Comcast major internet outage

[bossbill]

They're sure to try to minimize this, but it appears we have major Comcast internet outage, since early yesterday. It is difficult to get an answer of any kind from Comcast. Does anyone have any information on this? This is a day that I for once am grateful that I have a slow-speed CenturyLink DSL at my North Bay home.

I post this because an internet outage can affect not just email, streaming, and surfing, but many stations get automatic program downloads and may even use the net for transmitter feeds.

This appears to be Comcast, not other providers.

 

[xmtrland]

I have a satellite delivered backup for internet here on Vashon. It has gotten to the point that C-link and Comcast are not reliable with one being the main and the other backup. I still use Comcast for the main but have installed Exede satellite internet for backup. During the last wind storm I ran on it for about a half hour while Vashon had an Island wide power outage. Once the center of the Island had power restored Comcast came back. I would not use the Exede connection full time due to cost. But it makes a great backup and I can run up to 5 days with moderate data usage and not worry about going over my data plan. The cost for Exede is $60 a month which was about the same for the DSL backup.

Saturday when the power went out and I got the generator started and got on the Exede internet connection switched my VOIP phone works again and I'm able to get emails from the Nautel NX50 which tells me the T1 is working for that station. I'm also able to VNC into Voice of Vashon which verifies that VoV has either Comcast or the DSL connection still. I can dial into the transmitter remote controls via my VOIP phone which runs fine on the satellite, a little delay but it works. And I have email.

As of now Comcast is working on Vashon. I have a DSL connection at 710 transmitter that is very reliable but slow. When Comcast originally deployed fiber they had about 4 hours of UPS time in cabinets on the power pole. Now most of those UPS units provide zero backup and I lose Comcast the moment the power goes out. Satellite may not be a good backup streaming unless it's a short outage and depending how many streams your sending out. I do have to say that no matter how big or small your business is your going to get the same crappy service no matter who you are with Comcast.

 

[Kelly A]

Many moons ago, Gary Hart and I were having a conversation over the tenuous public communication situation that would be created when residential and business customers migrate over to cable company VoIP services, which is now pretty commonplace. Gary's take was that cable was far less reliable because of a less robust infrastructure than the telco's had developed and cable had a fraction of the qualified technicians in place to troubleshoot and fix an outage quickly. Guess Gary was right!

My sister was RIF'ed from Verizon Customer Support a couple years ago because their new CEO decided that they were shifting resources away from technical build-out and customer service to a pure sales organization.

 

[Bongwater]

The internet speeds (as well as their reliability) in most of America are a joke. We're pathetically behind the curve compared to Japan, Korea, most of Europe and even Canada with that. But apparently, maximizing corporate profits matters more to the big ISPs and they presume we should shut up and be happy with what we have. (HA!) They're too obsessed with ending net neutrality and the profits that could come from that than to be bothered with upgrading and improving their systems. That's why I'm hoping the 10 GBps fiber that Google and other companies are rolling out finally reaches a point where the big ISPs can't ignore it and they are forced to upgrade.

 

[Silkie]

...And yesterday into last night there were massive business phone service outages nationwide. They tried to minimize that story too.