 Review by Maarvin 
UPDATED: 1.5 years ago
member for 4.6 years, 553 visits, last login: 11 days ago
 Denver,Denver,CO
 $45 per month
 about 7 days
 "Connectivity and Latency remain fairly steady and acceptable."
 "Customer Service usually falls short of expectations or are non-existent."
 "Connectivity is good. Latency is acceptable. Speed is high. Quality is acceptable."
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(ratings match consensus)
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I ordered Comcast High Speed Internet (HSI) in conjunction with their expanded basic television service on October 9th, 2004. I have since downgraded the expanded basic TV to Basic Service (I'm tired of re-runs). It took about one week for the installer to show up. I was given a vague time of between noon and five PM. The technician did arrive within that time, checked the wall jack for a signal, connected a phase splitter, and spliced up a couple of cables in minutes flat. Although the connection was proper, the tech did not even replace the striker plate over the phase splitter. I had him return. One cable was connected to the TV and the other to a Motorola SB5100 cable modem which I am still using as of this writing (July 4, 2007). Finally a Cat5 to the rear of my PC. He was unconcerned about the broadband router. He typed in something and was out the door. He never said a word. There were no instructions, no manuals, nothing. The IP appears to be static (unchanging) yet the modem is set for DHCP. The monthly charges are $13.95 for basic cable TV, $45.95 for HSI which includes $3 for cable modem rental. The added tax/surcharges come to $5.78 for a total of $68.68 per month. There is a $15 discount for ordering both cable TV as well as HSI. I would have to say that I feel the service to be a bit overpriced, but not compared to DSL. QWEST DSL at 7mb/s is much more expensive than the Premium tier for Comcast.
Line speed is fairly consistent at about 90 to 95% of the advertised rate (6Mbps Downstream / 384kps upstream). Now with "PowerBoost" I measure 8mb/s downstream and 1.4/mb/s upstream. Comcast also offers 25Mb per account for personal web page construction. With 7 accounts available to you it brings the total available memory to 175Mb. This is an interesting option if you wish to experiment with your own web page, or use this memory as data storage on their server. McAfee VirusScan, Firewall, and Privacy Service are available for free as well other downloads. However, I have had difficulty with the McAfee Security Suite. For some unknown reason (as well as for McAfee technical staff) a McAfee system service mcmsvscv.exe will, for no particular reason, begin to utilize the system hard disk services to greater than 95%. This, obviously, slows your system down to a crawl. I have no problem with my other machine. McAfee had to be deleted from this system. The firewall was replaced with the Microsoft Windows XP firewall and the virus scan with a free PCTools VirusScan. This arrangement has, so far, worked out sufficiently.
The preferred Comcast method of customer service has gone the way of most others nowadays. Whether by e-mail, live chat, or by telephone. They are friendly, but are lost without their script manuals. A technical problem is difficult to resolve as a higher technical tier is not always available. They can ping your cable modem to verify it's operation or send out a tech. A suspected bad modem can be replaced on your own. There is also the option of a self install for your service.
In conclusion, Comcast provides the minimum in technical and customer support unless the individual situation requires a higher tier of service. You can always install by yourself and use your own modem. Programs are available to test the performance of the connection if any question arises. I find Comcast to be a steady provider. The connection can be expected to be near excellent 95% of the time or better in this location. I would recommend this service to anyone thinking about it for it's reliability, cost, services, and speed.
One final thing. Here in the Denver, Colorado area, Comcast has been using fiber to the node (FTTN) for five years now. They run cable from the street node to your home. According to a recent conversation with customer service, they will soon be upgrading to fiber to the premises (FTTP) »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber_to_the_premises. Presently, channels are slowly being removed from the lineup you receive without using a cable box. Sometime in the near future all TV will require a cable box as we are switched over to FTTP. I assume that a new cable modem will also be required for HSI. I am sure that other areas are also being upgraded. If you know of other areas in upgrade post it here: »Fiber Optic
Finally, Comcast's war on p2p users may eventually cost them my patronage.
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