The Geeky Brit

So I figured it out. At last. As you know, my cable experience has been less than stellar of late. My tv is frustrating (seriously the DVR is a POS). But my internet connection is what kills me. It is so flaky, and would randomly (or so it appeared) go out on me. I sometimes work from home, so when the internet dies – i have to relocate to a Starbucks. Not all bad, except I then have to pay for the internet as well as the coffee.

So the past few days have seen the internet drop out. It usually starts exhibiting issues around 3pm – slow downs etc. And then by 4 it is gone – only to reappear at about 7-8pm. I always plug my cable modem into every jack in the house to make sure it is not a line failure – and it never gets a signal. I have had Comcast out a few times – but they always show up in the morning. When it is working. The tech grumbles at me that if it ain’t broke he can’t fix it, and goes on his way. I can understand this, but doing nothing (a number of times) was starting to frustrate me.

So on Friday the internet went out, and it did yesterday too. Around 4pm. Now, we have had really hot weather these days, and I looked in my log to see when my internet was out before, and sure enough, it was when it was super hot. It seems my cable internet does not like heat. Eureka!

I phoned Comcast with the news, and this was met with a little disbelief, and the usual – well we can have a guy out next week, but if it intermittent there is nothing we can do. I asked if there was a service outage in my subdivision, and he said no. I asked how he knew and he said because none of my neighbors complained…

So I took my dog for a little walk, and guess what. Every house on my street has a satellite dish. Every one. I spoke with my neighbor and asked what service they used for High Speed Internet, and they said ATT dsl, cos cable is too expensive if you don’t get their TV service (it is about $58 a month). So if all those other neighbors have a Satellite dish, I am guessing they also use ATT DSL.

So Comcast, let me get this right. There isn’t a problem in my neighborhood, because no one else has complained – yet NO ONE ELSE USES YOUR SERVICE. Needless to say, I am done with Comcast.