More of the same

Well, Comcast came out, saw the issue, but really couldn't do anything about it. The tech indicated he'd take this back to his supervisor and they'd give me a call back with more info.

Guess what...? They never called back.

Problem still continues - here's the latest example (above)

Picture

Here's a picture from PingPlotter that shows the issue...

My current situation

OK, so here's the current situation...

I've been a Comcast High Speed Internet subscriber for 2.5 years. They've always had the fastest speeds in my area and compared to specialty DSL providers, they're definitely price competitive. My TELCO is Verizon and they've always beat Comcast on price, but never on speed. In general, I've been very satisfied with my broadband performance over the past two years and even switched to VOIP with Vonage to save some money on my phone bill.

Over the last three months, however, Comcast has become really flaky. The big issue: packet loss. If you read various posts across the internet (broadbandreports.com is a great place to see aggregated comments in a forum environment), this is not an uncommon occurence.

Packet loss isn't a big issue if you're only using the Web to look at HTML pages or send/receive email. It is a big deal, however, if you're using VOIP or are an active gamer. If your connection drops enough packets, the game server will disconnect you and your VOIP won't work (the voice bits don't get through so there's no voice on one end of the connection).

I've recently discovered that packet loss is an issue thanks to a handy freeware program called PingPlotter. I don't work for them or have any financial interest in the company, but they do have a great product that will test your connection for both latency and packet loss. you can download it at http://pingplotter.com.

PingPlotter has identified two stops along my connection to the internet that are causing problems - they're both comcast DNS stations along my route. I've attached an example traceroute below:

Host
192.168.1.12
-3
GE-1-5-ur02.bellevue.wa.seattle.comcast.net
te-9-3-ur01.bellevue.wa.seattle.comcast.net
te-9-3-ar01.burien.wa.seattle.comcast.net
--------------
12.117.243.137
--------------
12.127.6.548
tbr2-cl11.cgcil.ip.att.net
tbr2-cl3641.phlpa.ip.att.net
gar2-p390.phlpa.ip.att.net
mdf1-gsr12-1-pos-7-0.nyc3.attens.net
sccsbix11-1-6.attbi.com
www.comcast.net

OK, so each step above is a hop in the trace. Ignore steps one and two, they are related to my router and modem. Focus on steps 3-5, the seattle comcast servers (named bellevue and burien). THESE are the ones that keep timing out and showing packet loss.

Each string below represents one sample test from today. See the stars that keep showing up in steps 4 and 5 (such as line 1)? This is where packets are lost. I am experiencing almost 50% packet loss at the burien hop.

Sample Information"8/25/2006 1:41:42 PM
0,*,9,*,*,9,74,76,72,71,79,76,*,*,*,80
0,*,8,9,9,10,76,76,73,71,77,74,*,*,*,76
0,*,9,8,*,11,75,75,72,73,77,76,*,*,*,93
0,*,8,9,*,10,75,76,73,127,77,76,*,*,*,75
0,*,9,7,11,10,75,76,76,71,76,74,*,*,*,76
0,*,9,7,10,9,75,74,74,72,81,76,*,*,*,77
0,*,10,*,*,9,75,75,73,71,77,74,*,*,*,77



The result? No VOIP, internet gaming stinks (many gaming servers will kick you off if you have more than 5% packet loss) and it's been really difficult to get any support from Comcast. They just don't realize what's going on and I can't get through to the appropriate level tech to get any resolution.

More to come...

Forum for sharing my Comcast High Speed Internet Successes and Failures

Hi All,

I'm starting this blog to share my thoughts on my Comcast High Speed Internet connection in Seattle, WA. My service has been both good and bad, and I want to try to help others who might be having problems.