Comcast slow connection in NJ using iMac

[Sues2763]

I could really use some help. I've been a Comcast customer for just about a month now. For the first three weeks I had terrific speed accessing and loading webpages. That all changed last Tuesday night (Aug. 19th). All of a sudden it takes forever to load any site, including www.google.com!I hadn't changed anything on my computer at all or downloaded anything or installed anything new. I don't have a virus or a router and I don't have a firewall.

On Wednesday, Aug. 20th, I contacted Tech Support. She admitted she knew nothing about Macs but tried to help me. I had already cleaned my cache and deleted all cookies so she had me unplug my modem from the power source and replug...but that didn't help either. She told me she'd done all she could and that a technician would have to come out.

The tech. came out on Friday and changed the splitter that's between my TV and computer and he also changed something on the main feed into my house but that didn't help. He also didn't know anything about Macs (he was trying to find the "My Computer" icon on my desktop). He said he'd done all he could and that his supervisor/foreman would have to come out with the laptop.

The supervisor came today (Monday, Aug. 25th) and he hooked his PC laptop to my ethernet connection and he said everything looked fine, so it must be my computer. I must say that from what I could see, it didn't seem that the one website he tried on his laptop loaded much faster than what I'm getting on my computer, but he disputed that.

He didn't have any suggestions on what I could do to get my connection running properly. I asked him if he could try changing my IP address because I'd read somewhere on these forums that technicians doing that helped some other people. He said he had changed it, but after he left I checked and I have the exact same IP address I had when he walked into my home. I know because I wrote it all down before he came.

When the technician was leaving he said he would talk to the one other person in his office that's supposed to know something about Macs and that they'd get back to me.

I'm sorry this post is so long, but I'm about at the end of my rope. My connection has been just horrible for almost a week now and nobody from Comcast seems to have any answers.

I would really appreciate any help or any suggestions on what I could try to improve my connection speed. I have an iMac OS 9.0.4 with an ethernet connection. I don't have a dedicated line. I have a Motorola SURFboard modem model SB5100 and I do not use a router.

Again, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[krissel]

The broadband users will come along and give you advice later.

I'm on pokey dialup so I can only sympathize. However, judging from what you described about the loading speed of the tech's computer, I would be suspicious that the line you are accessing may be overloaded. You share bandwidth with however many people are subscribed in your immediate area and it may be a case of too many people on your line. Why it would happen suddenly may be something they switched at the server end. Mind you I'm only guessing but it is a possibility.

Do you know anyone else in your neighborhood who is on Comcast? See if others have noticed a change in speed.
I would definitely demand a different IP address since you say he did not change it. Sounds like you are getting the "oh, it's a Mac, runaround".

 

This is most likely irrelevant to your situation but I would suggest updating to 9.1.

[bil207]

You can check these settings:

From the Apple menu, select Control Panels, then choose TCP/IP.
 
Click Edit on the Finder menu bar at the top of the screen. Select User Mode

Click Advanced, then click OK

In the Connect via drop-down menu, select Ethernet. In the Configure drop-down menu, select Using DHCP Server. Click Options

Make sure only Active is selected. If Load only when needed is checked, uncheck the box

Make sure that the Use 802.3 box is unchecked. If it's checked, click on the box to remove it.Close the TCP/IP window.If you have made any changes to the configuration save them.

[kelly]

Hi Sues2763. Welcome to the Forum.

Me. I'd think twice about continuing to give them money.

Check for reports and other options here. Just use your Zip Code.

http://www.dslreports.com/

[pendragon]

Sue, First, a hearty welcome to TS. Sorry we could not have met under more pleasant circumstances.

I’m really not sure what benefit my experience with Comcast will be, but FWIW:

The service provided has been great, in that I routinely surf at 1.5+ MPS. But the tech support is generally deplorable (though it has gotten better of late).

When I first subscribed to Comcast (about 2 years ago) I had about 3 weeks of absolutely dismal tech support. Fortunately I no longer have to deal with them. And you are right; they think Macs are what’s for lunch.

Around here, Comcast does not do anything per-se. They are like a general contractor with numerous subcontractors, each with a distinct responsibility--cable TV installer, cable TV repair, broadband installer, broadband repair, fix cable from street to home, fix cable from junction box to street, fix cable from hub to junction box, well, you get the idea.

So when there is a fault/problem, another work order is opened and a week later, who ever shows up, blames someone else along the line.

Since you are getting a signal and the service/connect rate degraded over night, I do not believe the problem lies with your computer. If the signal becomes degraded at any point along its path, you connect speed will drop. This may or may not be evident in the quality of your TV signal.

There are, unfortunately, numerous ways the signal can degrade such as power surges and spikes, the line can become damaged or wet, or even someone hacking in to the line and is pirating the signal. The list of things that can go wrong is very long indeed.

Perhaps these suggestions will help:

Since Comcast is a franchised monopoly regulated by our county, the county agency established to oversee Comcast and resolve customer issues is very helpful. Do you have such a thing?

Complain about the TV reception. By boosting that signal, your broadband signal may also improve.

Complain and start working your way up the supervisory chain. Concurrently, contact Comcast’s senior management, describing the situation and what you have experienced. Keep detailed notes.

Notify any agency that oversees Comcast or even has a human interest in your plight, such as the news media in search of a story, or your representative who may be looking for votes.

And, like Kelly said, you need not pay for service you’re not getting.

Harv

[Diana]

Hi Sue,

Besides being reliant on Comcast's service, you may be a victim of the major slowdowns caused by the latest viral/worm activity. Realize here that I'm not stating any of this information as a fact regarding your situation, but if there are people/computers on your section of the line that are infected with the latest worms (MBlaster/Welchia) and one of the fastest spreading e-mail viruses ever, those people/computers could be hogging all the available resources. Tuesday Aug. 19 was the day the SoBig.F virus really started making its presence known. Infected machine send copies of the virus back out to the internet so hard and fast that many networks were brought to their knees.

The internet as a whole will feel the pain, but people like you, those sharing a "pipeline" to the internet will be even worse off. Consider this analogy. Say you live on a two lane road with 5 people routinely driving to and from home. No traffic jambs, all goes smoothly. One day you wake to find that every person in your neighborhood has taken in 10 other people to live with them. Now you have the equivalent of 50 more people living in your neighborhood and they all wanna get out and drive on your road.

Comcast should be watching this increase in traffic with concern. It may well mean that many of their customers are running damaged machines. It's alot to ask of such a huge impersonal corporation, but it would be nice if they would proactively notify these clueless people and either forcibly remove their connection or offer to help repair the machines. It would also be nice if the people who own the machines would actively work to maintain them in a "safe" state (Note: M$ and safe said in the same sentence makes a joke). That said, I've talked to way to many people who would rather run a damaged machine than to have to admit they're infected. For some reason, there seems to be a stigma associated with having a PC virus infection. Me, I'd wanna know and get it fixed...*grin..but as most here know, I'm the paranoid one.

If you call comcast to complain, ask their policy in regards to informing clients of possible damage/infection on a users machine. You'll probably find that they don't care. If you can show that your connection is being harmed because of these infected machines, maybe if you threaten to discontinue your account, losing your monthly fees will make it worth while for them to clear things up.

Kelly? Did you drag that soapbox out for me again?   I just spent three hours with a friend cleaning her machine of the MBlaster worm and 254 instances of spyware. No MS updates since July 2000, no new virus definitions since July 7, 2003. Some of this responsibility has to fall to the machine's owner. But I'd be the first to throw a stone at a virus writer/spammer.  

I wish you luck getting this resolved. Like Kelly, I would be reluctant to do business with a company that shows little concern for known problems. Ask for real resolution and if it isn't forthcoming, march to the next provider.

see ya,

[Paddy]

Welcome to TS, Sue - I was the person who suggested that you hop on over here from the Comcast forum.

I was also going to suggest that the viral woes might be causing your problems, but was a bit hesitant since nobody you'd talked to from Comcast had identified this as the possible source of the problem. However, I've now talked to a friend here in North Andover with Comcast and she has had completely unreliable internet service and email for the past three weeks. The techs she has talked to have told her that they have about 40,000 customers (here in MA? or everywhere? I don't know.) affected in some way - and they're working hard to try to figure it all out and get everybody up and running normally again. The weird thing is that everyone on the same node is not necessarily affected, apparently - so asking your neighbors how they're doing with their Comcast connection may or may not provide more useful info.

Have you checked your actual upload and download speeds? There are tests available from the link that Kelly provided (click on "speed tests" in the navigation column on the left hand side of the page). Here in MA, I'm getting between 1450 and 1789 kbps download and about 286 kbps upload, which seems to be about right.

[SnowWitch]

I might add it's not just Comcast that is having a problem. I am on DSL with Verizon and I have had to call them almost every day for the past few weeks....it is just the most frustrating thing....I have two p.c.'s and the iBook hooked up thru a router, disconnected the router, tried the iBook alone, tried p.c. #2 and couldn't do anything....finally got thru to Verizon after 11:00 p.m. The tech got me up on the modem alone (that was after midnight) I just left it and went to bed....this morning, I couldn't do anything with it, so got online with the dial up, and unplugged the whole DSL setup and went to work. Tonight, planning to come home and spend some "quality time"   with Verizon techs, and it's ok on the modem only, but couldn't move with the router....I may have to reconfigure something, but didn't take the time. I did a complete virus scan on the p.c. last night and it was clean....So, to make a long story short, I know the frustration....trish

[Bill]

... errr ... what about running a utility test on the iMac (Norton,TTP etc) too see if anything is amiss first.