Comment Re:It's COMCASTIC! (Score 1) 401
As long as we're showing examples of how things are done at Comcast, I signed up with Vonage about this time last year, and had problems with it. One of the things Vonage told me, was that my cable modem had to be DOCSIS 1.1 - compatible in order for VOIP to work properly. When I'd installed the cabling in my house back in 2002, I'd bought my own modem and router (a very acceptable option under AT&T Broadband) and "public" VOIP wasn't really available at the time. The modem was a D-Link DCM100, I think; DLink's website said that the modem could be upgraded, but only by the cable vendor, who was now Comcast (AT&T had traded off their NE territory for space in NJ/NY as I recall). So, I figured I was screwed, but thought to ask anyway. I got on the phone with Comcast technical support (yes, a real live person), and told them I was trying Vonage, and needed my modem upgraded; but the only way the upgrade could occur was if they (Comcast) did the download. After putting me on hold for 5 minutes, the tech came back and told me that I didn't need an upgrade, and that they had numerous customers who were running with DOCSIS 1.0 modems and VOIP without a problem.
So, beginning to feel a waft of smoke in my nether regions (!), I decided to call back in a couple of weeks to Comcast sales and ask them what it would take to get THEIR VOIP service. They stated the current rate, $34 a month, and then stated that they would need to "schedule an installation". At that point I asked, "Of what?" to which they replied, "a new modem." Playing dumb, I asked what that cost; and they said $3 a month. I can't recall at this point if I asked if using my existing modem would be OK; I get the impression that they would not allow that (I ended up getting a new Motorola Bitsurfer anyway that had code at DOCSIS 2.0).
I realize that this probably isn't the best place to be griping about Comcast but figured that as long as people were pointing out examples of what a lousy company IMHO they are, I had to get my $.02 in. They (Comcast) have also blocked certain ports on their network without warning their non-commercial customers in the past (I do VPN support), and knocked out some of my customers because of it. In one instance (it was when the NACHI worm/virus hit) my customer was a transcriptionist who was supposed to be uploading transcribed medical information from dictation equipment; thanks to Comcast doing this port-blocking, she was unable to get her VPN tunnel to open up for 3 days...and just happened to be at her alternate job (which was a commercial Comcast customer BTW), and saw an announcement via email from Comcast to the commercial customer, stating that they had stopped blocking certain ports on the network because the virus problems had diminished greatly and they felt it was safe to allow traffic over those ports again. When the transcriptionist went home that night (she happened to live in the same town as the commercial customer), lo and behold, her VPN connection started working again... and she had called several times to Comcast specifically asking if they were blocking anything on the 'net; and they swore up and down, nope... dunno if that was misinformed Helpdesk people, or deliberate "keep 'em in the dark, we know better than they do" stuff...
So, beginning to feel a waft of smoke in my nether regions (!), I decided to call back in a couple of weeks to Comcast sales and ask them what it would take to get THEIR VOIP service. They stated the current rate, $34 a month, and then stated that they would need to "schedule an installation". At that point I asked, "Of what?" to which they replied, "a new modem." Playing dumb, I asked what that cost; and they said $3 a month. I can't recall at this point if I asked if using my existing modem would be OK; I get the impression that they would not allow that (I ended up getting a new Motorola Bitsurfer anyway that had code at DOCSIS 2.0).
I realize that this probably isn't the best place to be griping about Comcast but figured that as long as people were pointing out examples of what a lousy company IMHO they are, I had to get my $.02 in. They (Comcast) have also blocked certain ports on their network without warning their non-commercial customers in the past (I do VPN support), and knocked out some of my customers because of it. In one instance (it was when the NACHI worm/virus hit) my customer was a transcriptionist who was supposed to be uploading transcribed medical information from dictation equipment; thanks to Comcast doing this port-blocking, she was unable to get her VPN tunnel to open up for 3 days...and just happened to be at her alternate job (which was a commercial Comcast customer BTW), and saw an announcement via email from Comcast to the commercial customer, stating that they had stopped blocking certain ports on the network because the virus problems had diminished greatly and they felt it was safe to allow traffic over those ports again. When the transcriptionist went home that night (she happened to live in the same town as the commercial customer), lo and behold, her VPN connection started working again... and she had called several times to Comcast specifically asking if they were blocking anything on the 'net; and they swore up and down, nope... dunno if that was misinformed Helpdesk people, or deliberate "keep 'em in the dark, we know better than they do" stuff...
