So...

[per_solo]

Anyone know where I can get a dependable cable modem?

It occured to me last night (as it does now and then), that I'm basically losing a LOT of money by renting a cable modem from Comcast for every month, for the last..what, 5 years?

The only reason I'm seriously considering is I think that mine is starting to crap out a tad...usually at lesat once a day, it'll just lose signal, then start coming back...and, well, if it's the modem, then I'd just as soon replace it...Comcast at one point made an offer to, but that involves being charged for a "house call", and I'd as soon avoid that as possible.

Because really, with renting this cable modem, I've spent enough to have bought it, a few times by now, I think.

Other than that? not much going on..hooked as hell on FFIX...am going to finish that at some point..right now, am going through and doing the side quests and such...waiting for Frogs to spawn. :-P

Dinner tonite with Uncles, then Orientation tomorrow at IUPUI, so if I"m quiet and appear to have disappeared, pay it no mind...all is going as it should.

Tried a Soy Chai Latte today...was pretty darn good, if I do say so, and I do.

Nothing else to really update right now.

Comments

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Go to http://www.newegg.com and search for "cable modem". You'll have to click on the "modem" category result to refine it, but even on the first page there were several name brands between $48 and $60, including DLink and Motorola.

[per_solo]

Thanks. :-)

[echoweaver.livejournal.com]

You don't need a house call to get your modem replaced. Jeeze. We have Comcast, and we went and picked our replacement up. The whole point to renting the modem is that they're guarateeing it will work, and if it doesn't, they're required to make sure you have something that works. I don't know what the rep you talked to is smoking.

Something to keep in mind -- Comcast upgraded its network a while back, and the older modems stopped working so well. So, if you buy one, you may have to replace it at your own expense if they do another upgrade.

[thedruidbear.livejournal.com]

They do not charge "house calls" to swap out equipment they they own and you are leasing. So, call them and get them to replace it. Otherwise, check with CCity and BBuy and see what kind of specials they are running. We got our Linksys for around $40 (after rebates). It would have been FREE if we were NEW Comcast customers.

Anyway, we decided to buy ours for pretty much the same reason, we paid for it 4 times over. The difference was they were were not having line troubles. It sounds to me like you are either getting a weak signal or too much noise on the line. You might be able to go to: http://192.168.100.1/ and look at your signal strength and dB levels. One of Kat's friends works for Comcast and showed me that. There are also pages out there that show you how to create a log so you can see WHY it is dropping. If it is the line, get Comcast to fix that first. We had them run a seperate line from the box outside the house (they did this at no charge) to fix the noise problems we were having. Once the line was clean again, we stopped dropping. A year later, we bought our cable modem.

Just a thought,

Peace,

Bear

I am that masked Comcast tech

[royalcrow.livejournal.com]

MUHAHAHAHA!!!!! screeching to a stop on his trusty 270 (my old truck number) it is I - Tech 792... mild manner phone support tech - but rogue avenger of all that is wicked in RF at night. :)

Yes, check to see what your RF (Radio Frequency) is doing behind the modem.

Some items to look at (not sure what modem you have)... but that IP address gives you access to the internal webpage of the modem. You will be interested in 3 things, Downstream power level - this is the measure in dbmv of signal strength coming into your modem. The range should be between -10 and +5. Just like anything sometimes in colder weather you can actually have TOO much signal strength and that causes noise - think of a pair of speakers rated at 200 watts hooked up to an 800 watt system. It probably sounds pretty decent at some of the lowest settings - but as you increase so does the rumble, and the thuddyness until finally the true audio is so squashed it just can not be heard.

Second, SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) This is the measure of 'headroom' you have concerning the true signal and ambient noise - everything including the earth causes noise, this measure if the space of the signal above that 'noise floor'. You need to be better than 30db and anything above 35 is pretty damn good. Most of the time you will probably see about 33 to 34.

The last thing is transmit power strength. This item is how hard the modem has to work to talk back to our service. Many factors can influence this and the other two above items. Knowing where you live - there is a high probability you are having problems with ingress being the broadcast towers for 3 of the major tv stations are like out your front door. Check to see if channel 6, 95, 8 all come in clear and are not tv stations WISH TV, WRTV or you hear Q95 on channel 95. These can be cleaned up with just tightning the fitting at the wall plate and all your connected devices - TV, Modem...

The issue with transmit power is that is also the path that your requests get out to the network - so a modem that is working too hard or not hard enough will cause issues. The transmit power should be above 33 but below 56.. perferably between 35 and 51. If they are close to the max at 58 then you will have issues - such as what was going on with Echo. The problem is if the temperature rises above 68 degrees then it gets harder for the modem to talk back to the service.. due to attenuation (just like electricity - electrons like cold because it takes less energy to jump from one copper atom to another, knowing that it is December now - this probably is not the case.... but being you are in an apartment - you are sharing that same 'drop connection' with others in the building and each time the line gets split - the modem has to make up the difference in the signal drop.

If these are in line, there might be an error log on the modem - see how many resets or lost syncs are showing. If you like, shoot me an email and i will check out the modem from work and get with you if needed to setup a trouble call. I know the techs in your area and also the supervisor. We can get it cleared up hopefully.

But that is about all I can think of at this moment.

One question - what type, model modem do you have? My other suggestion is if you get your own modem, Linksys and Motorola are excellent modems - I know that Dlink is fairly inexpensive, but most times it is a price leader and there were a couple of times where Dlink modems had to be taken back to the store to have firmware reflashed to work with our system. I personally have a Motorola and also the one that was installed at Kat's is the same one and has been going strong for over 3 years without a hickup. Can't beat a testimonial like that ;-)

Hope this helps - anyone who might have a cable modem, the only difference between systems is just the frequency used, and the mapping of the devices in the network. They all have to conform to the same Cable Labs standards for DOCSIS compliance.

Catch ya later,
Tony

Re: I am that masked Comcast tech

[royalcrow.livejournal.com]

forgot to mention - There is no service charge for a truck roll unless the tech comes out and decides that there is a problem with your personal equipment (computer,network, something causing the issue that was not installed by comcast - and only on those cases most techs will only do that if you are being a pest about it - multiple calls for the same problem and various techs have stated the same issue.

They will check the input line into the apartment, maybe remove a wall plate to make sure there is nothing hiding there.. but most likely just hook up the input line to a more direct path to improve the signal quality... if the modem is an older model - such as a motorola 3100, 4100 - RCA 105,115,215 they will probably swap that one out because it no longer is DOCSIS 2.0 compliant (that above mentioned upgrade again).

Oh, and a truck roll is 19.99 - just FYI. But don;t worry bout it...yous has connections.

Re: I am that masked Comcast tech

[per_solo]

Figured you were the one Bear was talking about.

I'm going to look into this tonite..or this weekend. As is, IUPUI Orientation is today, and this will have to wait for me to look at til after...all my focus is going into today, and the unknown of that this brings.

My Modem is a Doxport...and, if I get a modem, it'll likely be a Linksys..heard wonderful things over the years, and I figure that I've bought one many times over. :-P

Thanks for the comment below as well..am not ignoring anything (Although the mailing list is, um,interesting..yeah, that's the word)...will try to be more coherent and awake later.

Re: I am that masked Comcast tech

[royalcrow.livejournal.com]

I did check and YES - the DOXport is no longer supported on our network. If I am remembering right that would be a COM21 modem - long flat grey box right?. That should be no problem in getting that swapped out.. you could even setup a time to come to the office and swap that out yourself.

Re: I am that masked Comcast tech

[per_solo]

Fabulous. I will place that call at some point. :-)

Thanks!