NSR: Comcast- Hot Spot in Your House

[KBL Ed]

Unless you get absolute crap cell phone service at your house, why would anybody have wireline phone service these days?

I have moderately to severely crappy cell service at my house. i guess it depends which way the wind is blowing.

[Dickc]

Does anybody else name their home Wi-Fi network "FBI Surveillance Van 6"???

No, but in honor of Kurt Vonnegut I do have one named ICE9. Wonder what the Spanish speaking people who live a hundred yards away think of it?

[KBL Ed]

Comcast's newest model is the Cisco XB3. It uses the Intel Puma6 chip and the Intel software is unstable as hell. We're all struggling with it. It has 2x the trouble tickets of anything else.

Comcast just shipped me the Cisco DPC3941T, with AC-level wifi. Heard anything about this? Is Comcast now supplying half-decent gateways?

In typical Comcast fashion, they sent it to me without my asking, so I can send it back free if needed. Just thought I'd check in here first.

Ta, mate.

[SnoBrdr]

Comcast's newest model is the Cisco XB3. It uses the Intel Puma6 chip and the Intel software is unstable as hell. We're all struggling with it. It has 2x the trouble tickets of anything else.

Comcast just shipped me the Cisco DPC3941T, with AC-level wifi. Heard anything about this? Is Comcast now supplying half-decent gateways?

In typical Comcast fashion, they sent it to me without my asking, so I can send it back free if needed. Just thought I'd check in here first.

Ta, mate.

I have no other choice ATM to use Comcast in K. That will change at some point.

That being said I don't even use their router and modem and save myself $10 a month.

Plus there's no chance of it being a hotspot.

[TheLurker]

Unless you get absolute crap cell phone service at your house, why would anybody have wireline phone service these days?

I have moderately to severely crappy cell service at my house. i guess it depends which way the wind is blowing.

For an alarm system?

[Geoff]

Comcast's newest model is the Cisco XB3. It uses the Intel Puma6 chip and the Intel software is unstable as hell. We're all struggling with it. It has 2x the trouble tickets of anything else.

Comcast just shipped me the Cisco DPC3941T, with AC-level wifi. Heard anything about this? Is Comcast now supplying half-decent gateways?

In typical Comcast fashion, they sent it to me without my asking, so I can send it back free if needed. Just thought I'd check in here first.

Ta, mate.

That's the Cisco XB3. It is probably quite a bit better now but I don't have the most recent data. What I wrote last July is the last time I saw Comcast data about the XB3. I'm now just about completely disengaged with Comcast after my little business unit got sold to a Korean company in December. There are a crap load of XB3's in the Comcast network. At this point, I'd run one and not be too concerned about stability. 5 years ago, we all sucked at WiFi. We all know a heck of a lot more about antenna placement and performance. The Cisco XB3 should have gone through enough proctology exams at Comcast that the WiFi is acceptable. Like I wrote last July in this thread, Netgear is the company with the most experience with WiFi. You'll have a hard time doing better than a premium (not $30.00 Best Buy) Netgear WiFi router connected to a cable modem with an Ethernet cable.

To configure a Cisco XB3, the web interface is at http://10.0.0.1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Username: admin Password: password
At least give it a useful WiFi SSID and password. I'd use Ethernet first to configure it so I didn't have to type in that cryptic WiFi password supplied with it.

[KBL Ed]

I'm now just about completely disengaged with Comcast after my little business unit got sold to a Korean company in December.

Miso Horni? (Sorry, that's not even the right country but I couldn't resist.)

There are a crap load of XB3's in the Comcast network. At this point, I'd run one and not be too concerned about stability. 5 years ago, we all sucked at WiFi. We all know a heck of a lot more about antenna placement and performance. The Cisco XB3 should have gone through enough proctology exams at Comcast that the WiFi is acceptable. Like I wrote last July in this thread, Netgear is the company with the most experience with WiFi. You'll have a hard time doing better than a premium (not $30.00 Best Buy) Netgear WiFi router connected to a cable modem with an Ethernet cable.

I think this is actually a "next level" XB3, introduced last fall. It has AC-level wifi. A lot of talk in their marketing materials about how they spent a lot of time testing different antenna placement, etc. But, this is Comcast so I took it with a huge grain of salt. I'll go ahead an give it a whirl!

To configure a Cisco XB3, the web interface is at http://10.0.0.1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Username: admin Password: password
At least give it a useful WiFi SSID and password. I'd use Ethernet first to configure it so I didn't have to type in that cryptic WiFi password supplied with it.

Yep, I do all that. Thanks. Did you ski Sunday? That was an awesome day.

[bobbutts]

The cable modem rental is a monthly fee, so if you purchase your own, it's paid back pretty fast.

[Dr. NO]

The cable modem rental is a monthly fee, so if you purchase your own, it's paid back pretty fast.

Unless, like I have had happen, the modem fails after the warranty OR you don't have a receipt. Now you have to buy a new one. The rental is cheaper. I have replaced at least 3 modems and 4 Comcast receivers. Not saying much for quality of product, but rent is cheaper than buying over a 10 year period.

[SnoBrdr]

The cable modem rental is a monthly fee, so if you purchase your own, it's paid back pretty fast.

Unless, like I have had happen, the modem fails after the warranty OR you don't have a receipt. Now you have to buy a new one. The rental is cheaper. I have replaced at least 3 modems and 4 Comcast receivers. Not saying much for quality of product, but rent is cheaper than buying over a 10 year period.

Over a ten year period, the Comcast fee for the modem alone is $1200.

That buys a awful lot of modems.

If you don't use wi-fi, you can buy 24 decent modems.

[Geoff]

The cable modem rental is a monthly fee, so if you purchase your own, it's paid back pretty fast.

Unless, like I have had happen, the modem fails after the warranty OR you don't have a receipt. Now you have to buy a new one. The rental is cheaper. I have replaced at least 3 modems and 4 Comcast receivers. Not saying much for quality of product, but rent is cheaper than buying over a 10 year period.

Over a ten year period, the Comcast fee for the modem alone is $1200.

That buys a awful lot of modems.

If you don't use wi-fi, you can buy 24 decent modems.

You can go on Amazon and buy a WiFi router. A decent Netgear is $70.00. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0041LYY6K/ref ... B001UI4RTG" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A lot of the cable operators don't offer an integrated WiFi + cable modem. Their reasoning is that WiFi technology churns a lot faster than DOCSIS. Comcast doesn't care because they gouge on the cable modem rental. For $10.00/month, you recoup the $100 cost of a Cisco XB3 in a hurry.

Comcast is starting to do the initial work to migrate their whole network to DOCSIS 3.1. They want to get rid of their existing legacy video distribution systems and go with IP streaming video. The cable modem will be the only thing in your house on the Comcast network. Within the house, you go Ethernet, WiFi, or MoCA (coax) to thin set-top boxes. My Korean overlords make set-top boxes and swallowed up my little outfit to get more DNA for the cable modem and telephone side of the solution. Sometime around 5 to 10 years from now, everybody's cable set-top box goes into the dumpster. It's the only way to do 4K ultra HD video. The Comcast XB6 spec is 32x8 DOCSIS 3.1, 8x8 MIMO WiFi AC, some Ethernet ports, a couple of analog phone ports, and MoCA. Eventually, every cable modem will be replaced by that so they can move everybody to thin set-top boxes that only do IP streaming video. That box will support full gigabit data rates. It will have enough WiFi performance to run a half-dozen ultra HD set-top boxes.

[freeski]

I hope Comcast is not in business in 5 or 10 years. I have a two year contract with them; entered the contract 4 months ago. I open the last bill and it was $8 higher. I call them and they say I only have the contact for the content bundle. Thanks Comcast. Does anyone have a rocket launcher I could borrow?

[SnoBrdr]

I hope Comcast is not in business in 5 or 10 years. I have a two year contract with them; entered the contract 4 months ago. I open the last bill and it was $8 higher. I call them and they say I only have the contact for the content bundle. Thanks Comcast. Does anyone have a rocket launcher I could borrow?

I was forced to get Comcast at our house in Vermont.

I bought a combo modem/router and when the cable was installed I planned to use it instead of the Comcast one.

They told me that it wouldn't work on their network for some reason but I know other people who have the same setup and it works fine on their Comcast.

So I had to get one of theirs, @ 410 a month, I bought another modem/router and this one they "allowed" on their network.

I gave them their equipment back, fully expecting that it would then be taken off my bill. It is now three months later and it is still apprearing on the bill. They told me that it could take up to 90 days for it to be taken off and I guess I have to wait till this months bill comes into see if that is finally true.

They are just a terrible company and their customer service is awful.

[Geoff]

They are just a terrible company and their customer service is awful.

You're not going to want to hear this but Comcast is better than Time-Warner, Charter, Cox, Cablevision, or Bright House. Damning them with faint praise but it could be worse. It could still be Adelphia at Killington. After all these years, the parts of Adelphia Time-Warner swallowed still have big problems. Comcast bit the bullet and rebuilt all their Adelphia plant. The Rutland head end still has some Cisco/Scientific Atlanta video distribution gear from the Adelphia days but the data network is fairly new and comparable to any other 2nd tier Comcast footprint in the northeast.

Like everybody else, Comcast has run out of IPv4 addresses. A cable modem has two IP addresses. One that you see assigned to the router or Ethernet bridge port. One that you don't see that is used to manage the device. Comcast has switched their whole network over so all their modems are managed with IPv6 to reclaim those 20 million+ IPv4 addresses. If you have an older DOCSIS 2.0 IPv4 modem or a rogue IPv6 modem that hasn't been through Comcast certification and is buggy in IPv6 mode, they won't let you put it on their plant. They're also moving their network to 24 downstreams. Modems are also very fussy when they run against the new Arris E6000 and the Cisco 10K configured to 24 downstreams. We had to do emergency patch releases for all our products. You need to use a modem on the Comcast certified list so the modem will automatically download updated software or the thing will go DOA on you.

[KBL Ed]

The problem for me is I would have to buy an eMTA box for my phone service, plus the wifi router. Around $300 total if I get a good AC-level wifi router.

Re: Comcast versus others. My cousin has U-Verse in Florida, and from what I've seen, that seems good. Verizon Fios seems OK as well. But yes, it could be worse.