PING: Georgia Residents Using Comcast High-Speed

[Ben E Lou]

We've been using BellSouth DSL and Dish Network for the 7+ years that we've lived in our home. Comcast is offering some nice incentives for switching both over. I have a few questions, though, about their service, and hope that y'all might be able to help.

1. How are your transfer speeds, both for downloading and for FTP uploading? I usually get around 150 KBps download, and around 28.0 upload now. The download speed hasn't been prohibitive for anything really, but the upload speed can be annoying.

2. What about service interruptions, both for internet and for cable? BellSouth's DSL service has been incredibly stable. My 7-year-old ADSL modem still works fine, and I can probably count on one hand the number of times in seven years that I've had an unannounced interruption of service, and the announced interruptions have been extremely rare, and usually of the 1:30am-4:30am variety anyway. As far as Dish Network goes, we sometimes have sporadic service when a storm is approaching (but it usually returns once the storm gets here), and we have to climb on the roof every couple of months to cut back some branches that can get in the way of the dish. We haven't had any "unexplained" outages that I can recall, and it seems like we lose satellite service a lot less than I did cable--but I realize that it has been 7+ years since I've had cable, and they may have gotten better.

3. What about problems accessing sites? I seem to recall reading on here that from time to time Comcast people have had trouble accessing this site or that one. How often has this happened, and what sites have caused problems?

4. How is their POP3 e-mail service when not plugged into Comcast? BellSouth's is horrid. It requires that I be logged into an SMTP server. That's no problem when I'm at home; I can use theirs. However when I was in Colorado for a month this summer, I couldn't use Outlook or Outlook Express, because our internet access was via satellite, with no SMTP server. All of our camps operate that way now, so this will now be a problem for me with BellSouth whenever I'm at camps--which is at least a total of three weeks per year, and can be as many as 8 weeks per year when I have a camp assignment. None of the other assigned team members had the problem I had, and I was the only one on BellSouth. :mad:

5. What about CSS Sports? I know that there's high school football on Friday nights, and a Georgia game once a year or so when we're playing weak competition. What else do they cover that might be a nice "perk" of switching over?

6. Anything else I should know? Any quirks of either the internet or cable service (like the SMTP issue with BellSouth) that I might want to know before making the decision as to whether or not to switch?


Thanks in advance!

--Ben

[HomerJSimpson]

I really can't answer all of your question because I haven't had to try some of what you are asking. I will say that I haven't had an outage in 9 months of using Comcast, they have been very fast and stable, and if you get cable make sure you get a DVR box. It is worth the extra 5 dollars a month. Trust me.

[Ben E Lou]

Taking the plunge and doing it. Installation is Tuesday.

[gstelmack]

Dump BellSouth DSL, get Comcast Internet, and switch the Dish over to DirecTV.

[ISiddiqui]

Good for you, Skydog :D. I got Comcast High-Speed. Now, Comcast customer service sucks, sucks, sucks (especially the billing department... I think they train their reps to come up with a novel answer to your question every time). Fortunetly I haven't had to use them all that often.

1. Transfer is pretty fast. I can get (while connecting to a good server on the other end) up to 350 KBps and sometimes higher. It's gotten faster with the new 6 MB/sec pipelines they are running/advertising. Uploads have been slow the last time I did them (like as slow as you are saying with BellSouth).

2. Haven't had many service interruptions at all. I can't remember my last one. For a while a few months ago there were slowness problems, but that's gone away.

3. You must be referring to the slowness problems... it's over now AFAIK.

4. I hardly use it, but the few times I have, it's been ok. But little experience.

5. Got CSS (never watch it). There is also Falconsvision and Bravesvision (never watch either ;)).

6. Nope.

Sorry didn't see it earlier... would have answered earlier :).

[Gallifrey]

I have been trying to get my parents in Alpharetta to make this move for months.
I have used Comcast out here for four or five years with no interruptions and killer upload and download speeds.

[Ben E Lou]

Sorry didn't see it earlier... would have answered earlier :).It wouldn't have mattered. I don't trust a "man" whut don't like high school football.

[ISiddiqui]

And on the other hand, I don't trust a man that does ;).

[heybrad]

I'm not in your area, but as a recent subscriber to Comcast I can echo that their customer service stinks to the high heavens. Here's an outline of my recent installation.

1. Called Comcast and ordered Cable w/1 premium channel, DVR and High Speed Internet.

2. They came out and installed while I was at work (my wife was there... no big deal)

3. When I got home, I tried to setup the shows I had at my old place on the DVR. I found no options to set them up. I tried, just for kicks, to record the show I was watching. It recorded, but I could never pull that show back up to view again. At this point I broke out the instructions figuring, man, I must be stupid. Still didnt work.

4. Called Comcast customer service and explained my dilema. I went through the entire set of questions, which basically questioned if I knew how to use a remote or not. I told the rep, look, I've had DVR before and this aint working like DVR. Finally, she looked at my installation and says... "You only have a single tuner box, so DVR wont work. Do you want a dual-tuner box?" Now, I'm paying for DVR so, uh, yea, I'd like to actually have it. She tells me, "We dont have any dual-tuner boxes." So why am I paying for DVR? I'm now put on hold. When she comes back... "We have a box now." I'm guessing the box fairy appeared, so we schedule another service call for a couple of days later.

5. I head upstairs where we have 2 TV's hooked up direct to the TV only to find that I'm getting about 5 channels. Strange... I know I shouldnt get them all without a box, but I'd think I get more than 5.

6. Call Comcast to ask why I only have 5 channels on my direct to TV connections. I'm told, "You live an area that only gets limited channels unless you get an analog box for an extra $2 a month. Maybe you could have told me that when you scheduled my service. I order 2 analog boxes. The rep says, "Lets schedule another service call." I tell them that a tech is already scheduled to come out and all they have to do is add the boxes to his list. I'm told, "Oh great, just tell him what you want." I ask, this guy will already have the equipment? Arent you going to tell him? She says, "No, just tell him." I know this wont work.

7. Tech shows up a few days later with a new DVR box. We proceed to tell him we want 2 additional analog boxes for the TV's upstairs. He says, "Well, did you call customer service, because its not on the work order." What a surprise, he doesnt have them.

8. Call customer service to inform them that the tech does not have my analog boxes. I am told, "Well, of course, he's a tech, not an installer. You need an installer to bring 2 new analog boxes." Just get my friggin analog boxes out here.

9. A few days later, an installer brings out analog boxes. I'm at work while this is happening. I get a call from my wife who tells me... "I left the bedroom for just a second while this guy and his trainee were hooking up the box. When I came back in the trainee guy was closing our dresser drawer (the TV is no where near the dresser). I tell her, kick them out and I'll call Comcast. She decides to let them finish anyway (just to get this over with).

10. Call Comcast to inform them that there installers are frigging weirdos who are looking through our dresser drawers. I'm told..."there's not really anything I can do about that." I remind them, of course you can, you know the tech that was at my house. Do something to them.

Thankfully, we are done with our installation and everything now works and all of my and my wifes underwear still seems to be in place. So I'll say it again, their customer service sucks.