1489503828?r=151#31304106) that it may be a problem with Cisco CMTS units (much like the Netgear D3.1 CM issues with the CM1000's). I Verified and the CMTS Mac address is indeed Cisco owned. Though I'm not sure what model I am on. There was a mention that someone named "netcool" on these forums has a fix (http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r31303566- & http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r31303256-) (I'll try PMing netcool also). Is there anyway that can be applied in our area also? Or is there a way I can call Comcast and not get level 1 support that can fix this issue?
UPDATE: My issue was resolved by the workaround the user "netcool" applied to my area's CMTS. Latest info is there are plans for a more permanent fix in the works.
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[Connectivity] TG1682G weird wifi problem
Just recently when my laptop is using 5 gig both wifi radios will quit working. Only a gateway reboot
gets them back.
Any ideas ?
I am researching how to switch to 2.4 gig in the laptop wifi radio.
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[Connectivity] I am trying to connect my Comcast X1 to my computers
I am wondering if it is possible with the computers that I have. I will post some screengabs.
The first two are from my desktop computer which is only 3 yrs old. The second two are from my NINE year old laptop.
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[Firmware] 9.1.93T; "X" (Feb21) or "V" (3/28) for 6190
Just got 9.1.93T and thing are a lot better. Page loads are better and mail doesn't take forever to connect to the servers. But speed tests are still nutsz.
[att=1]
[att=2]
Split from > https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r30771922-Firmware-Problems-with-the-new-6190-firmware-9-1-93N
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[NodePlus0] N+0 deployment activity
I would like to start a thread where we can keep track of the areas where Comcast has started deploying N+0 equipment. Earlier this year Comcast started pushing fiber deeper into the neighborhoods around me but close to 10 months after it was strung/buried it is still sitting unspliced and unlit. The comcast plant in my area is an old Adelphia region that is built on a 750MHz architecture so it's due for upgrade but it appears as if comcast is stalling on these upgrades for some reason. Has anyone else noticed any aggressive node splits and/or amplifier reduction in any other markets?
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[Connectivity] CM1000 Internet Connectivity Issues
I was pointed toward this post from the Comcast forums. I have a CM1000 that has been fine for the past month, but on Sunday started cycling internet for 12 hours straight each day. It starts about 10am MST / 1pm EST. It's like it is trying to either install an update or get connectivity and just can't keep it - it gets to where the internet is on, sits there for about 10 seconds, then cycles internet again. It doesn't cycle power, just internet. Unplugging and resetting the modem does not help - once it resets and gets a signal again, it simply restarts cycling.
I tried to PM uid://1594001 but new peeps have to wait 8 hours to do so, so I'm posting here in the hopes of getting some help. If I should open a new topic about it please let me know.. but it seemed pertinent to the current issue as it may be the same problem.
Any help would be appreciated. I would hate to have to hook up my old modem, but thankfully I hadn't had a chance to return it yet so if I need to, I still can. I work from home and haven't gotten much of that done lately due to this.
Thanks for any help!
Mod Note: This post and replies moved to a new thread as they were off topic in a SB8200 thread.
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