[doobus]

I just transfered my Comcast service from my old apartment to my new apartment, and I have had nothing but problems since the transfer. I had Comcast Cable Internet in my previous apartment for 6 months with zero hitches, I had it hooked up to a SB5120 modem, Dlink 624 wireless router with my computer hooked via cat5 and my gf's laptop wireless.

In the new apartment the service seemed to be working fine but 3 days in it just stopped working without any tall tale signs of problems... I call tech support to see whats going and they give me an explanation about ghosting, because it was pulling the wrong mac address yadda yadda yadda... They get the mac address issue resolved and it works for maybe 3 hours at most and I'm back to the same issue... I call again and bring up the issue of the router and they tell me they can't help with the router because they don't support routers (That was news to me). So we work with a direct connect, and nothing works, but since my MB has 2 NIC slots I switched over and it works. At this point I'm extremely frustrated because everything is inconsistent, so I hook up my router and it still doesn't work, but the direct connect works. So we come to the conclusion that my router is dead so I go to the store and buy a Linksys router this time and it works, I'm relieved thinking my issues have been fixed, but of course 3 days later it doesn't work, so it wasn't the router after all.

We schedule for a tech guy to come over to check if the modem is ok and to see if there was any issues with the line. But since I'm so impatient I hook everything up again through the router and it works of course... So 3 days later no issues... When the tech arrives for our appointment I'm at a lost what to say because I have had 3 days with no issues while hooked up to the router. Basically the tech guy came in tested the lines and the modem only to tell me the lines is strong and good, and the modem is working fine... Go figure. He leaves and I swear, that night I had connectivity issues again, so I disconnect it from the router and do a direct connect and it doesn't work so I'm like What the..., so I grab my gf's laptop disable wireless and do a direct connect and it works... This goes on for 2 more days where the connection is fine with the router for a couple of hours then it doesn't work, then I do a direct connect then it works, then it won't work, then onto the laptop where it works fine.

Now here I am at my brothers house using his WOW cable internet service to test things out and everything seems to be fine, I'm leaving it over night to test it out. But I'm at a lost of what to do, Comcast is just giving me 0 support with my router and a direct connect is sketchy. I'm this >< close to cancel and switching over to WOW, but I'm afraid it may be a hardware issue, but everything seems to be fine at my brothers house.

BTW Comcast's solution is to pay extra for they home networking tech support... But I'm reluctant to do so, because I've never had any issues before and its solid right now with my brother's line.

One last note... its seems that my Comcast line at my apartment is giving me a new ip address every time i do a power cycle on the modem, which I'm wondering may be causing an issue with the router, but that doesn't explain why a direct connect sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. My brothers WOW line doesn't seem to be issuing a new ip address every time I do a power cycle, but what is interesting is it gives my router a different ip address and a different one via a direct connect no matter how many times I do it. Again I don't know if this is anything or not, just something I noticed.

Suggestions?

Edited by doobus, 11 July 2007 - 04:30 PM.

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....the whole "new ip address" each power cycle is something to look at....even with as many customers as comcast has...they've got enough IPs to give you at least a 3 day lease on the IP...your modem shouldn't be getting a new ip each time you turn it off....it should just be getting a new one every 3 days or something like that....

a little note on comcast support....they dont' actually do anything untill like the 3rd call (in my experience)...or if you call and you're angry and you ask them to "escalate" the ticket to a higher level

[dsenette]

....the whole "new ip address" each power cycle is something to look at....even with as many customers as comcast has...they've got enough IPs to give you at least a 3 day lease on the IP...your modem shouldn't be getting a new ip each time you turn it off....it should just be getting a new one every 3 days or something like that....

a little note on comcast support....they dont' actually do anything untill like the 3rd call (in my experience)...or if you call and you're angry and you ask them to "escalate" the ticket to a higher level

[doobus]

I've made 6 calls and 2 tech visits, and have yet to come to a resolution. I am at my brothers house after 24 hours and everything is fine with the connection, so I think I can safely say that it isn't a hardware issue with my computer, however its the same ip since yesterday, and I wanted to test if my computer was having issues with new assigned ip addresses, because my gf's computer seemed to pick it up right away. Unfortunately when I got home I broke my gf's (accidentally dropped it) laptop and I couldn't check to see if it was having an issue with the connection after 10 hours or so, you can imagine just how ticked off I am with everything seemingly not going my way.

This isn't the end of my headaches... My brother has been having issues with WOW as well, he only had the service for approx. 2 weeks the line keeps dropping every 2 hours or so and he has to do a power cycle on his modem, but once its finish with the power cylce my computer doesn't have an issue with connecting, whereas this is an issue on my Comcast line, and the biggest frustration is it doesn't show anything is wrong, my modem is giving me all the green lights I need to see... I don't know whats worse... A modem that say its broke reboot me and I'll work again... or a modem that just stops working but doesn't give me any errors...

Again, I know this must be a befuddling problem, and I seek help here, because honestly the people at tech support get paid 8 bucks an hour and probably gives a rat's [bleep] about the dilemma I'm going through... To top things off I make my living online so having 0 internet connection for 24 hours is a BIG ISSUE.

So being this >< close to canceling Comcast is making me weary because WOW isn't being a good sport either and those are the only cable companies available in my area... I wish COX was available because I hear they have an awesome service. But this is what I think it boils down to, WOW gave my brother an archaic modem, its probably older than me (22, but unlikely) so I feel it has something to do with the modem, my brother was looking at the modems ip and it was logging all these errors, the thing that pissed me off was I was schedule for a 2-4 appointment with WOW, they arrived 1 hour early, luckily my dad was here, but he knows jack [bleep] about anything computer related, so I wasn't there to drill this tech guy to see if he knew What the... he was doing. I call WOW and they say you should be happy that he arrived 1 hour early, I reply, "yes it would be great if I didn't have other business to attend to that I could be here 1 hour early for a schedule you assign between 2-4." Half the time you are 2 hours late...

At this point I'm frustrated because I haven't taken 1 step closer to a solution, and now I have a broken laptop... Things could be worse I suppose. Anyways, I have to bring my brothers computer to check to see if he is having the same issues as my computer, but my question is, do you guys think its a hardware issue, or its something Comcast is messing up on there end... Again thanks for a reply, I know probably most can't even answer this question, but at this point I don't trust Comcast at the least.

[dsenette]

i'd be more inclined to assume it's a comcast issue...since you don't have the EXACT same problems elsewhere.....

the problem with comcast tech support is that their first line of defense is a group of people who (through no fault of their own) do not actually know what they're doing (this is the same for ALL large scale tech centers)...they just have a script to follow with certain problems and certain sollutions...you need to get to a tier2 specialist or above to get to someone with actual knowledge in the field.

[doobus]

So I left my computer at my brothers house for 2 days with no issues what so ever. I bring my pc back home and connect via my router and whadda you know it works, I did however lose connection twice but it reconnected, which in my case is an improvement... I cross my fingers the following day and it worked fine, so in 24 hours I lose connection twice, but still maintain connection via my router. Day 2 rolls around and midday I hit a snag, it disconnects but it reconnects again and I'm still able to surf around, however I stop for about 2 minutes to read an article and when I hit the back button I get nothing... Internet is down again but the modem's lights are all GO GO GO. I do a direct connect and works, this goes back to the whole issue with Comcast not supporting routers... so what am I suppose to complain about to Comcast if my direct connect works...?

I called Comcast again for like the 100th this month determined to bring up the router issue... I get a hold of a lady who at first gave me the same explanation regarding why they don't support routers, but I asked her if it was her in my situation and we were both capable of setting up a home network, which I've done successfully for many many years, how can 7 dollars extra a month plus $150 dollars for installation be justified? She then went out on a limb and suggested that the downstream db levels may be the culprit, it was reading 7dbs which is within Comcast's recommended db levels which is -8 to +8, so I'm on the high end, she suggested that I knock it down by hooking up a splitter, but luckily I had a -10db attenuator from my previous apartment, so I get it knocked down to 0, which is the ideal level. But get this it doesn't work via direct connect, but it was just working direct connect before I attached the attenuator, being the perceptive guy that I am, I disconnect the attenuator and nothing... I do a power cycle, even gone as far as disconnecting everything and shutting down my pc and then reconnecting again, only to come to the same conclusion... nothing... So here I am again at my brothers seeking for any further advice, I left everything back at my apartment disconnected, but I am willing to bet a lot of money when I get back home later today and reconnect everything it will work again like there was nothing wrong... HOW MADDENING!

What in the world am I suppose to do... I have this odd feeling that if I didn't break the laptop that it would connect via direct connect instantly (Like it did prior to dropping it)... This is where I am beginning to wonder if my onboard NIC cards are failing me... But I'm also adamant to believe that because it was working at my brothers for 2 days straight with no issues, and it was working via router for 2 days before it started acting up again... so I'm left with a BIG What the... IS GOING ON HERE... I'm planning on buying a NIC card, but I really don't feel like dumping anymore money...