Comcast internet unreliability

[Ronald]

Is anyone else having trouble with their Comcast/Xfinity internet? Every summer for the past 2-3 years, my service becomes intermittent. I've called multiple times and they blame it on the heat and pretty much say there's nothing they can do, other then refresh the signal. Well I've been having trouble since Saturday and it hasn't even been hot (60's-70's). In fact, as I am typing this, the service has gone out again and now I'll have to wait for it to come back before I can hit "Post reply". It's getting a bit ridiculous since it goes out all the time, sometimes for hours and takes out my phone service out as well since they're both connected. Does anybody else experience intermittent Comcast service when the temperature goes up?

 

[badwolf.usmc]

Check with your neighbors to see if they have the same issue. If they are not having that same problem then it could be your drop, the line from the pole to your house, that wire does go bad. If your neighbors are also having the same problem then it could be something farther upstream, either way they need to fix it.

More questions, do you have cable tv with them, and if so does the cable tv also go out? Do you live near powerful power lines or a radio/tv station/substation?

 

[woowoo2]

There should be no "Heat" issues.
I would demand that they fix the problem, or rebate your money.

 

[kwatters]

I never have heat problems.

 

[Ronald]

Thank you all for the responses. It happened again a few minutes after I posted that message and it just came back.

Check with your neighbors to see if they have the same issue. If they are not having that same problem then it could be your drop, the line from the pole to your house, that wire does go bad. If your neighbors are also having the same problem then it could be something farther upstream, either way they need to fix it.

More questions, do you have cable tv with them, and if so does the cable tv also go out? Do you live near powerful power lines or a radio/tv station/substation?

Yes, I have my tv with them also but it does not goes out when the phone/internet does. I have another service technician coming later this week. I'll mention the drop line to him because it had to be re-hung a few years ago after a branch took it down. Maybe it wasn't put back up right? I live out in the county so there aren't really any antennas or power lines or anything around that I think could cause a disruption. The weird thing is though, I never have issues in the colder months?

There should be no "Heat" issues.
I would demand that they fix the problem, or rebate your money.

That's exactly how I feel. The frustrating part is that it rarely happens to be out when a technician arrives, so they have a hard time trying to diagnose the issue.

 

[grimor]

no problems here

 

[cburnworth]

how old is the wire from the pole to the house? If it is older than 10 years I would tell them to replace it.

 

[badwolf.usmc]

Yes, I have my tv with them also but it does not goes out when the phone/internet does. I have another service technician coming later this week. I'll mention the drop line to him because it had to be re-hung a few years ago after a branch took it down. Maybe it wasn't put back up right? I live out in the county so there aren't really any antennas or power lines or anything around that I think could cause a disruption. The weird thing is though, I never have issues in the colder months?

Do you have digital cable or analog? If you don't know the difference, if you have a cable box then you have digital cable, if you don't have a box then you have analog cable.


Also, how do you have the wiring in your house, how old is it and in what condition? You most likely have splitter somewhere, do you know if it is a 2-way, 3-way or more?

The best way to do wiring like this is to take the wire that goes into your house and split it with a 2-way splitter, that way one lines goes to your cable/phone and the other goes to your tvs. If you have multiple TVs then take the line that is for your tvs and split it as needed, but don't split your internet line again.


Also, when you lose your internet, what does your modem do? You should have lights on the front of it, which ones are lit and which ones are not lit?

 

[jason867]

I had a similar problem, tell them to come out and take a look at the splitters on the pole. Turns out that's what my problem was. Out of spec spitter or something degraded the signal too badly for internet, but not bad enough for tv...

 

[snowman46919]

There should be no "Heat" issues.
I would demand that they fix the problem, or rebate your money.

Actually if the cable connection was made improperly with either too short or too long of a stinger temperature can play a huge role in the quality of the signal.

 

[iamaclone45]

I had this problem at my old apartment one summer that left me with internet only about 50% of the time. I finally got a Comcast tech to come out and he stated it was possibly due to electricity (power) back feeding through the coax cable due to poor wiring and old wiring. He said the only fix was to re-wire all the coax in the apartment building (which was not going to happen).

He also instructed me to disconnect either the splitter that was behind a panel in my closet or disconnect my cable model and ground the coax on something metal to discharge any extra power in the cable. Doing this actually worked and restored the internet, whether it was actually doing any I don't know.

 

[Grump01]

I've never had problems due to heat, but 2-3 weeks ago, my internet kept going out for 2-3 days,not the tv though. Had a Tech come out and he used a meter and said the signal was good, then went outside and ended up replacing the drop to my house. Different Frequencies for internet and cable in the same wire. After that he still had to change my Modem as it was bad also. Thats all good now.

 

[Ronald]

how old is the wire from the pole to the house? If it is older than 10 years I would tell them to replace it.

I don't even know, when a branch fell on it they used the same wire to reconnect things and that was at least 3-5 years ago.

Do you have digital cable or analog? If you don't know the difference, if you have a cable box then you have digital cable, if you don't have a box then you have analog cable.

It's digital, but I don't have HD if that matters.

Also, how do you have the wiring in your house, how old is it and in what condition? You most likely have splitter somewhere, do you know if it is a 2-way, 3-way or more?

The best way to do wiring like this is to take the wire that goes into your house and split it with a 2-way splitter, that way one lines goes to your cable/phone and the other goes to your tvs. If you have multiple TVs then take the line that is for your tvs and split it as needed, but don't split your internet line again.

It's a 2-way splitter - 1 line for the tv and 1 line for the modem. The cables and coax are all fairly new I think, probably less than 5-6 years old. I'm convinced that it's an outside issue though since the increasing temperatures seem to be the main factor.

Also, when you lose your internet, what does your modem do? You should have lights on the front of it, which ones are lit and which ones are not lit?

The power, US, and DS, lights flash. The rest (online, link, tele 1, and tele 2) are all out.

This is good, thanks for all your help so far guys! At least this time I'll have a few ideas I can bring up when the technician comes.

 

[85t5mcss]

Not that it helps, but here in the "Big City" I rarely have issues with the net. But I often have problems with TV and their On Demand. I've had the signal refresh or whatever they call it a few times this year. Seems to only happen while watching Top Shot.

 

[woowoo2]

The frustrating part is that it rarely happens to be out when a technician arrives, so they have a hard time trying to diagnose the issue.

Ask them if they have a data logger.
(Logs signal quality over time)

 

[Brandon]

im having issues with random channels right now. some will work only in hd, while others in regular def. only. no problems with the net though.

 

[04DarkShadowGT]

I dont have any issues with my comcast, but if you have had the same problems for 3 years it may be time to switch providers.

 

[Bskurt]

Comcrap is just giving him some kind of answer hoping he will accept it and go away. That is the cheapest solution for them and they really don't care if he is having problem. You need to insist they cut through the "heat" crap and fix the issue.

 

[bigworm]

u can check in your modem to see if the signal is strong enough by putting 192.168.100.1 in ie and looking through your modem

 

[badwolf.usmc]

This is good, thanks for all your help so far guys! At least this time I'll have a few ideas I can bring up when the technician comes.

It sounds like the modem might be bad. If the cable outside your home was bad you would lose everything, not just your internet/phone. I can explain why that is if you want.

Wiring less than 10 years old should still be good, that stuff lasts a long time depending on conditions, and your splitting of the cable is set up correctly. While it may be something outside the home, I'm willing to bet it is your cable modem that is bad.


Have you done a cold boot of your modem? Remove all power to the modem and remove the battery and leave it in that state for at least 2 minutes. That is about how long it takes to fully discharge all the memory. After doing so plug that battery back in and plug the power back into the modem.