Cable vs DSL. Any experience with Comcast?

dak125dak125
edited December 2003 in Science & Tech
I'm going to have to get rid of my beloved Speakeasy DSL :bawling: due to the fact that I'm only at home 5 months out of the year and it's too pricey. I can honestly say that Speakeasy has been an absolute pleasure, highly recommended to anyone. Best Customer Service for any product/company I've ever come into contact with.

Ok now that I'm done with promoting Speakeasy I need to find a good replacement. Cable is now available in my area and seems to fit the bill perfectly. Comcast (I'm in the Chicago Burbs BTW) has an offer for $19.99 for the first 6 months for 1.5 down and 256 up. In early 2004 they will be upping the speed as well. The best part of it is the fact that there is no contract involved.

I have never used cable before and I know for a fact that Comcast customer service sucks, but the offer just sounds too good. I'm a big gamer and I'd like to know what kind of ping I can expect from cable. I know it depends on how many people are online at any given time but overall is it pretty good?

Any info any of you can provide about Comcast or cable in general would be greatly appreciated. Thanks much-DaK
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Comments

  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    I dunno... i have two comcast accounts and they are just fast as hell.. I have 3mb down and 256k up.. I pay $42.95 a month for each. The $19.95 a month deal does change into the $40+ plan at some point, but you already knew that ;)
  • dak125dak125
    edited November 2003
    primesuspect had this to say
    I dunno... i have two comcast accounts and they are just fast as hell.. I have 3mb down and 256k up.. I pay $42.95 a month for each. The $19.95 a month deal does change into the $40+ plan at some point, but you already knew that ;)

    Where are you located? Do you play any games online?
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    Look under my avatar ;)

    I play UT online and BF1942. Pings are just fine. I don't know what they are, because I never look, because I've never had a problem. I do know that in UT my ping was better than everyone else's.
  • dak125dak125
    edited November 2003
    primesuspect had this to say
    Look under my avatar ;)

    I play UT online and BF1942. Pings are just fine. I don't know what they are, because I never look, because I've never had a problem. I do know that in UT my ping was better than everyone else's.

    Very good to hear, thanks.
  • W4R-H1LDW4R-H1LD Chesterfield VA
    edited November 2003
    Im getting the same speeds 3 down 256 or so up. Likewise I have ultra low pings most of the time 30-50. My brother allias "COGLIOSTO " on the other hand lives in Dallas near Plano and his connect suxor. Hes had "Comcrap" as he calls them over to his apt 4 times in the past 2 months due to packet loss while playing multiplayer games online. When he plays UT2003 for example he will join server and it will soar to 2000+ ping and slowly work its way down to a ****ty 350-400. About all I can say is that Cog's provider is having issues with UDP streams. I captured trace files of Cog connecting to my UT and RS servers (both UDP based except for the TCP auth code in RS). I compared his trace files to "normal" trace files.

    Since UDP doesn't have ack or windowing features I only noticed two things. It apprears that UT uses ICMP Dest Ureachables from the client side to close ephemeral UDP ports. Cog's trace doesn't originate ICMP Dest unreachables (or they are being blocked -- more likely). Cog's connection also goes a long time (1120) msecs after initial connection and his machine responds less frequently than "normal" traces. My suspect is that some FW changes or "akami"-like cacheing device has recently been introduced into his network path. The outside possibility exists that there is a MTU mismatch in his cable modem (effectly a media converter among other things); however, I am not sure what the L1 and L2 properties of cable networks are (I know, wtf is cisco.com for, right?) in relation to the Ethernet properties. So your mileage may vary when using Comcast....good luck =P
  • dak125dak125
    edited November 2003
    Good thing I don't live in Texas.

    I think I'm going to call put the order through tomorrow. If the downloads or the pings suck I'll just cancel the service. Thanks for the input, any other thoughts are of course welcome.
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    dak125 had this to say


    I have never used cable before and I know for a fact that Comcast customer service sucks, but the offer just sounds too good.

    If you've never had cable before, how can you know for a FACT (remember now, fact is different from opinion) that comcast CS sucks?

    I have comcast cable and Ive had it through three providers now

    MediaOne -> AT&T Broadband NE -> Comcast

    and of the three, I think Comcast's customer service has been the best, any downtime has been credited, of which there hasn't been much. The worst of the three was probably AT&T but I have to cut them some slack because a lot of their outages was due to them entirely upgrading the cable system in our area.

    My DL speeds are consistently fast, Comcast was 100x better than our old DSL provider (used to have some ridiculousname like BellAtlantic-Nynex-Mobile when all these companies combined, now it's Verizon).
  • GobblesGobbles Ventura California
    edited November 2003
    Cable is generally faster than DSL, however its speeds can vary due to load on your local area, more users less bandwidth, varing speeds. DSL, maintains a private connection to the com office where your traffic is then mixed, this generally provides you with always the same speeds. My bandwidth never varies on DSL, I always get 1276 down and 256 up. When I was with adelphia, 3mbit down at 9 pm and 24 hours later I was getting 64k, that just barely above dialup. I moved and cable was not available in this area yet so I went with verizon dsl and its been good, 2 outages in 4 months, never more than 12 hours at night even, CS sucks ass, ive called them on 2 different days and both times after 1.5 hours on hold i hung up. I learned if you need help from them call after 10 pm and call 3x on the third try you get through almost immediately.

    both have their ups and downs, no pun intended, its kinda whats important to you...

    and ping to servers, I get 20 ms in game ping to any server with a decent connection here on the west coast...

    Gobbles
  • Josh-Josh- Royal Oak, MI
    edited November 2003
    I had comcast cable...it sucked **** compared to my wideopenwest. -.-

    Thats probably just my experience, though.
  • reelbigfishreelbigfish Boston, MA Member
    edited November 2003
    my comcast cable has been good. I'm still on the old 1.5/256 caps, but it is still fast. I can play BF1942 online. I would head over to www.broadbandreports.com and then to the Comcast forum. There are some parts of Chicago and the suburbs that are very fast and reliable and one part has been having problems. I would check there to see if you are in the problem area.
  • dak125dak125
    edited November 2003
    Camman had this to say
    dak125 had this to say


    I have never used cable before and I know for a fact that Comcast customer service sucks, but the offer just sounds too good.

    If you've never had cable before, how can you know for a FACT (remember now, fact is different from opinion) that comcast CS sucks?

    Because I've had the cable TV for quite sometime. It used to be ATT and I haven't seen much of a difference between ATT CSR and Comcast.
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    dak125 had this to say
    Because I've had the cable TV for quite sometime. It used to be ATT and I haven't seen much of a difference between ATT CSR and Comcast. [/B]

    Just seemed kinda foolish to me to start a thread and label it "Any Experience with Comcast?" and then state in your own thread that you already know for a FACT that Comcast sucks. :confused:
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited November 2003
    Camman had this to say
    dak125 had this to say
    Because I've had the cable TV for quite sometime. It used to be ATT and I haven't seen much of a difference between ATT CSR and Comcast.

    Just seemed kinda foolish to me to start a thread and label it "Any Experience with Comcast?" and then state in your own thread that you already know for a FACT that Comcast sucks. :confused: [/B]
    When said he knows for a fact that it sucks, he was speaking specifically to Comcast's customer service, not the reliability or speeds of Comcast as an ISP.



    The few times I had to call Comcast customer service (ISP), I was always transferred to tier 2 service before I found any help. :banghead:
  • dak125dak125
    edited November 2003
    reelbigfish had this to say
    my comcast cable has been good. I'm still on the old 1.5/256 caps, but it is still fast. I can play BF1942 online. I would head over to www.broadbandreports.com and then to the Comcast forum. There are some parts of Chicago and the suburbs that are very fast and reliable and one part has been having problems. I would check there to see if you are in the problem area.

    After reading "OUCH! SLOWDOWN is killing me (Chicago burbs)" I'm kind of wondering if I should go through with this or not. Egh why can't this stuff ever be easy? :doh:
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited November 2003
    I had Comcast in Arlington, VA from June 2001 to June 2002. My dad has been on Comcast in Arlington from (about) January 2000 to the present.

    I'll echo what others have said about their Customer Service - you'd be better off talking to a tech at Best Buys. The infrastructure is perfectly fine, though. Chances are you'll get hooked up OK and never have to deal with the CS part. I'd recommend them. :thumbup
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    Um, AT&T infrastructure used by AT&T Broadband was merged into Comcast's infrastructure when AT&T Broadband and Comcast merged. You now get billed by Comcast, probbaly, but you are using AT&T Broadband infrastructure also now and still as well as Comcast links.

    I would have to say that FINALLY, even down here, Comcast is doing much better with throughput rates than they even had 2-3 months ago, BY FAR BETTER. It took that long for some ATA&T Broadband hardware assets to migrate this far south-- better routers. Oh, and they virus purged the local network down here also, their SERVERS were virused in the SW FLorida area and viruses were eating their bandwidth-- BIG OOPS!

    For Chicago, if in inner city is a tossup between the better speed DSL and Comcast-- reason, they only run so many cables per street. Highrise apts eat a LOT of bandwidth per street. Burbs is BETTER, less population density. Farther out burbs best-- further out than Barrington is what I mean by farther out.

    John.
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    Ageek had this to say
    Um, AT&T infrastructure used by AT&T Broadband was merged into Comcast's infrastructure when AT&T Broadband and Comcast merged. You now get billed by Comcast, probbaly, but you are using AT&T Broadband infrastructure also now and still as well as Comcast links.

    AT&T Broadband and Comcast didn't merge, AT&T sold all their Broadband properties to Comcast so AT&T Broadband doesn't exist anymore, Comcast owns what used to be their infrastructure.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    Yes, it was sold first as a merger, with FCC and FTC permissions for same. Comcast then absorbed the merger, in name and control. Bought\acquired was long-term result, but it did start legally as a merger. AT&T did divest AT&T Broadband as a separate division first, then in essence allowed the merger and got some stock and funds in return-- so yes a sale of sorts was net result. Multistage net sale. Just as @Home did not get sold in whole but in parts, as AT&T Broadband had a large ownership interest in it adn the investment was partly infrastructure as well as provision contracts. Comcast wanted the infrastructure, they were hardware weak ATM (at THAT moment). So they acquired part of @Home's infrastructure derivatively, by acquiring AT&T Broadband with a takeover that started as a merger to be consumated with ops under Comcast's name (but there are still lots of AT&T IPs in use in Comcast network, lots of the Atlanta broadband dataflow hub routers and some servers are still running as named AT&T IPs and names). Let's just say this absorption part is still partly in progress legally and physically, though mostly complete. Yes, Comcast is getting RailRoad customers, but legally that began with an agreement to operate as Comcast and not Comcast\AT&T Broadband as AT&T wanted their own name left out of new name of merged company.

    John.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    Ageek, in this case, is correct.

    AT&T and Comcast started as a merger and outsourced to Cox, Rogers, @Home and a whole slew of other ex big-name cable providers.

    When AT&T had an economic crash-landing, Comcast absorbed everything AT&T had.
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    Thrax had this to say
    Ageek, in this case, is correct.

    AT&T and Comcast started as a merger and outsourced to Cox, Rogers, @Home and a whole slew of other ex big-name cable providers.

    When AT&T had an economic crash-landing, Comcast absorbed everything AT&T had.

    Thank you for the abridged version Thrax.

    Point being, Comcast now owns it all, thats why it's not AT&T Comcast or one of those ridiculous merger titles they come up with.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Actually, AT&T had their name trademarked and copyrighted and refused to let it be used and thus polluted as to rights. So, it could NOT be part of the new corp name.

    John.
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    whatever man :rolleyes:
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    First, I have Comcast and haven't had any problems with them. I've had 3 outages of one night each in the past year. Other than that... great.

    Second, Dak, your avatar is very Hypnotizing....
  • dak125dak125
    edited December 2003
    QCH2002 had this to say
    Second, Dak, your avatar is very Hypnotizing....

    Many people seem to agree with you :tongue:. Thanks.
  • QCHQCH Ancient Guru Chicago Area - USA Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Real or animated... Are the "objects" on a real "parent Object" and caught on film or is the whole thing created and animated.
  • dak125dak125
    edited December 2003
    Oh they're real, and they're fabulous ;).
    QCH2002 had this to say
    Real or animated... Are the "objects" on a real "parent Object" and caught on film or is the whole thing created and animated.

    I actually got it from another board I belong to.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited December 2003
    W4R(H1LD had this to say
    Im getting the same speeds 3 down 256 or so up. Likewise I have ultra low pings most of the time 30-50. My brother allias "COGLIOSTO " on the other hand lives in Dallas near Plano and his connect suxor. Hes had "Comcrap" as he calls them over to his apt 4 times in the past 2 months due to packet loss while playing multiplayer games online. When he plays UT2003 for example he will join server and it will soar to 2000+ ping and slowly work its way down to a ****ty 350-400. About all I can say is that Cog's provider is having issues with UDP streams. I captured trace files of Cog connecting to my UT and RS servers (both UDP based except for the TCP auth code in RS). I compared his trace files to "normal" trace files.

    Since UDP doesn't have ack or windowing features I only noticed two things. It apprears that UT uses ICMP Dest Ureachables from the client side to close ephemeral UDP ports. Cog's trace doesn't originate ICMP Dest unreachables (or they are being blocked -- more likely). Cog's connection also goes a long time (1120) msecs after initial connection and his machine responds less frequently than "normal" traces. My suspect is that some FW changes or "akami"-like cacheing device has recently been introduced into his network path. The outside possibility exists that there is a MTU mismatch in his cable modem (effectly a media converter among other things); however, I am not sure what the L1 and L2 properties of cable networks are (I know, wtf is cisco.com for, right?) in relation to the Ethernet properties. So your mileage may vary when using Comcast....good luck =P

    The keyword here was "apt". I have comcast near Dallas in Irving and its great. But I am in a house too. The wiring within the apartments is usually just crap. I know of at least a half dozen folks that gave up in apartments and I don't know anyone unhappy in a home install.

    Tex
  • dak125dak125
    edited December 2003
    Well I'll have Comcast this Thursday. 1.5 down 256 up for $23 with the modem. Early '04 it'll be upped to 3mbps down and 512 up. I'm really hoping the ping is good.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited December 2003
    Nice thing is you get free cable tv also if you don't need the premium channels.

    Tex
  • dak125dak125
    edited December 2003
    I just got Comcast installed today and so far so good. It was installed within 30 minutes, I had it up in 5 and it's handling MOH like none other. I've gotten a solid 5 hours of playing in so far :). The only problem was that when I went to choose my username the Page Cannot be Displayed sign came up. When I went to register again it said I was already. But, I went to the Comcast's site and to that my account login but I can't login. How/where do I check my email?
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