Recently, I “downgraded” my Comcast service from Business to Residential – largely because I got more speed for less money, and I wasn’t anticipating coming anywhere near the 250GB cap. I hate artificial ceilings, but that’s the price I pay for paying less of a price?

I know I don’t knowingly download 250GB worth of data every month – I’m not THAT hardcore.

However, that 250GB cap is for all transfers (upload AND download) – and it’s not just for email and Web browsing, but everything. EVERYTHING. I was reminded of this when I read the article by another local boy about how Comcast is totally screwing him. Completely.

Since I record a TON of videos for YouTube, and most of my production is remote, I rely on Dropbox to better facilitate content for the channel. I connect to Dropbox from more than one machine (and, yes, LAN sync is always on). Either way, I push a lot of bits down the pike (before editing) – and a lot of bits get pushed back to me (after editing).

Tonight, as I was recording more videos for the YouTube, someone suggested that Dropbox was causing me to push my limit:

I’m guessing that user is 100% correct. I immediately disconnected Dropbox from one of my computers and cleared out certain folders (without realizing ramifications, causing further consternation). Video is bandwidth intensive – and not just when you’re wanting to watch it. I know I have likely pushed and pulled extraneous gigabytes of video data in these two weeks on Comcast’s Residential Class service.

Thank goodness my offsite “online backup” option stopped working a while back, or I’d have been in twice as much trouble by now. Could you imagine? I mean, how frequently do you see online backup services advertised everywhere? I wouldn’t recommend an online backup service if you’re dealing with a data cap, that’s for sure. No way in hell.

So, to put a finer point on my alarmist headline: be forewarned about using ANY KIND OF data-intensive service (like Dropbox or any online backup option).

Comcast – ease up there, dude. You’re screwing some of us out of very useful services.

I realize I’m probably more of a business user at this point, but your new Business Class prices are nowhere within the realm of reasonable – that’s why I “downgraded” (and got better speed in the process). Y’all need to set up some kind of in-between “Producer” or “Prosumer” level. We don’t want your Exchange or email crap – we just want no data caps for us to push legitimate traffic around.

I’m obviously willing to spend money – we all are. But you have to match our needs better (especially if we have “no choice” but to go through you as a broadband provider for home).

Now, I should also take this time to tell you that Comcast really isn’t horrible – at least, not the people I’ve dealt with. They accidentally turned off my service for 24 hours this week. A technician saw me flagged as a former Business subscriber and he accidentally killed all of my services (TV, Internet) – until I tracked someone down later that day to get to the bottom of the problem. By the following afternoon, they realized it was their issue (since my business connection existed at the same place as my residence). Comcast is now going to offer me a refund for some outstanding charges. It was their mistake, but they cleaned it up – with a good degree of speed and candor.

Seems like they’ve got another mistake on their hands, here, by ignoring power producers who aren’t pirating anything. I doubt anybody at corporate is going to pay attention to my plight – and they’ve obviously done their best to ignore Andre’s. If you’d like to read more about what happened to another Seattle-area Comcast subscriber, he’s detailed the literal post mortem in a complete ‘Day After’ blog entry.

There is no competition with Comcast – they’re pretty much the only game in town in certain areas of Seattle, and that sucks (for consumers and power users, at least). I don’t even want to get into the headaches my neighbors have had with the problematic Netgear routers Comcast keeps passing off for them to use. That’s another battle for another day.

*knock knock* Anybody there?

Comcast 250GB Cap? Avoid Dropbox or Online Backup!

Usually when an ISP is discussed, it is directly related to how fast their speeds are or how good their customer service may be. I often see someone get angry with their provider and Tweet out that they are planning a switch to someone new. We take for granted the fact that there are many choices and options out there, but that isn’t always the case. What happens when there are no choices? How is it possible that in this day and age there are still fairly large cities with a monopoly in place?

Look at Indianapolis, for example. It’s not a small town… we’re talking a population of 829,718. This is the eleventh largest city in the United States according to the 2010 census, yet my assistant Kat has spent hours attempting to find alternatives to Bright House and AT&T. There is nothing there, unless they want to fork over $200.00 per month for a T1 line. She’d absolutely love to have one of those, but like most of you out there – it’s not in her budget. I find it incredulous that in today’s cutthroat ISP market there is nothing else there for her to choose from.

Indy isn’t alone, either. There are large cities all across this fair country of ours who have to deal with utility monopolies. Most of the time, this is in the form of electricity and natural gas providers. Living here in Seattle, I guess I simply didn’t realize that there are still places where you are stuck with one company for your high-speed Internet service, as well.

I know that Kat and others like her should be grateful to have access to a broadband connection at all, and I know that she is. There are still millions of people in this country alone who don’t even have that option, and that’s something that the FCC is trying to address. This rant is more aimed at the fact that we shouldn’t have to deal with such monopolies in 2011, no matter what form it takes.

Are you on a proverbial desert island when it comes to choices for your ISP or other utility services? Let us hear from you in the comments.

Do You Have a Broadband Choice?

I’m a relatively-happy Comcast customer. When the service works, it works well enough. It’s not amazing, and I certainly would define “comcastic” differently than they do.

I have a couple of their DVRs in my home, and I use them regularly enough. I would certainly use them more if the interface wasn’t so god-dammned awful, mind you – but at least I can get to Premium and HD content in a few clicks.

When I first heard that they had released an Xfinity remote control app for iOS devices (iPad, iPhone, iPod touch), I was beside myself with elation. Finally, I could use an elegant UI to navigate and control my programming options! Kinda.

Turns out, I needed to upgrade my DVRs to experience this new level of comcasticness. While I would never expect them to offer replacement boxes up front, I (seriously) expected to log into my account via the app and be offered to upgrade from there.

Did that happen? HARDLY.

No, instead, I had to re-confirm that I didn’t have the right DVRs from their Web site. “MyTV DVR Manager is available in your area. However, we are unable to detect a compatible DVR in your household. Please refer to the FAQ or contact us at 1-800-COMCAST for assistance.” They didn’t offer to upgrade me there, either – and I wasn’t about to jump into a freakin’ phone call.

I jump around every page on their site looking for a way to upgrade my DVR – only, that page doesn’t exist. If it does, they don’t throw it in your face when, say, you’re confirming that you don’t have the DVR that you are obviously trying to use!

Finally (don’t ask me how), I found my way into an online chat session – after filling out the exact same information they already had on record from my logged-in account. This was starting to get overly tedious.

I was greeted with a rather comcastic Java chat app – who the *hell* still uses Java for this kind of thing? JavaScript, yo – check it out. Anyway, at least I could see that there were 7 people ahead of me in the queue. That was nice.

I jump to another page, then back to the chat page – only to find it completely wiped out (and an error message in the status bar). I had to start the chat session all over again, after filling out the redundant form (once more). Then, after waiting a few minutes and finally getting connected to a rep, I accidentally clicked over to a new tab and… wiped out the session again.

Third time’s the charm? Yeah, despite being on a pretty good computer, I forced myself from multitasking until the chat was finished. I was a bit miffed by then, but at least the representative was armed with knowledge and quite kind in his / her demeanor. Which brings me to my point(s):

The reason why these large companies have customer service issues isn’t necessarily because their CSRs are bad, but their software and customer experience IS. I should NEVER have interfaced with a rep to get this done; Comcast had several opportunities to provide a targeted upgrade opportunity, whether on the iOS devices or through the “DVR Manager” page.

Long story short: if you want to upgrade your Comcast DVR, you’re better off just connecting directly with someone in online chat (if it works for you). Don’t expect Comcast to deliver a new DVR to you unless you ask for it, specifically. It shouldn’t cost you anything to do, since you’re renting the DVR equipment from them in the first place. They actually should offer to either: (a) send the replacement to you, with a return kit for the old boxes; or (b) point you to a local office to facilitate the exchange in-person.

How to Upgrade Your Comcast DVR

Things sure are shaking up around the Digg offices this week. On his first official day as CEO, Kevin Rose has laid out a few interesting changes which should vastly improve the popular social networking site. The DiggBar we have all come to hate is going to finally disappear in the upcoming version of the site. Additionally, all previously banned domains will have their restrictions removed – not including those sites with malicious intent.

With surprising candor, Rose admitted that the toolbar was a mistake from the beginning. “Framing content with an iFrame is bad for the Internet. It causes confusion when bookmarking, breaks w/iFrame busters, and has no ability to communicate with the lower frame. It’s an inconsistent/wonky user experience.”

Both of these are positive moves for the site in my humble opinion. I have read thousands of rants regarding the toolbar, and I have a feeling that no one is going to miss it. Do you Digg? Are you looking forward to the changes? If so, you can sign up to beta-test the new version now. If you do, let us know what you think!

• Is Chrome a privacy concern?
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• Are you still happy with Windows 7?
• What voice recognition software do you recommend?
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• There really are people who still use AOL!

Your computer will “Digg” the hottest new software and apps that we’ve placed on our software center.

Goodbye iFrame Toolbar – Hello Sites Now Unbanned on Digg.

Mozilla announced yesterday that the much-antipiacted Weave Sync is finally ready for the general market. Using it will allow you to sync your Mozilla experience across all of your supported devices, including your desktop, your laptop and your mobile phone.

Any pages open within Firefox on your desktop will automagically open in the mobile version. At the end of your workday, you can walk away from your desk, and continue right where you left off from your phone. All of the information is encrypted and sent through the Cloud between your desktop and your phone. This could potentially increase productivity, allowing you to finish up last-minute details and projects while riding home on the bus or train – but not while driving!

This is excellent news for many Firefox fans, and I was very happy to read this news today. There have also been many excellent things posted in our community. I’ve gathered together some of the best, in the hopes you don’t miss out on anything!

• As of March 1st, Google will no longer support Internet Explorer 6.
• How safe is your home?
• Could the “leaked” Windows 8 ship dates be true?!
• What is behind the psychology of voting?
• What advice do you have for someone just entering the IT field?
• Comcast is asking for IPv6 volunteers.
• OpenSUSE needs a new community manager.
• What types of hobbies do you have that involve your computer?
• Should Punxsutawney Phil be replaced by a robotic groundhog?
• Could the iPad be an in-flight dream come true?
• Can blocking a frown keep bad feelings away?
• Do you need open-source tax preparation software?
• Where do you turn when looking for compatible hardware to buy?
• Smokers are at risk from their own second-hand smoke.

Don’t forget to stop by our software center to check out the newest software deals we have for you!

Firefox Weave Sync Add-On Now Available

I noticed a little while ago that my friend Mark Horvath mentioned that he somehow lost a day, and it’s now Thursday. Well, let’s correct that. Since it’s well after midnight now, it’s actually Friday already! How the heck did that happen? I swear the week just started. You’re telling me it’s over already?!

I know I didn’t accomplish everything I set out to get done this week. Did you? How does the time slip away so fast during this time of year? The holidays are creeping in closer and faster, and I’m not ready yet! I haven’t hung my stocking. I haven’t finished decorating my house. I haven’t baked cookies for Santa yet!!! How am I supposed to get any work done with all of these uber-important things hanging over me? Heck – let’s not even TALK about shopping for presents!

TGIF, everyone!

• Just how risky is that domain?
• What are some great gifts to give Geeks?
• Concentrate on impressing your co-workers, instead of your boss.
• How do you manage to express your thoughts when you don’t think it’s possible to?
• Don’t deal with pushy phone reps. Cancel any contract easily.
• Is Google the future of the news?
• What netbook is best for a college student?
• Is DirectX11 living up to the hype?
• QWERTY vs Dvorak – what do you use?
• Google wants to be your public DNS provider.
• Check out the hottest new apps and software, at excellent prices.
• It’s official – Google has expanded to offering the kitchen sink.
• Microsoft has started a new Bing campaign.
• Comcast buys NBC – does anyone care?
• Apple has set their sales goals for 2010.

How Did Friday Get Here Already?

With all the talk of the new Miscrosoft commercials in Europe and the Pre wanting to co-exist with the iPhone, I can’t help but thinking about commercials in general. What’s your favorite technology-related commercial on television? You do remember what TV is, right? Do you love that annoying (yet catchy) Comcast song? Or are you more inclined to watch the Dell laptop commercials over and over? Let’s hear your thoughts!

• The Microsoft ad department isn’t very popular in Europe right now.
• What were your thoughts on Chris Brogan’s Gnomedex presentation?
• Is Microsoft supporting head transplants?
• Scams happen to smart people who do stupid things.
• Lazyfeed is a go!
• The Pre wants to be in iPhone commercials – what?!
• Can Yahoo outsmart Microsoft?
• Do we really want AppCenter on Ubuntu?

What’s Your Favorite Commercial?

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A recent green screen challenge that I put forth to the community was about Gnomedex attendance. The response was hugely, partly because the winning video was shown on Comcast’s local station here in Seattle. Yes – it appears on television! The winner also received a complimentary pass to Gnomedex itself.

After a slew of entries, a lot of laughing on my part, and much deliberation… here is your winner: ArtificialError. Excellent work on this and thanks for entering!

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Are You Coming to Gnomedex?

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This week, I’m taking the Green Screen Challenge a step or two further than usual! Normally, I make a blog post, showcasing a few of my favorite entries. This time around, you can actually win a couple of very cool things!

The challenge: Create a Gnomedex commercial! My annual Gnomedex conference is only five weeks away, and it’s shaping up to be the best one yet! To help spread the excitement, I want you to come up with your very own Gnomedex commercial. Be as creative and innovative as you can – but please keep Creative Commons licensing in mind. We don’t want any legal troubles.

So what will you potentially win? I’m so glad you asked! Next week, I will choose one winner from all of the entries submitted via video response. That person will win two very cool “prizes”…

• Have your commercial featured on television! Yes, that’s right – on television. The winning entry will be featured on the Seattle-area Comcast network!! Your name will of course be prominent, giving credit (and maybe fame?!) where credit is due.
• Win a full-access pass to the Gnomedex conference! If you are over 18 and can pay your own travel/hotel/expenses, you can find yourself right in the middle of things during Gnomedex. It’s an amazing conference, and attending can literally change your life by giving you new perspectives and ways of thinking outside the proverbial box. Of course, if you cannot attend, you can do as you wish with the ticket – sell it to someone else, or give it away to someone who might not otherwise be able to attend.

If you aren’t sure yet how to work with these videos, make sure you check out the tutorial I wrote awhile back.

I’m very excited to see what everyone is going to come up with. Based on past entries for our weekly challenge, I know that the level of creativity out there in our community is astounding. Have fun with this – and good luck to everyone!

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Gnomedex Green Screen Challenge: Your Commercial Could be on TV!

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When was the last time you gave your time to your community – volunteering for something? The last time I did something was at ComcastCares Day. It was a tent set up by Comcast, staffed by local social media folks. We were spreading the message of the power of social media specifically to non-profit organizations. We taught them how to use outlets such as Twitter and Facebook to get their message across.

Maybe you want to volunteer your time and resources in your community – but you just don’t know where to start. Maybe you want to host your own Volun-Tweetup. Or maybe you want to do something a bit different. You can now check out All for Good. This site will help you connect with local volunteer opportunities. It’s non-partisan, nothing political is involved. It doesn’t matter what party you may belong to – what matters is that you want to help others.

All for Good is a simple-to-use web application that helps you find volunteer opportunities in your local community. You can get started by entering search terms (e.g. “seniors” or “education”) at the top of the All for Good home page. Once you enter these initial keywords you’ll be taken to a page of relevant results based on your keyword(s) and location.

Tap into your passions when looking for something to volunteer your time with. Your community needs you. If you’re doing nothing this weekend… why not look for a way you can help? You’ll not only be helping others, you’ll feel good about yourself… and maybe meet some new friends.

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How Do You Find Volunteer Opportunities in Your Community?

Well, either this story will make you laugh or cringe (or both).

According to the Arizona Daily Star, Tucson-area cable TV broadcasted porn during the Super Bowl:

A short clip of a pornographic movie cut into a Comcast broadcast of the Super Bowl in homes in and around Tucson. Officials at Comcast confirmed that its signal was interrupted during the Super Bowl, but the company is still working to figure out how porn broke into its cable feed. Engineers at Comcast will be working throughout the night to determine what happened, said Kelle Maslyn, a Comcast spokeswoman.

Well, this would certainly top the infamous Janet Jackson / Justin Timberlake flash from a few years back. I suppose that it could have been worse, too (imagine if the interruption had been a full-on Rick Roll).

This report also states that Comcast’s digital feed was untouched – only the analog / standard TV signal was affected. Let this be a lesson to you laggards: UPGRADE TO DIGITAL, ALREADY.

Obviously, Comcast will have to answer a very important question: how the heck did this happen?! They’ve been accused of traffic shaping, but now they’re going to be accused of broadcasting immorality? Well, traffic shaping IS immoral…

Anyway, I’m sure the amount of complaints were equal: 50% complained that it happened, and 50% complained that they didn’t show enough. Mitch Wagner from Information Week wrote more on the subject.

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Comcast Broadcasts Porn During Super Bowl

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!

Comcast Customer Service is Getting Personal?

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So I was sitting there in my chair, taking calls on the 888-PIRILLO line. Normally, the callers have a tech-related question to ask. I was shocked when this caller identified himself not only as a fan… but also as the guy who snapped pictures of a Comcast Tech sleeping on his couch!

Chris and his family were having issues with their DVR. They called Comcast, and waited a few days for a Technician to come out. The guy shows up finally, looks around, and then says he had to go into the basement to check everything out down there. About an hour later, they went downstairs to see why he was taking so long… they found the Tech sleeping on the futon on his son’s pillow!!

Chris then woke up the Tech to ask what he was doing. The Tech claimed that he was on hold on the phone. About half an hour later, he went back down there… and found the Tech sleeping AGAIN. Chris made him leave the house, outraged. The Tech then went outside and got in his truck, propped up his feet, and spent a half an hour on the phone. He didn’t fix anything. He didn’t leave any paperwork, nothing. Chris called Comcast to complain, and wasn’t even given an apology. Comcast simply told him they’d be out again in a few days.

The next day, the family returned home from an outing, to find all the cable wires on the side of their house had been cut OFF. All of them had been completely cut through. He called Comcast, and they claimed they had never done anything… but did admit that the Technician who had slept in his house had gotten fired. Strange coincidence? I think not. Chris called Comcast again, and asked them to come reconnect and fix everything… and was told he had to wait two to three days!

Long story short… they contacted the local news companies, who didn’t believe him until he showed them pictures. He then switched companies, and ditched Comcast altogether.

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Comcast Technician Falls Asleep: The Interview

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So this telemarketer from Comcast called me the other night. He attempted to sell me their Triple Play package. He kept letting me know how much I needed their services… even though I already have them. Once it became apparent that the guy had no clue what their services actually ARE and what they DO… I decided to have fun with him.

You’ll hear me tease the guy, and ask him if I can get the Traffic Shaping “feature” with my order. He, of course, had no idea what that even was. I was astounded. For anyone else who may not know, let’s see what Wikipedia has to say:

Traffic shaping (also known as “packet shaping”) is an attempt to control computer network traffic in order to optimize or guarantee performance, low latency, and/or bandwidth by delaying packets. More specifically, traffic shaping is any action on a set of packets (often called a stream or a flow) which imposes additional delay on those packets such that they conform to some predetermined constraint (a contract or traffic profile). Traffic shaping provides a means to control the volume of traffic being sent into a network in a specified period (bandwidth throttling), or the maximum rate at which the traffic is sent (rate limiting), or more complex criteria such as GCRA. This control can be accomplished in many ways and for many reasons; however traffic shaping is always achieved by delaying packets. Traffic shaping is commonly applied at the network edges to control traffic entering the network, but can also be applied by the traffic source (for example, computer or network card) or by an element in the network. Traffic policing is the distinct but related practice of packet dropping and packet marking.

Accusations of Comcast shaping traffic has been widely publicized lately. On Monday, there will actually be a special meeting of the FCC to discuss this exact claim. The main discussion will be focused on “network neutrality and traffic shaping”. It will be interesting to see what affect this meeting could end up having on the way traffic shaping is applied.

This past Friday, another Class Action Lawsuit was filed against Comcast. While Comcast insisting their brand of network management is “reasonable” might thwart the FCC’s investigation into the practice, the courts may see things differently. According to a statement from the law firm involved, Comcast is misleading customers by saying they offer the “fastest Internet connection,” because the ISP “intentionally blocks or impedes its customer’s access to peer-to-peer file sharing.”

Of course, Comcast is defending its practices. While the company finally admits that its doing some traffic shaping, it’s clearly gearing up to fight any allegation that it was wrong in its actions. As Broadband Reports notes, the company uses the word “reasonable” over 40 times. That’s no surprise, since the FCC has said that it would allow “reasonable” network practices. It also uses some questionable metaphors for its actions suggesting that forging packets (oops, sorry, “resets”) are perfectly normal activity, comparing it to a fax machine getting a busy signal.

So… what do you think? Should the FCC be cracking down on this? Or is Comcast just possibly in the right? Leave me a follow-up comment, or send me an email to chris@pirillo.com, and share your thoughts.

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Telemarketing: Comcast’s Traffic Shaping Feature

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation (or EFF) has found Comcast guilty of traffic shaping. This is a practice where Comcast intentionally slows down your internet connection. The program they used to detect this shaping is an open-source application called WireShark. Apparently, Comcast feels that they need to interrupt some of their customer’s connections a bit if they think the customer may be using lets say BitTorrent to download perfectly legal Linux Distros. Or, maybe the customer is like me and sends tons of data up and down… legally and legitimately… in the course of business.

This is kinda sad. It’s kinda scary. It’s kinda sickening. Well… it makes me…

Yeah. It’s “Comcastic”.

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Comcast Makes Me Gag