250GB Bandwidth by Comcast

[NaRu]

I live in California and have Comcast, and I unimpressed, but they have no competition, so they don't need to improve.
My max sustained download, now,  is about 2.2-2.4MB(ytes) and and 240-250KB up.  When I got the service 6 months ago it was closer to 2.6-2.8MB and 275KB up, but somewhere around beginning of summer, speeds dropped.   

I've called them on the problem, but their response is 'well, we can ping you, so no problem'.  Their way of measuring bandwidth problems is by having someone come out with a *signal strength* meter to check their signal -- if they find no problems, then they charge you a $100 house call.   

The problem is worse during the day, with the worst time being from late afternoon till late evening -- typical of being on an oversubscribed cable loop.  They *claim*, I'm not -- and that the business class lines are separate from residential, but I can't see them laying out separate loops for business and residential just to provide separation for 'business' customers who are in a residential area.  Even if I could prove a problem, their 'minimum' guaranteed speed of 2.5Mb suddenly becomes "within 10-17%" (basically anything over 2Mb, and they won't consider it a problem). 

Of course I'm welcome to find service if I don't like what they offer me. 

DSL in my area gives  sells a line rated at 3Mb(its)/768kb, which yields about 315-325KB down 62.5KB up.


To add insult to injury:   If I use a speed test like DSL reports, because of Comcast's has tuned their burst cutoff to be just slightly above the speed-test's length, it will show 4MB down and 220KB up.  The upload is slower than my normal measured, since it's right after the cutoff kicks in due to the download.

Comcast has yet to upgrade Santa Cruz to their 2nd generation.  I believe 'etheric.net' has faster, but they are out of my price range, with 3Mb up&down @ $400/month (but no cap!...such a deal!)   :'(

Everyone who has cable normally has the same problem during busy traffic on the internet since everyone shares the same line. Business class isnt a different line but they do cap you at the speed you should be getting. That line becomes first serve. Meaning if 10 people have normal cable at 25Mbps and they all go on at the sametime their speed will be lower but if 1 business class user goes on he will get 25Mbps then whats left will go to the normal users.

[sdedalus83]

I live in California and have Comcast, and I unimpressed, but they have no competition, so they don't need to improve.
My max sustained download, now,  is about 2.2-2.4MB(ytes) and and 240-250KB up.  When I got the service 6 months ago it was closer to 2.6-2.8MB and 275KB up, but somewhere around beginning of summer, speeds dropped.   

Even if I could prove a problem, their 'minimum' guaranteed speed of 2.5Mb suddenly becomes "within 10-17%" (basically anything over 2Mb, and they won't consider it a problem). 

To add insult to injury:   If I use a speed test like DSL reports, because of Comcast's has tuned their burst cutoff to be just slightly above the speed-test's length, it will show 4MB down and 220KB up.  The upload is slower than my normal measured, since it's right after the cutoff kicks in due to the download.

Comcast has yet to upgrade Santa Cruz to their 2nd generation.  I believe 'etheric.net' has faster, but they are out of my price range, with 3Mb up&down @ $400/month (but no cap!...such a deal!)   :'(

Your upload speed is damning.  You have the 16/2 (advertised as 'up to' 20/4) service.  You're consistently getting sustained downstream speeds close to the advertised burst rate, upstream speeds consistently at the advertised sustained rate, and you're bitching about it?  And your downstream burst rate is higher than that of the next tier up.

If you don't want a usage cap, call comcast business class and ask about their SOHO special.  Should be $75/month for 22/5 with a 1 year contract.

[Klocknov]

For those with good Comcast good for you, glad they can give you good coverage. For where I live I have talked with a few with the business class and they have all the sames issues with service I have minus the 250gb cap. The reason we have shit service is becuase they don't do jack-shit for maintenance on our lines and ever since the flood every time we have winds higher then 3mph are service speed jaunts up or locks up, not to mention they also need to update the lines since they haven't added any in five years down here and yet the population within that has quadrupled... so all in all they just fuck us and since there is only two DSL terminals in our valley and I live out of range we get fucked there too. (The terminals are on both sides of the town and we live 15 minutes out. Talk about great service right...) So we have the option of doing the phone modems, but with the shit signal we get from the service that would end up even worse... So as you see you live in bumfuck you get bummedfucked when it comes to internet, sadly 30minutes away better service in three directions.

Now before we lived here I lived in a place nicknamed Ghetto town by its residents... yeah we went good service shit service good service shit service there from Comcast. Then we had options but Comcast was doing good and the bad service times they were upgrading there network. So all in all if I lived up there I would probably not have a problem with there internet, up there the service actually didn't have issues like down here. Like a few weeks ago when the area around me was having random net drops and they couldn't find a reason why. I got a free tech visit out of it and new cord going to the modem and all that fun stuff, past that the service for internet here sucks.


TL:DR?: I have shit service since I live somewhere that Comcast could give a rats ass about since it isn't a main area on there map.

[Astara]

If you don't want a usage cap, call comcast business class and ask about their SOHO special.  Should be $75/month for 22/5 with a 1 year contract.

---
I have no usage cap.  I'm in business class -- and in the top tier available.
There is no advertised burst rate for my service.   Santa Cruz doesn't have the faster speeds.
The speed sucks.  I'm not getting 2Mb up, I'm getting *20%* below that.  I'd LOVE 4Mb up, it's not available.
Measured amounts on the speed tests come in a max of 1.8Mb up.  If it burst up to 4Mb, and minimum was 2.0, that'd
be great, but my burst rate up stream is about 2.2Mb (~270KB).
There is no SOHO special with Comcast in my area. Check your sources.  Santa Cruz is considered a backwater.

[Klocknov]

Wow I wouldn't of ever considered Santa Cruz as back water, though I guess it is because of the family I have living down there tends to have money and I wouldn't figure them to live backwater areas. And be glad you get 2mb I am lucky to get 1mb where I am at with an advertised burst of 4mb, if I moved 30 minutes away I could get it though...

[Astara]

Wow I wouldn't of ever considered Santa Cruz as back water, though I guess it is because of the family I have living down there tends to have money and I wouldn't figure them to live backwater areas. And be glad you get 2mb I am lucky to get 1mb where I am at with an advertised burst of 4mb, if I moved 30 minutes away I could get it though...

I'll be "glad" when internet speeds in the US are in the top 5.  Japan, top European countries, Korea, and others beat the pants off of us.  The govnm gave something like 200-300 billion several years ago to AT&T to upgrade line speeds.  It went into maintenance and was never seen again.  Meanwhile their stockholders took home record returns.

I'm WAY fedup with all of the telcablecos -- they take and take, and don't upgrade -- things are supposed to drop in cost with time, Comcast has been one of the worst offenders for taking more money and providing worse service over the past 10 years they've served my area.  Basic cable went from $17->$48 while channels offered dropped.  Now if you want digital service, it's another $50 on top of that, with tax it'll be over $100/month just for basic [digital]** cable.   That's obscene.  Have they upgraded my line for that?  Nope.  It's the same line it's been since I moved in over a decade ago.  Line speeds have not increased in this area for at *least* 5-7.  I'm getting slower uploads and about 2-3x faster downloads than I did _10_ years ago!   So I'm not even CLOSE to glad about dung I'm eating for 'service'.

**-- I shouldn't have to even notate this, since non-digital service isn't available anywhere in the US, EXCEPT on cable, where it is used as a low-cost leader so cable companies can be seen to comply with local requirements that they provide affordable service --- except that now, it's *substandard* service. 

[Klocknov]

Up where I am everything is fucking digital, so be glad you can at least get channels without paying a company so you can watch TV.

[Astara]

Up where I am everything is fucking digital, so be glad you can at least get channels without paying a company so you can watch TV.

What part of $48/month for an analog downgrade of a digital signal did you equate to not paying a company?

Santa Cruz is separated by a mountain range from Silicon Valley and San Francisco.  Last time I checked, I couldn't receive signals even for all of the major networks over the air here.  So I would be glad if I could get channels without paying a company, but I'm not, so I'm not. and it only emphasizes how much more comcast sucks for all types of service.  They are not an ISP -- they are an ISP wannabe.  When I asked them about email service for my domain, they wanted to put me on Microsoft Exchange and set me up with a copy of Outlook!  That's their business support!  They can't even handle 'sendmail'.  When it comes to network communications, they really have no clue about anything.  That's what I tried to hint at
earlier when I said that if I had a problem with line speed, they sent out someone to check the *cable's* signal strength.

That's like a telco-DSL provider checking that the wires are hooked up -- it does nothing to check IP throughput.  A ping test is completely inadequate for such measurements.

 

[Klocknov]

Up where I am everything is fucking digital, so be glad you can at least get channels without paying a company so you can watch TV.

What part of $48/month for an analog downgrade of a digital signal did you equate to not paying a company?

Santa Cruz is separated by a mountain range from Silicon Valley and San Francisco.  Last time I checked, I couldn't receive signals even for all of the major networks over the air here.  So I would be glad if I could get channels without paying a company, but I'm not, so I'm not. and it only emphasizes how much more comcast sucks for all types of service.  They are not an ISP -- they are an ISP wannabe.  When I asked them about email service for my domain, they wanted to put me on Microsoft Exchange and set me up with a copy of Outlook!  That's their business support!  They can't even handle 'sendmail'.  When it comes to network communications, they really have no clue about anything.  That's what I tried to hint at
earlier when I said that if I had a problem with line speed, they sent out someone to check the *cable's* signal strength.

That's like a telco-DSL provider checking that the wires are hooked up -- it does nothing to check IP throughput.  A ping test is completely inadequate for such measurements.

Ahh I misunderstood you earlier. Yeah when techs come around I play dumb and ask a lot of questions about their equipment XD. We have a couple good techs up here thankfully and the last time I got one of them that do my area. Past that yeah I know how to do an IP check throughput better then half of them... though I haven't had a server computer for awhile to run the tests...

[Astara]

.... Past that yeah I know how to do an IP check throughput better then half of them... though I haven't had a server computer for awhile to run the tests...

---
FWIW, you don't need a server computer to test internet speeds.  Today, even a desktop system can handle the I/O of
a Gigabit LAN, especially if it's a modern LAN card with TCP send/receive offloading.  A Gb is 'only' the speed of a 'single' hard disk drive -- 125MB/s.  I doubt classic hard disk drives will get much faster before flash-drive systems come up in speed and reliability and down in price to make them a more attractive option.   Much of the work in getting the most out of hardware comes from tuning the software.  Makes a night & day difference between using 'default settings' and tuned settings.

I've found that that network buffer and window settings for current OS's are between 1-2 orders of magnitude smaller than they should be for optimal throughput on a Gigabit LAN.  Tuning software for the hardware would easily let a P-II chip drive a 100Mb LAN and ISP speeds are no where near that.  Even WinXP on a 8 year old laptop can outpace those speeds.

Sometimes, it's just a matter of finding the right network card.  Depending on the card, you can see 3-9x speed differences for the same spec'd LAN speed.   As an example of software tuning making huge differences -- using something like the $10 plugin CoreAVC decoder for video, dropped my CPU usage by a factor of 10, because, besides more optimal algorithms that don't waste as many CPU cycles, they can also use my video hardware to accelerate video decoding (what a novel concept! Doi!   

Meanwhile, ISP LAN speeds sit back at what was state of the art in school labs in the late 70's.  Telecoms haven't been so much interested in doing technology research as in doing market research to find more ways to extract more money from less.   Why bother investing in tech, when you can oversell your network capacity, then charge customers for every little bit of increase to fix it?

I write too much.   

[paul_vash]

Not sure I could handle a cap after having time warner.

$64 a month, no caps. And me and my roommate download a shitload of crap.



Only drawback is upload speed. But I still manage to hold above a 1.0+ ratio here, and other places

And here is what the mighty Australia can do. ADSL2 130Gb capped to 64bit for 50$


Sigh so lame, we are only just getting fibre instaled now, should be done in about 5 years

[fanofde4ever]

I go over Comcast's cap on a regular basis.  According to utorrent in the last 31 days I've used over 400GB, and I probably have an additional 100GB in DDLs.  Never heard a word from them.  I'm hoping (though I won't hold my breath) prices are gonna drop once Verizon finishes running that big orange cable all the way out here though.  They've currently stopped about a mile short of my house.

[Klocknov]

I go over Comcast's cap on a regular basis.  According to utorrent in the last 31 days I've used over 400GB, and I probably have an additional 100GB in DDLs.  Never heard a word from them.  I'm hoping (though I won't hold my breath) prices are gonna drop once Verizon finishes running that big orange cable all the way out here though.  They've currently stopped about a mile short of my house.

Don't count on that price drop mate, I haven't heard anyone else say theirs did that has FIOS available...

[Astara]

In case anyone need a clue about what type of deal I might be happy about (at least for the first year or two):

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/websales/service.do?id=2
The  up to 50Mb for $23.00** looks interesting -- depends on what the guaranteed minimums are and the upload speeds.
Even after the intro period, it's about half of what I pay for less than 1/3 the speed.

Nope...not even close to happy about the backwater US (in which I am yet a further backwater nearly 25 miles (~35min***) from the heart of Silicon Valley.

**-1st 3 month, $48 thereafter. 
***-off peak minutes applied!

[kratylos]

Not sure I could handle a cap after having time warner.

$64 a month, no caps. And me and my roommate download a shitload of crap.



Only drawback is upload speed. But I still manage to hold above a 1.0+ ratio here, and other places

And here is what the mighty Australia can do. ADSL2 130Gb capped to 64bit for 50$


Sigh so lame, we are only just getting fibre instaled now, should be done in about 5 years

Holland says hi.



(note: that's half of what I should be getting  )

[Pentium100]

Not sure I could handle a cap after having time warner.

$64 a month, no caps. And me and my roommate download a shitload of crap.



Only drawback is upload speed. But I still manage to hold above a 1.0+ ratio here, and other places

And here is what the mighty Australia can do. ADSL2 130Gb capped to 64bit for 50$


Sigh so lame, we are only just getting fibre instaled now, should be done in about 5 years

Holland says hi.



(note: that's half of what I should be getting  )

Lithuania says hi.


Old test, I am not at home now, so it would be difficult for me to retest. I should have 200mbps upload too, probably my TCP settings are not optimal. Bandwidth to other countries i 80/80 mbps. This month I'll upload ~5TB

[kilsan97]

That is too small limit.
I got 100Mbps connection, and they never charge for extra traffics.


Btw, some of those so-called "Maximum Traffic" is sometimes (Speed)*60*60*24*30. 

[Superchunk55]

i got it a few times but my grandparents get internet for free because of something in my grandpas retirement benifits

[TMRNetShark]

I've got 1GB Line on my seedbox, I can get an anime in a couple of minutes... even the big ones. 

[Hikaroo]

I went over Comcast's bullshit limit once.
My husband didn't password protect our router like I thought he had, someone set a password to it, used it and went over the limit.
They turned off my net without a word to me, and then wouldn't talk to me at all about it because I wasn't my husband, as it's under his name, and he was deployed at the time.

Instead of being a turd and having a male friend call back, I fought with the bastards for about three days about it. The security number told me to show up at the office with proof of residence and that I was married to him. I went to the office, waited two hours, and they said they can't do anything because the account is suspended and I have to talk to the security line. Called them again, and the guy that picked up was even douchier than the last person I had talked to.
I got annoyed, called the regular line, and the dude that picked up was like. 'Huh. I'll speak for your husband and say you want on the account. Your internet is turned back on'. In less than five minutes.

I think it was some serious crap, especially considering he was deployed, and the only method of contact we had was e-mail, and they took it from me, THEN expected me to contact him and have HIM call. If he can't call me, how can he call comcast?
...
This was about a month and a half ago.