[Discuss] Dealing with RCN

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

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Fortunately I don't have RCN at home, but we switched to RCN at work a
while back. Before that we were using Regus' internal network which was
adequate until they upgraded to a new network and we were limited to
2Mbps. And the new provider had significant latency. At that time RCN
sent us 2 10/2 DOCSIS 2 cable modems. Service was good as long a Regus
(http://www.regus.com/) paid the bills, but that was because of Regus
bureacracy. Normally Regus got it cleared up. We then upgraded to a
single 60/10 DOCSIS 3. For the most part service has been consistently
good. I used to do a speed check daily, but it was always pretty decent.
Essentially we have no other cost effective choices in the building.
Do you have access to the RCN Speed test: http://ma.speedtest.rcn.net/.
You will need to use this to measure your speed to complain.
When the technicians installed the 2 DOCSIS 2 cable modems they did not
provision them correctly, but after a phone call I was able to get them
online.
When we got the new DOCSIS 3, they came and took one of the DOCSIS 2
modems and were supposed to leave the remaining DOCSIS 2. Regus was able
to lease that to another client. But, we also had significant problems
provisioning both those modems. If I remember correctly I had to give
them both the serial numbers and the MAC addresses.


On 09/04/2011 03:52 PM, Jerry Natowitz wrote:
> Hi,
>
> You can either read my long tale of woe, or skip to <SHORT>:
>
>
> We've had RCN phone/TV/internet service for a number of years. Starting
about 3 years ago, the internet service started to have periodic bouts
of intermittent outages. 90+% of the outages were short enough that by
the time I got through to a technician, the problem went away.
>
> Somewhere along the way I found the address 10.16.48.1 being used to
check for network status. A single ping wasn't enough to establish
network problems, but ping -c 8 -s 1472 10.16.48.1 would let me know if
I was completely offline, or if their network was dropping packets.
>
> After a few months, the problems stopped, only to restart a year or so
later when RCN discontinued the 7 Mbps service we had, and quietly
"upgraded" us to 10 Mbps, adding $10 a month to our bill.
>
> Again, after a few months, the problems stopped. And then about 6
months ago they started again. This time they told me that the Motorola
Surfboard SB5120 I was using was an obsolete piece of feces, and that I
should replace it. So I went and bought a Toshiba PCX2600. But I didn't
switch it in, I decided to wait until the next bout of problems.
>
> The next bout of problems was a few weeks ago. I called, they took the
MAC address of the Toshiba, I hooked it up, and 5 minutes later I was
online. They were also supposed to upgrade me to 20 Mbps.
>
> I never saw my throughput increase, and last Friday the Toshiba stops
working. I call up, go through the usual power-cycle, power-cycle with
RF59 disconnected. They tell me that they can see the MAC address, so
the problem is on my side. They make an appointment for Thursday for a
field tech to come look at things.
>
> <SHORT>
> In the mean time, the (new) Toshiba doesn't start working, so I decide
to try the (old) Motorola. It comes right up.
>
> So my questions are:
> 1) Exactly what is done at the NOC to provision a new MAC address?
> 2) Should the two technicians (two separate calls) have realized that
the MAC address of the Toshiba that they saw was not the address that
was provisioned for my service?
> 3) I assume when they provision a new MAC address, they remove the old,
but somehow that change went away which is why my new modem doesn't
work, but the old one does. Is this a correct assumption?
>
> I am really looking for the correct terminology to use when I attempt
to deal with a supervisory level at RCN.
>


- -- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
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