Adventures of Comcast Bonnie

So, I was reading Consumerist.com today and noticed a post about an unfortunate experience between a customer and his modem/us. The insanity that happened here is going to probably end up popping up more and more often as we transition away from legacy devices and focus on the cool new stuff (D3!). Here is the link to the page with the information about the WHY

A few things that are helpful to know about the upgrade process:

• DOCSIS 1.0 and 1.1 modems are the only devices needing to be upgraded
• If you have a DOCSIS 2.0 modem, you're fine (unless you want super speeds)
• If you have a DOCSIS 3.0 modem, you're fine
• This does NOT apply to every region. If you have an EOL modem, you should receive notice via snail mail and/or email. We are doing this area by area, and I do not have a schedule of who's going to do this when. Don't freak out, just be prepared for the future! Plenty of notice for the bulk of you reading this.
  

Another day, another blog post, another cool thing to share with you guys!

We've soft launched (haven't made a big deal, basically) our new Comcast Secure Backup & Share service for our customers.

This is cool for those of you who need to put something 2gb and under "somewhere". Portable apps, maybe some pictures you wanted to share, documents, whatever! Here's some of the specifics from what I've been told so far:

Comcast Secure Backup and Share is an easy, secure, and reliable way to back up and share all of your important files. Now, you can access your files from anywhere with an Internet connection for easy sharing. You can download the Comcast Secure Backup and Share application and have convenient access to the Comcast Vault. Components of solution include:

1. Comcast Secure Backup & Share PC application – downloaded to the PC during product registration. Used to backup files and restore files. Application can be downloaded on multiple PCs so that files from each computer can be backed up.
   
   
2. Comcast Vault – Secure Online storage of backed up files. You can access their Comcast Vault through any Internet Connection for downloading or sharing.

Comcast Secure Backup & Share features include:

• Automatic backup can be scheduled
• Bandwidth throttling and block level incremental backups
• A secure online backup and storage utility
• An easy upload and retrieval mechanism
• Remote access to your files from any internet connection
• Ability to share content from the vault to family and friends

• Comcast High-Speed Internet subscription – Primary account must complete registration
• 133 MHz processor
• 64 MB RAM
• Windows 2000, XP, Vista SP1 or SP2, or Windows 7
• Either Internet Explorer 7 or later, Firefox 3.0 or later
• (No word on when there will be Mac support, sad to say!!!)
  

• You must be a Primary High-Speed internet subscriber to purchase the service.
• After purchase is made, any secondary can download the product. A secondary UID’s backed up content will contribute to overall storage purchased by primary, though the files will be stored in your own private vault.
• Each UID can download CSB&S desktop application to multiple PCs
• Due to copyright concerns, music files can be backed up, but not shared.

I had the cool opportunity over the weekend to be a tech for a day. It is something I had been meaning to do for awhile, but never had the time. I was in Cape Cod for the weekend visiting folks, and one of them happens to be a technician for Comcast. I had nothing better to do until they were done working for the day, so I tagged along and finally got some field tech time.


Some of you may have seen the tweets on Saturday. Here's the low-down!

We didn't start the day at this location, which is both a satellite office for the techs and a payment center. Saw the OLD payment center next to it... huge improvement :)



i'm at a customer's house doing a triple play install. of course two gigantic black labs are helping :) 11:39 AM Dec 5th

Having fun with punch blocks... which really aren't that much fun to be honest... 12:34 PM Dec 5th

Did I neglect to mention it was raining? A LOT?



First install finished! Next job involves finding out where a customer's dialtone ran off to. Comcast ninja skillz activate! 1:16 PM Dec 5th

ACTUALLY, we ended up picking up a job that was just a quick install of a cable box at an apartment complex. My tech, however, is a little OCD like me. We ended up cleaning up the entire box for the building so everyone would have happier cable!



Next up: Ooooh triple play install with home networking! Should be tons of fun (no really!) 2:43 PM Dec 5th

I actually spent this job setting up home networking for this customer while Will redid the phone wiring down in the basement. Sometimes, we're not given the most awesome wiring to work with from your old provider, but we'll make it work somehow! :)

(waiting for the test call to confirm service is working)


last job for the day, fixing some phone wiring to restore said rogue dialtone from earlier then done! 5:34 PM Dec 5th

This was actually an interesting dealy-o. The sad part is, we were not able to fix without an electrician (the phone line coming in was just... very unhappy). We got the dialtone, we did not get to fix the underlying problem. The GOOD news is, we know what it is and this customer knows exactly how to fix it. YAY! Also, Mr. Customer was super excited about having a social media person in his house :)

Alas, poor missing dialtone. We knew you well. Everyone should hug their next tech... they probably need it. This isn't an easy job! 5:58 PM Dec 5th

This is so true. It was raining hard, 40 degrees, never know what you're getting yourself into when you go to the next job... every house is different. Every job is a new challenge. I definitely gained a bit more insight into the field tech's day (this was a SLOW day, fyi), and how tough it can be. Gotta say, I slept like a baby that night!

(I was originally going to post this back in September. Oops!)

Since the new school year has begun, let's learn some fun stuff about your internet connection and how to fix it! Prepare to amaze and awe your neighbors, family, and friends who will suddenly deem you as their tech support person :)

OK, class! Let’s begin…

Today, we’ll start off our fun learning series with the simple stuff. When I see problems, the very first thing I'll ask is: Have you reset your modem? If the answer is yes, then I'll ask: Do you have a router? This isn't because I'm trying to blame any particular piece of equipment. You'd be amazed at how many times a router will get "out of sync" with a modem, and vice versa. To fix this…

1. pull the power from both the modem and the router
2. Next, plug the power into the modem ONLY.
3. Wait for the lights on the front to calm down. On Motorola modems, you need four SOLID green lights. (Scientific Atlanta/Webstar needs a SOLID cable light. RCA modems need the Cable Link and Internet light SOLID. If you have a modem not listed here, chances are you bought it or it’s an end of life modem and should be replaced)
4. Once this is done, go ahead and plug the power back into your router and wait for it to finish up it's startup sequence.

Easy enough, right? If you’re still unable to connect, try moving on to the slightly more complicated steps below.

For a direct connection to the modem:

* PC’s: Go to “Network Connections” in your Control Panel. Right mouse click on “Local Area Connection” and click Status. Click the Support tab in this window, and check the IP address.
* Macs: Finder>Applications>System Utilities>Network Utility This will display your current IP address.
* Does the IP start with 169.254? If so, your computer is not getting a connection from the modem and you should probably give us a call. If you see 192.168, you’re connected to a router, have your IP set static, or something else is going on with the modem. Again, something you might want to call us up about.

For connections using a router:

* Make sure your router is obtaining an IP address by going to its home page at http://192.168.1.1 (login required in most cases). You should be able to check on the router's status page and see if you are getting an IP. If you see a 169.254.xxx.xxx address, your router is not connecting to the modem. This could mean that it was not powered on in the right order OR the modem is not assigning IP's.
* Make sure your computer is receiving an IP address from the router by following the steps above. A 192.168.x.x of 10.x.x.x address should show. If not, your router has a problem!
* Make sure you’re connected to your own wireless network. I get more of this than most people think. Be sure to put your wireless network as top priority over others in your network preferences.

For the super geeks out there:

Speaking of modem's not handing out IP's... I see this little problem all the time. The geeks out there seem to notice this the most, and take extraordinary measures to correct the problem. I'll see folks spoofing their MAC Addresses to get the modem to talk to the equipment on the other end. Guess what? You don't need to do that :) ANY TIME you connect something in to your modem, you will need to reset the modem. Otherwise, it will still consider the original device connected, and hence refuse to work with the new device. Easy fix, right? Make sure you’re not overlooking the basics above, since it’s easy to forget the most obvious things sometimes. I once troubleshot a modem for well over an hour, and then discovered it was in standby. The lights on the modem will tell you a lot about what’s going on.

I hope this gives you a little insight into the basics of troubleshooting. Next week, we’ll move on to checking out your internet signal from the comfort of your own home :)

Got a topic I should cover? Let me know in the comments! Got a question about any of the stuff above? Ask away! Let’s keep comments about the lessons on-topic, so we can all chirp in about each thing :)

A few notes about skipping around on the DVR's. Page up and page down will skip you 5 minutes forward or backwards. For a less drastic skip, check out below!

1. Choose an unused or unneeded button on the “silver” remote to be the 30-second skip command. I use the little yellow triangle

2. Press the “Cable” button at the top of the remote to put it into Cable Box control mode.
3. Press and hold the “Setup” button until the “Cable” button blinks twice.
4. Type in the code 994. The “Cable” button will blink twice.
5. Press (do not hold) the “Setup” button.
6. Type in the code 00173.
7. Press whatever button you want to map the 30-second skip command to. Like I said before, I use the yellow triangle.