The Glade 4.0

GRAWWRGH.

Have you tried turning it off and then on again?

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Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

The modem or the tech himself? I've tried it on the modem, and I'm very tempted to go for the tech now.

Be careful how you turn off and on that tech...consequences could range from a made for TV romantic comedy to a full-on Chris Hansen investigation or to a cellmate named Little Pepe...

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Women are from Hoboken, men are from Trenton. ~ Jimmy Kimmel

Sometimes the techs don't turn back on...

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

They are easily replaced.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

OK, first off, the problem: I have internet, but it doesn't want to work all the time. I can stream a two-hour HD film off of Amazon (or Netflix), yet most of the time I can't even load a simple page like Google or Facebook; I just get timeout errors. I've tried everything I know to do, even changing to the Google DNS servers on my laptop. But the bottom line is that if I can't reliably access websites, the internet is largely useless to me, both from entertainment and (more importantly) work perspectives.

As I have more technical knowledge than Phe, so she asked if when he arrived, I would get on the phone with him (she's at the house and I'm at the office) and explain the problem. I did. He starts hemming and hawing around, saying, "Well, I don't know what the problem could be..."

First: You haven't looked anything yet. Second: Gee, maybe THAT'S WHY WE CALLED YOU OUT THERE.

Then he says says "Well, here's one problem...you've got your cable running out into some kind of little box before it goes to your modem...I don't know what that is, but it shouldn't be there."

I wait. This'll be good.

I hear him taking a look at the box. "...Cable amplifier...? I don't know what that is, but you shouldn't have that there on our system."

...

Me: "It might be a problem, and if so, you can remove it. I was told specifically by Comcast to go out and purchase one to improve the poor signal strength, though."

Him: "No, no we would never have told you to do that."

...

...

...

Me (thinking): DIE IN A FIRE.

Me: "OK, you may not know what the problem is, but there IS a problem and it needs to be fixed. You're the third or fourth tech who's come out to take a look at this. You've got a laptop or something with you, right?"

Him: "No, I don't have anything like that."

Me: /facepalm

Him: "I'd need to borrow one here."

Me: "FINE. Use my wife's laptop and browse around a bit, and see if you run into the intermittent but very frequent problem."

He wound up A) not doing so before pulling off the cable amp, so good job on getting a control reading there, dumbass. B) He left after having pulled off the amp, browsed around for a few minutes, and saying he didn't see a problem with it.

Oh good. Not only am I still having the same problem, but the internet was slower on the uptimes than before (6Mbps vs. 18Mbps). I plugged the cable amp back in and guess what? The speed returned to normal!

Dipshit. Comcast's getting an earful tomorrow.

Good luck. Rumor around here is that Comcast techs are incapable of fixing anything, they don't train them, just send them out with canned excuses. You're better off going Dish. Most folks have said they do better trying to fix it themselves.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

The issue you are having is probably not something a local tech can fix. Start with some example sites which you have problems with, and see if you can identify a common link in the topology.

If you're interested, get iperf and there's probably a handful of us here on diverse networks that you can get measurements to.

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I so agree with you..Comcast should die in a fire.

I signed up for cable and Internet 6 weeks ago. I went to the Comcast office that was closest to me and they didn't have the equipment for my area, they said I should have gone to the other office...but! They could sign me up for the service there and mail me the cable and Internet boxes I need. I waited for 2 weeks before I finally called and asked when I would be receiving my boxes. They said that no order had been placed... But! That they would fix things and put the order in now and I would receive the boxes in a couple of days. I found a box on the porch and it was just the cable box...no Internet modem. I spent 1 hour on the phone with a comcast tech trying to get the cable to work....he finally said he would mail out another box and I would have to send the one I received back....he also promised to send the Internet modem. Few days later another box arrives, a modem and the cable box are there!! I hook them up..cable works but Internet won't work..more time spent on phone with the Comcast tech. Wooo! I actually get both working! I figure on my next day off I will try the DVR...hmmm won't work? I call Comcast...yes, I am paying for DVR, but no, the box they sent me doesn't have that capability...so, they will send me another box....after I hang up, I try to use the Internet.. And it doesn't work... No Internet connection? I turn the modem off/on..reboot...call Comcast again..they send a signal to the box..still nothing..ok...now a tech has to come out. So, am I available from 2-5? No choice...so , Yes! Tech come out, spends 2.5 hours running new lines ect.. Finally get everything working. "hey" I ask, "can you take these 4 boxes of wrong things that Comcast mailed me so I don't have to take them to the Post Office?". "sorry, can't do that...against policy"....

Its been 1 day and I still have Internet and cable...but, will it last?

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Dream as if you'll live forever...
...Live as if you'll die tomorrow

Vivere Senza Rimpianti

Just until you mail those boxes back :p

Sad thing is, my ATT has been about as bad as your cable.

I don't have cable in my area, but if I lived a couple of miles closer to town, I would. That would leave me with either shitty Comcast or shitty ATT service. Choices, choices.

Comcast sent me to collections for a charge for the non-return of a cable box that I returned in person to their local office. To add insult to injury, ~10 years later I thought I'd give them another chance. Their installer didn't show up at all on the scheduled day, so I called that evening to cancel service. Sure enough, I received a bill later for service I didn't even have.

depending On your cable modem you should be able to check the signal levels yourself
192.168.100.1

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History of the Condom
In 1272, the Muslim Arabs invented the condom, using a goat's lower intestine.
In 1873, the British somewhat refined the idea, by taking the intestine out of the goat first.

The tech is correct. Amplifiers do not pass the forward and return signals of the modem correctly. They add noise and in some cases distort the signal causing packet loss.




No doubt the idiots on the phone would say that. They want you off the phone in under 6 minutes so they can close the call. However, the most basic wet behind the ears tech would know that you do not ever need to amp the signal going to a cable modem.



Already I know you had a contractor at your home. Be proactive and either ask to speak to an in house tech supervisor or request an in house tech when you need service.



Yeah, messing with customer equipment is usually a big no no. I've heard the horror stories of post call damage complaints by people trying to get their crap PC replaced for free.

Before he showed up at your door, a remote polling of your modem was done and he had a reading of your levels. No matter what, that amp needed to be removed for a variety of reasons. If you'd like an inroad to getting this fixed by someone who knows what they are doing I can PM you a bit of info. TBH 90% of the issues are due to the RG-6 cabling in the home- either crap fittings, splitters or raido shack crap added on by handy homeowners.

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A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

Do you get issues with wired connections or only wireless?

I still have both cable and Internet! Gonna take the chance and mail the extra stuff back on Monday

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Dream as if you'll live forever...
...Live as if you'll die tomorrow

Vivere Senza Rimpianti