Chris Pirillo » broadband

Scott Westerman is on the ball. I met him via Twitter last year when I was having problems with my local Comcast connection. He responded to me right away, and has done so much to bring customer service into the social media realm. Witness this recent email response, as sent to one of my viewers who was asking about some of Comcast’s offerings:

Chris shared your question about UVerse vs Comcast with me. I’m glad to try to help. You’re right that you can only record one program if you’re watching another with the Comcast DVR. Same story with Tivo. These guys are two tuner devices.
I know the Stockton guys personally, so if part of your reason for leaving our family was quality stuff, I can make sure your service QOS is bullet-proof. We’ve also got several enticing come-back offers for prodigals like you. If you’d like to talk about the options, I’d be happy to have someone reach out to you.
Some things that are on the horizon.
Later this year we’ll be launching a new technology called Tru 2 Way. If you buy a Tru 2 Way device (TV or DVR), you won’t need a cable box as the brains are all inside the device. All you’ll have to do is get a cable card and plug your TV into the coax jack. You will get a guide and can access the cool stuff like On Demand and PPV.. all without a cable box. Currently the first cable card is free, so you won’t have to pay us a monthly fee for it.
We’re also continually increasing our Internet speeds. DOCSIS 3.0 is on the horizon which will allow us to do the cool stuff like you may have read about in St. Paul.. 50 Megs and faster.
In most markets we’ve seriously increased the number of hours of HD On Demand content, too. Something like 2000 hours at the moment with a ton of it Free.
And finally, if you’re on Twitter, you’ve got instant access to guys like Frank (@comcastcares), Bill (@comcastBill), Bonnie (@comcastbonnie), and me (@comcastscott). We try to give special love to anybody Chris sends us. Google Frank Eliason to get a feel for how we’re trying to change the paradigm of what constitutes good customer care.
Hope this information is helpful. Don’t hesitate to ping me with questions or feedback.

It’s true. In fact, I’ll be beta testing the DOCSIS 3.0 modems in a few weeks – since they just became available in the Seattle area. I believe I’ll be pushing 50 down and 10 up soon!

How do You Test Mobile Broadband Speeds?

Chris — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:04:55 +0000

How do You Test Mobile Broadband Speeds? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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What tool do you use to benchmark your Internet connection speed? If you’re on a desktop, I know many of you use SpeedTest. But what about your mobile web experience? If you’re on an Edge connection, are you getting true Edge speeds? What about if you’re on a 3G connection, or even wifi?

iNetwork Test began with the creation of a basic iPhone web application that inferentially measured the speed of the network the device was connected to. The interest in the application was overwhelming with over half a million results collected to date. The need for reliable, easy to use mobile network testing solutions is one that will continue to grow as more mobile devices infiltrate the marketplace and newer, faster networks come online.
iNetwork Test is developing a suite of solutions for a variety of platforms starting with the iPhone and Android platforms. These tests are more reliable providing a true speed measurement at the lowest possible level of the stack as allowed by the various software development kits.

This service is free. Simply click “start test”, and a few seconds later it gives you results. It will ask you how you’re connected to the Internet, and gives you a more detailed answer based on your connection type. If there’s a question on whether or not you’re getting the speeds you are supposed to, this service will help. Doing one-offs isn’t really the best idea, because it won’t give you a good representation of your average speeds. Run the test at different times during the day. Try to keep as many variables the same as possible, also.

Also on the site, you can view other people’s connection speed results. Are people in your locale getting the same kinds of speeds as you? If not, you’ll know there could be a problem with your service that may needs to be addressed.

To my knowledge, this service is the only one that works for testing out your 3G and even Edge speeds. Maybe you know of something else? If you do, let me know about it, and I’ll be happy to check it out.

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Pay as you Go Internet… Good or Bad Idea?

Chris — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 06:55:54 +0000

Pay as you Go Internet… Good or Bad Idea? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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The only truth when it comes to Broadband here in America is that we don’t have enough. One community member wrote in to talk about the fact that he really doesn’t have any options for Broadband, other than Satellite. He generally uses his Internet in the middle of the night, when he isn’t subject to capping. The satellite truly isn’t much better than pre-1993 dial-up speeds. He’s asking about “pay as you go/use” Internet service, and what I think the future of it is.

This is just wrong to me, in more ways than one. For those of us who make our livlihood online, and who use it for more than just email, having limited access is damaging. You wouldn’t think Comcast would do this to you. You also wouldn’t think they’d traffic-shape. You also wouldn’t think they’d pay people to sit and sleep during the FCC hearings.

< silence >

Oh sorry. I was wasting your bandwidth there. I don’t know where my mind is. Do you understand what that could do? Do you get what they’re doing here? I wouldn’t put it past any large ISP to be doing this. It’s scary! If this happens, I can seriously see big companies start coming in to offer service that we need… such as Google or Microsoft. The ISPs would be in serious trouble at that point.

I use cable, because I do get better speeds with it. I have a DSL line that is dedicated to running the Live Stream. Heck, I know people who chose their place to live based on the type of Internet available to them.

Pay As You Go gives you the flexibility to use the Internet as much or as little as you like. You only pay for what you use. There are no monthly charges. Think of it like prepaid cell phone service. It’s the same time of plan and deals.

I don’t know. What do you guys think? If this were available, would you go for it? How reliable do you think it would be? Could Power Users ever be able to rely on it when doing business?

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ISP Tips

Chris — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 06:49:30 +0000

ISP Tips is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I recorded a video not long ago about Bandwidth Capping from ISPs. I have a top-five list of things to look for when looking for an ISP. Here are some tips sent in by Lundberry to help you choose the right ISP for you.

What is there reliability in your area? While this might seem obvious to ask you would be amazed at how many people will go with an unreliable ISP because they are cheap. Is your time worth more than a few extra dollars a month to have confidence that when you go online you’ll actually get what you want to.
What is the cost going to be? Is the cost to add a little extra speed and confidence that it will work reasonable and how does that compare to the competition.
Do you get what you pay for? When you pay for a 5Mbps connection do you actually get 5Mbps or do you get 2Mbps. These things will have an effect on how you feel about your investment in internet. You need to ask yourself if your using cable how many cable customers are around here and how will that effect my connection speeds.
What do you need? Do you really need a 20Mbps connection to do flickr a few times a week. I am surprised at how many people will upgrade to a superfast connection for no reason. You can use that extra money you save to get better hardware which will help you just as much as that speed increase your paying for.
Is it Comcast? This one is pretty self explanatory. Though for me Charter is my comcast but I still get raked over the coals in terms of various different things are done to me. For instance the fact that I pay for 5Mbps internet and average about 1Mbps. Or the fact that no matter what modem I use I never can get a consistant connection to the service. Ie. I don’t even get an IP address from my ISP.

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Tips for Choosing the Best ISP for your Needs

Chris — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 09:11:56 +0000

Tips for Choosing the Best ISP for your Needs is a post from Chris Pirillo

The other night, I was having difficulties once again with my Comcast connection. Within hours, two different people emailed me with their Top Five lists of ways to choose an ISP, and why. Here they are… hopefully they’ll help all of you. This list comes from Azaas in the live community.

Don’t fall for marketing. Commercials and trends are not the things you wanna take into consideration when you’re choosing for ISP.
Always read very carefully what you’re signing for. I don’t know if that applies to the states,but in Europe many customers have fallen for the “up to x MB ” thing. That means that your net speed can reach that point but most likely WON’T. So many people end up paying more for something that they could have purchased for less.
Take the time needed and do a research on how user friendly the ISP is. I was trying to contact my ISP for like 4 hours,through their emergency line, and noone would answer my god damn call. That,trust me when i say,should be ranked as one of the most important things you should be looking at an ISP.
Never trust a new company just because it offers great speeds at low prices. What you want is take advantage of the know-how of those old time classic ISPs and not having to put up with the numerous problems a new company will certainly face.If despite that you can’t resist those low costs,take the time and see what people,who are already customers,have to say about that specific ISP. Cost should certainly not be the only thing to take into account when choosing an ISP.
Last but not least… always read the small letters. When i dropped my old plan i got a notice that the router they had provided me with should be returned within a week or i’d have to pay a 300 euros fee. The thing is that i was leaving for Greece the very next day,so i had to change both mine and my gf’s plane tickets which had a cost of 420 euros more than what we had already paid.

The Comcast Virus

Chris — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 04:43:46 +0000

The Comcast Virus is a post from Chris Pirillo

You know, it just occurred to me: I don’t know a single person on this planet who likes Comcast. Seriously, there’s not an active OR inactive customer alive who could state anything other than dismay and general malaise for the bandwidth delivery juggernaut.

Why, look at what they did with your beloved TechTV and then ask yourself: should we be in the least bit surprised that they’re ruining the Internet for many of their customers?

Oh, taste the sweet irony lingering thick in the air – as I’m keying this post through my own Comcast connection, given very little choice for any other type of broadband in my neck of the woods. For you see, America is not about freedom of choice so much as it is “freedom for those who can afford to influence laws and regulations to make choices for you.”

I can’t cut off my nose to spite my face, but I also won’t sit around pretending like Comcast is awesome. They’re knowingly, willingly blocking traffic.

What’s particularly insidious about Comcast’s packet forging is that it’s transparent to both its customers and those on the opposite ends of the connection. Applications such as BitTorrent and Gnutella retain some of their functionality, but they’ll also appear to malfunction for no apparent reason.

They’re killing legit network traffic, too:

When Lotus Notes users attempt to send e-mail with larger attachments over Comcast’s network, Notes will drop its connection. Instead of a successfully sent e-mail, they’re greeted with the error message, “Remote system no longer responding.” Kanarski did some digging and has managed to verify that Comcast’s reset packets are the culprit. Instead of passing the legitimate e-mail through its network, Comcast’s traffic monitoring tool (likely Sandvine) is sitting in the middle, imitating both ends of the connection, and sending reset packets to both client and server.

That’s Comcastic!

Comcast Internet Problem: Part II

Chris — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 10:54:51 +0000

Comcast Internet Problem: Part II is a post from Chris Pirillo

Tonight, after phoning up Comcast business support for the third time in five hours on the same issue, I came to blows with the CSR. The promised technician had not yet arrived, and I was getting more than impatient.

My connection kept going up and down, but by the time I was able to speak with someone in the support department, everything was fine again. “Well, sir, we’re not showing any problems with your connection right now.” Yes, it’s fine right now – but not when I try to open up more than one Internet app. I was even having issues with Vonage and Skype…

“Well, sir, we can’t be responsible for programs that we do not officially supp…”

Whoa, whoa, whoa – WAIT A MINUTE! I interrupted him, loudly. I’ve been using Skype and Vonage and streaming live video and doing all sorts of wacky things across my home network and never had an issue I wasn’t expecting to experience. Vonage wasn’t the problem. Skype wasn’t the problem. My browser wasn’t the problem. The Netgear gateway router that Comcast gave me was the problem.

I told him everything that I had tried, including connecting Windows XP, Windows Vista, and OS X directly to the router – with the same results. He kept coming back to the position that there was no problem on his end. He was feeling a bit threatened, I think, when he asserted that if the deployed serviceperson did not discover that Comcast was to blame for this problem, I would be receiving a bill for that time – and that I should not be shocked if that should happen.

If all else fails: blame the user.

Dude. That’s not the way to treat a customer, business class or otherwise – especially on the first day of their new service. I’m not claiming that the customer is always right, but when that customer gives you more than enough troubleshooting information that you promptly ignore…?

Just before Midnight, someone finally showed up on my doorstep. He was in good spirits and was genuinely friendly – my ideal serviceperson. We walked to “home network central” and switched out the Netgear router for an SMC one. After that, he volunteered that the Netgears were absolute junk and that Comcast wasn’t listening to him or the other technicians about the problem.

Comcast knowingly gave me a crappy experience. Comcastic, indeed.

So far, the SMC router has been working quite well (only a couple of random IRC disconnections, but nothing major). I’ve run speed tests and can tell you that throughput has improved on a massive scale. But the best part of this entire situation is twofold:

The most recent technician who installed the SMC router gave me his direct number without me asking for it – and you bet I’ll be giving him a call whenever something seems wonky on the network beyond my walls.
If you searched the Web for Comcast router problems – or Comcast Netgear problems – you’ll have likely discovered a solution in this post: AVOID USING THEM. I had plenty of discussions tonight to underscore my belief that some of these ISP-serviced modems cannot handle home network traffic very well at all.

Here’s to hoping that tomorrow will be a faster day…

Comcast Business Internet: Bad Business Decision?

Chris — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 04:37:29 +0000

Comcast Business Internet: Bad Business Decision? is a post from Chris Pirillo

Comcast came out to install my business connection today (a day later than originally scheduled, might I add). The good news is that I have been getting better than anticipated download and upload speeds. The bad news is… the connection is flaky, the router is buggy, and I can’t use Skype on Windows or connect to IRC from any computer on the connection.

They gave me a Netgear gateway router with a static IP. To this, I connected my Airport Extreme – which seemed to work well enough, with the Apple hardware automatically detecting and fixing a networking (NAT) conflict before it was applied. If only the Netgear router were half as user friendly.

Trouble first began when I tried to hop into the chat room – and couldn’t. Not from any IRC client. Not from any computer. Not from any operating system. Not directly connected to the new router. Not directly connected to the Airport. Every once in a while, I’d get through – but then would be quickly disconnected again.

Web sites would pull up fine, seemingly – but friends have been reporting that my instant messaging accounts have been popping online and offline intermittently throughout the afternoon, evening, and into the night. Yes, I’ve wasted an entire day with this mess – and the only thing I have to blame is Comcast and their lousy (read: cheap) choice for hardware.

I called the business support phone number this afternoon to see if they could help me through the problem, and they just told me to unplug it for 15 seconds. “Yes, I did that.” “Do it again.” Fine. The first CSR stated that he adjusted something on his end, but was completely devoid of any understanding of what he actually did (if anything). I hoped that would have fixed the problem, but it didn’t.

The technician clipped the stem from the end of my coaxial cable, claiming that it may have been too long beforehand. It was never an issue before today, I tell you. Doubt that’s at the root of my problem though, otherwise I’d probably not be online at all. He also mumbled something into the phone when he was speaking with someone at the central office (when setting up my static IP) – something about these new Netgear routers being flaky for him.

So, I called them again around 6pm – knowing that I have 24/7 support. Quite simply, I demanded that they take back the Netgear gateway router in exchange for their SMC one. If that doesn’t fix the problems I’m having, then I’m gonna have to go with a dynamic IP and a regular ol’ modem (without having to spoof a MAC address).

They said there would be someone out to my house with a replacement modem this evening, but it’s 9:30pm and nobody’s been here. I lost an entire day of productivity and gained absolutely nothing but frustration from this experience – and the ordeal is still not over. I’m about to phone them up again to see what’s happening.

Unacceptable, Comcast – completely unacceptable.

My FAX to the Comcast Business Unit

Chris — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 19:36:09 +0000

My FAX to the Comcast Business Unit is a post from Chris Pirillo

Apparently, we’re going to be charged for Internet services we have not used for the better part of a month – all because we did not send you a statement in written form (according to your CSR, by phone, a few minutes ago).

We were planning on moving out of Comcast’s area at one point, which is when we initially notified you about closing the business account. You allegedly told Ponzi that she would need to submit the request in writing. She tells me you never asked for that, and I certainly don’t recall hearing about it when I called back a few weeks later to confirm our business account had been closed.

Either way, you’re telling me that I’m wrong and you’re right – and I have virtually no way to prove it. Playing “he said, she said” just wastes more time, energy, and money. Consider this a completely formal request to ONCE AGAIN CLOSE OUR BUSINESS ACCOUNT WITH COMCAST.

Thank you.

Vonage Sucks

Chris — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 22:25:21 +0000

Vonage Sucks is a post from Chris Pirillo

Vonage doesn’t live up to the hype – end of story. Hussey’s getting huffy about it, too. Tris is dropping Vonage and having to incur a $150 disconnection fee in the process! It’s as easy to get out of the contract as it is to get motherf*cking snakes off a motherf*cking plane:

Now for the why. I wasn’t able to have consistently good quality calls. I tried to put up with it and thought it might just be network congestion. But this week and last I’ve had to be on the phone with tech support people a bunch and had to do most of it on my cell. Not good. It’s not a good sign when the cell call sounds better! Yes, I tried tweaking my router. Yes, I had my line checked. But hey, I’m online all the time. I just a lot of bandwidth day to day. It’s rather annoying to have to shutdown download just to answer the phone … and it still suck.

The only people who call our Vonage number anymore are telemarketers. I’ve got a cell phone and line lines for the show. Don’t think I’m too hip on keeping that Vonage number around for too much longer.

More of AOL’s Free Crap

Chris — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 18:45:43 +0000

More of AOL’s Free Crap is a post from Chris Pirillo

Going out on a limb here, but… “When the Internet first became available outside of educational institutions, workaday users needed some kind of friendly interface to get online. Trumpet Winsock was an absolute nightmare to explain (and configuring Kermit was far more unfriendly). However, AOL needs to wake up to the fact that users no longer need advertising-laden software to get themselves online. Offering me â€œusefulâ€�? software thatâ€™s just as riddled with advertisements is not a step in the right direction…”

How to Handle Remote Tech Support

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Using GoToAssist is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party.

Network Tools for Windows

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You need these network tools, no matter which operating systems and networks you have to support. SolarWinds ipMonitor: Affordable Network Monitoring for SMBs. Get turnkey network, server and application availability monitoring with SolarWinds ipMonitor v9.0. This easy-to-use, reliable solution for SMBs delivers out-of-the-box availability monitoring so you always know exactly what's up with Active Directory, DNS, Exchange, FTP, Web, IMAP, MS SQL Server, and SMTP. Download your free trial today. Or, try their totally free tools! And, through 2/29, save 20% when you purchase ipMonitor 9.0.

Get Your Own Web Site

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VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMT

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