Comcast flakeout--or was it an upgrade?

[Anthony Gabrielson]

Rich Braun wrote:
> Starting about 10 days ago, my cable-modem connection started acting up.  I
> was seeing high packet loss and occasional loss of sync (the "cable" link
> light would go out for up to a minute of time).
>
> Had service techs come out from Comcast last Friday; the first one yanked out
> the short piece of cable connecting my old Best Data CMX110 to the wall jack
> and said "aha, here's your problem right here" pointing to a loose connector. 
> Well that wasn't the problem so hours later I had a more-competent tech come
> out.  Both techs reported strong signal quality; the latter did a
> more-comprehensive DOCSIS test at the packet level.  Scratching our heads, I
> had the tech take a look at my own Linux-based test:  we concluded the only
> viable test at that point was to swap out the CMX110 cable-modem unit.  I
> rented a Motorola SB5120 for the month to see if that works better.
>
> Well it sure does!  I now get over 10 megabits/sec in download speed, and
> don't see the dropouts and packet loss.
>
> So I'll get rid of the old cable modem and get a new one.  It's not obvious
> what failed but my hypothesis is that Comcast quietly did an upgrade of their
> network that rendered my old cable modem unusable.  It has a 10BaseT
> connector; I'm theorizing that the speed upgrade simply choked the poor thing,
> in a way that made it appear that something--almost anything--else besides the
> cable modem was the culprit.
>
> Anyway I'm posting this here to share my experience and see if perhaps my
> hypothesis proves correct over time.  If so it'll save a lot of aggravation: 
> the service techs really don't have much expertise so you have to figure these
> things out pretty much on your own.  I'm more than happy with the Comcast
> network's performance and reliability but it'd be nice if this mystery were
> solved.
>
> -rich
>   
Its not the first time comcast has done this.  I think this is a big 
part of the reason there is little difference in the price of cable 
internet renting the box vs owning the box.  I had a Motorola shark fin 
along time ago and they finally upgraded the firmware until it broke; 
the tech admitted they do it from time to time to keep hardware more 
consistent.

I now rent a box and when it dies they replace it.

Anthony


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