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Order your own modem. Comcast has a list of compatible modems here: http://mydeviceinfo.xfinity.com/ If the speeds in your area are under, say, 300Mbps, and unlikely to go higher soon, you don't need a top of the line model. The Netgear N300 is a reliable combo modem/router that will get the job done for under $90, so you're in the black after 9 months vs. "renting" a modem from Comcast. Or get a nicer model that supports Wireless AC, etc., your call. I'm assuming AT&T in your area doesn't support fiber/Gigapower. If you have Gigapower available, get it. Otherwise it's plain old poo poo UVerse DSL and even Comcast, bad as they are, is better than that. Also, welcome to hell  If you live in a newer area with fiber deployments and competition, internet service can be both awesome and cheap. Such places are rarer than unicorns in the US (lucky me, I live in Austin, which is unicorn city). Everywhere else there's one incumbent monopoly that will have the best/fastest service and will treat you exactly like you'd think an incumbent monopoly would, and 3 or 4 lovely DSL/Satellite options that are best saved for grandma and her AOL account.
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Aug 2, 2016 17:29
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 02:06 |
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EL BROMANCE posted:I feel kind of bad because... I've actually had a not awful experience with Comcast today?! From the sound of it, the reason you think you didn't have an awful experience with Comcast is because you are pretty low key about it It's not the worst thing in the world or anything, but that sounds pretty lovely. Shipping snafus that had to be corrected with an in-store visit (you were lucky there was one nearby), devices not working yet, getting half the speed you thought (and feeling grateful about that because of their data cap)....sounds like Comcast all right. Sounds like it only works because you made the extra effort. Compared to a life making bricks out of mud and field-stripping AK-47s in some hellhole this isn't terrible as far as problems go, but I'd be pretty pissed at Comcast. I mean, you are paying them for service, right?
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Aug 3, 2016 17:05
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Those stats don't look too bad though you should be getting all 4 of your upstream channels. Likely it's WiFi, since the N300 is only does up to N which isn't super speedy even in ideal environments.
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Aug 4, 2016 02:18
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EL BROMANCE posted:Yeah, I probably should've gone for a more expensive model but the main thing they offered at a chunk higher cost was the increased channel count and with moving home it's been a tight month money wise. I could always sell it in the future and jump on board a higher grade if needed. My wife is generally happy as long as things work fine, and to be honest I'm the same these days. Kinda miss the old setup where we gigabit wired all the house that mattered, but that was a mess of cables and switches that I couldn't get away with here. If your wireless devices are ac capable you'll see a considerable speed boost even if your modem doesn't use more channels (if you have 300Mbp/s downstream service now, 8 channels is enough). AC is 3x faster than N in the lab and generally 2x faster in real world usage. You can always exchange the N300 for a slightly cheaper modem and hang an AC router off it, if that works out to be cheaper then moving up to the next combo model.
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Aug 4, 2016 18:36
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adorai posted:I've had comcast ever since they bought my previous cable company in 2006 or so, and I've never had a bad experience. Further, I use them extensively for metro ethernet at work, and they are probably the most professional, polite, and responsive of all my carriers. You're just lucky. Comcast gets more complaints to the FCC then their next 3 rivals (AT&T, Verizon, and TWC) combined. Their BBB rating is equally bad. We're not talking anecdotal evidence here. In fact, a few years ago when I was in Colorado and had XFinity, I didn't have a particularly bad experience either, other then when I cancelled (because I was moving to an area they didn't have service, also I was out of contract) they gave me an extremely hard time and even called back to "follow up" (check my zip code) a couple weeks later. Also their data cap policy is one of the dumbest in the business. However there's no denying that their corporate policy has a negative effect all the way down to the subscriber level. You are aware they are being sued for $100 million by the AG of Washington State for selling "worthless" service plans to consumers, right? I didn't mean to turn this in to a general "Comcast sucks" thread. I'm sure they provide fine service to many subscribers.
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Aug 6, 2016 15:54
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 02:06 |
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EL BROMANCE posted:The xfinity boxes turned up here today, so was just an email error for the address after all. The Arris is the (slightly) better DVR, I believe. In that it has a better decoder in it. For the non-DVR XiD extenders, I don't think there is much if any difference. They are pretty much made to standard and work the same way. All they do is feed off the X1 master.
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Aug 6, 2016 15:58
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