Comcast Internet down in my area?

[casey]

I had to hook up a 56K modem just to see if anyone else is having a problem with Comcast. I've been down since 10 O'clock this morning. I called and talked to a really nice Lady tech that said they are working in my area. I believe the worse part of this is not knowing if it is something in my setup that went wrong or if it's their problem. This is the first time I have had a problem of this length. I really don't want to go back to 56K.

[dbarrow]

Not uncommon...
A car taking out a pole can take down a whole area.
They used to have a link for outages on the Comcast page.
Don't know where that went. Guess they figure if you don't have a connection, you can't see it anyway.

Always call the LOCAL Comcast office, not the 800#.
Report the outage and make sure it's not just you. Tech support can look at your node and see if there is a problem.
Also, generate a "Ticket".
For extended or repeated outages, they will give you a credit, sometimes a month or more of free service but you have to generate a ticket so it goes on your records.

[mommalina]

I know I'm paranoid, Larry, but that's one reason I don't do my banking online! Another is the possibility of a computer crash.
Maybe I'd feel differently if I had access to another computer.

I'm not denigrating the bank-online advocates. Admire their guts.
Different strokes for different folks.

Lina

[casey]

Just to update, I waited until after 6 to call comcast again. It just didn't seem that this was an area outage,
The lady that answered checked and said that they didn't have an outage in my area. I then told her what the first lady said and she said maybe they had one earlier. Anyway she had me run thru the standard shut downs and startups without any help. She then recommended having a tech come to the house, Then she told me to shut the modem down for an hour but that didn't help either. I would think I probably will need a new modem.Once I knew it wasn't an area outage I changed a couple of cables but that didn't help either. This being on 56k really is a drag.

Lina, I wouldn't say I bank online but I check my accounts on line and download all my checking into Quicken to keep my checkbook always up to date with my account. Even if the computer would crash it wouldn't effect the amounts in the bank...

I hooked up a 56K external modem just so I could communicate. It's unbelievable how much I miss getting on line.

[casey]

I just wrote a long post explaining what happened and then accidentally deleted it. Anyway after the last post I thought there was only one cable that I hadn't checked and that was because it was a long one. I moved the modem as close as I could and then moved the splitter so I could reach the modem. It did prove that the cable was bad even though the cable was much shorter. It's working again and I must go find a longer cable.

[dbarrow]

First step is always turn on TV...
Internet is in the lower channels 2-6. If you get picture on higher channels but fuzzed on the low end, could be cable problem your end. No channels, it's in the node.

You must have gotten a lame "script reader" tech, which is unusual these days at Comcast.
The 800 number is in Canada, nice folks but they can only see regional area.
The local office #, mine goes to the Cherry Hill center, techs can look at individual nodes and tell you if your neighbors are online in the node (Make sure they do that). They can also look at your signal.
No need to turn off modem for an hour. Unplug for a minute and plug it back in.

If it turns out it's just you...
Check cables and splitters, they go bad all by themselves.
Logon to your modem at 192.168.100.1 and go to Signal tab. SNR should be <35 and signal strength -5 to +5 with +1,2,3 being optimal.
High SNR and weak signal can be too many splitters, corroded cable connectors.
Schedule a tech visit and they will send a guy out who will test all the cables and splitters from the tap in, change all the ends, replace any needed items, and troubleshoot signal all the way to the machine.

Follow the DSLreports.com forum
http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/comcast
for the latest info and tons of information about cable internet. Good info in there!

[casey]

Good information to know..