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Posted by Hu-mi Yu on July 10, 2005, 1:08 am
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I recently signed up for COMCAST broadband. Working through their web
page, I decided to buy my own MODEM. I have a ZOOM modem on my OS/2
machine which has been working perfectly for many years, so I bought
the ZOOM 5421 which looks to be the latest and greatest. It supports
DOCSIS all the way up to 2.0. I thought I was going to do self install,
but it turned out that self install is not available where I live.
By the time the technician came out to the house, it was too late
to return the MODEM.
The original cable company went bankrupt. With all the mergers I lost
track of who owned that box on the side of my house. Then one day a
complete stranger began banging on my roof without any warning. I ran out of
my house with a weapon, and I spied a COMCAST truck in my driveway.
This rude stranger spoke neither Spanish nor English nor Chinese
(our traditional languages in California). Indeed he was from Brazil,
and he spoke Portuguese. Eventually I learned
from a slip of paper that they had a problem with the ground lines.
He ran another wire down the side of my house to steal a ground from
the phone company. I was not a COMCAST customer. If someone hadn't
mentioned they were about to do broadband internet, I would have run
him off and sued for damages.
So now it is a year or so later, and the COMCAST tech finally came to
hook up my cable modem. Yes, he is from Brazil, too. Apparently Mexicans
and Chinese are too expensive for COMCAST, or else they want to be
sure their employees can't talk to the customers.
The MODEM didn't work. Nothing worked. Finally the tech climbed the
utility pole in front of my house. He said the someone had cut the
cable there. I don't blame them for cutting the cable. I hope the
original company cut all the cables. My neighbors love TV. They watch
it all the time. I didn't pay because I don't watch TV any more.
My neighbors watch TV all the time, and they didn't pay either.
By the time the tech arrived, he was already four hours behind schedule.
After spending a couple of hours at my house, he fled. He claimed a
supervisor would come and complete the install. I asked him if he wanted
to leave the work order, and he said no, he would come back with the
supervisor.
As the sun set, I didn't believe that they were ever coming back,
but when I called COMCAST they reassured me that they do make calls
into the night. Sure enough the supervisor did come. He was alone.
The first thing asked was where is the work order. When I told him,
he said "I am going to kill him (the tech)."
So he went back into his truck and rummaged around. He returned with
a makeshift work order. We tried one thing after another
to make my MODEM play. The install program kept saying that my MODEM
was not supported. But right on the box it said the MODEM supported COMCAST,
and the COMCAST web page has all along insisted that my MODEM is
supported by COMCAST. The supervisor returned to his truck and came back
with a Scientific Atlanta rental MODEM.
He connected the rental MODEM, and that didn't work either. We were
able to get an IP address from their DHCP server, but that was as
far as it went. After half an hour of trial and error, he called the
office. He carefully explained the situation to me before he left.
The "bedrock server" was down. What I needed to do was wait until
after midnight (!) and call the COMCAST 800 number.
"Forget the software, it never works." he told me, "but they can turn
it on in the office if you give them the IP address."
He explained how to obtain the IP address in tedious detail, but all I
really needed to hear was IPCONFIG instead of 'ifconfig.'
While I waited for my computer to chime midnight, I disconnected the
rental MODEM and reinstalled my purchased MODEM. Not wanting to
rush them, I waited until 1:30 AM to call in. I had a long conversation
with one of their support staff. Eventually he insisted that I put
the rental MODEM back on, and he enabled service. I spent a few
minutes watching TV broadcasts from Europe (why don't they make
me angry the way American TV does?). I went to bed.
In the morning I had a brilliant idea. I disconnected the rental MODEM
and connected my purchased MODEM. Everything worked perfectly, and it
was noticeably faster. I spent about ten minutes surfing the
web in rapture. I was browsing my windows firewall provider, when
suddenly the dreaded COMCAST new customer page came. Try as I might,
there was no way to get rid of it.
Mind you the MODEM was still working perfectly. I could ping anywhere
I wanted, but other ports were blocked.
"OK," I thought, "they are only trying to protect themselves. They
need to know my MAC number."
So I called COMCAST again to give them the MAC of my purchased MODEM.
After two escalations and a ticket number, a supervisor explained to
me that there was a typo in their software. He told me to wait three
days and try again. In the meantime I could use the rental MODEM.
I spent two evenings watching foreign language TV and enjoying every minute
of it. I downloaded the latest version of Linux and installed it. I
downloaded the latest Linux kernel and installed it. The latest version
of Linux let me view full screen virtually any TV station in the
world. With windows I get 1 inch max. I need a magnifying glass to
see the image.
On the third day I hooked up my purchased MODEM as instructed, but still no
joy. Another call to COMCAST yielded the information that I was not supposed
to use the rental MODEM; instead I should have left my purchased MODEM connected
until they could download some software into it (not what they said three
days earlier). In the meantime I am able to ping, but the only web page I
can view is the COMCAST registration page.
This is actually much abbreviated. What is clear is the COMCAST support
staff is lying to me. One minute they will say the servers are down
until midnight. The next call, no the servers were never down. Or they
will break into their now find "start" then "run" and then type "cmd."
I cut them short with "You mean you want me to run ipconfig in a DOS box
again?"
So in retaliation (for what?) they disabled my email account. After another
call to customer support, they turn email back on. When I log in it says
"Hello, Matt."
Very funny. My name isn't Matt.
Now when I try to install my MODEM now I get the following message
(instead of the unsupported MODEM message I previosly recieved):
The install wizard has encountered an error:
(01)6959=No Smartissue id found
I did a little looking around, and I found that "bedrock" is actually a
company that manages internet connections. Apparently some COMCAST customers
are supported by COMCAST while others are farmed out to bedrock. Those
who are serviced by COMCAST are decently treated. Those of us who hit
bedrock have a number of problems. For one thing they insist that the
MODEM be connected with USB under windows, and that we download a 37
megabyte installation program. To me this is highly suspicious and
a security hazard. Cable MODEMs should be connected to an ethernet
port, and they should never need any drivers.
COMCAST/bedrock support is so security conscious that they can't even
send me an email telling me when they have solved my problem.
That is the sort of security appropriate for an espionage agency, not computer
support. They are also insisting that I drop my firewall. Instead I
proceed cautiously letting the firewall ask about traffic, and I see that
I am hammered by suspicious traffic that tries to install new
dll's. Nobody, not even microsoft, is authorized to alter the
software on my machine without my informed consent. I need a list
of dll they are going to change *in* *advance*, but the support reps
are so stupid you can't even ask them intelligent questions. This
kind of management does not happen by accident. It is military style
management run by corrupt insiders and staffed by troops too
ignorant to know what is going on.
As far as I can tell, customers in the southeast can hook themselves up,
and they don't even need an installation program. I have reason to
suspect a concerted campaign of economic warfare being waged by Washington
insiders against California. ENRON was another example. I began
to be suspicious when they began revoking security clearances for anyone
who didn't have relatives outside of California (including me) a few
years back. Now they are giving a communications monopoly to COMCAST
and using it for economic espionage. How can I possibly trust a MODEM
that a manager made a special out trip to deliver to me?
Thanks for reading this far. Any constructive suggestions?
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Posted by James R. DeLoach on July 10, 2005, 6:37 am
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On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 01:08:36 -0700, Hu-mi Yu
> snip
And your problem is??????????
*** OVER 100,000 STRONG ***
No-Limits, Privacy and Anonymous!
New 2nd and 10 times LARGER server!!
ALL THE GROUPS! www.newspaladin.com
New 3rd SUPER server with 99% completion
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Posted by Hu-mi Yu on July 10, 2005, 12:40 pm
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On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 06:37:43 -0500
> On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 01:08:36 -0700, Hu-mi Yu
>
> > snip
>
> And your problem is??????????
> *** OVER 100,000 STRONG ***
> No-Limits, Privacy and Anonymous!
> New 2nd and 10 times LARGER server!!
> ALL THE GROUPS! www.newspaladin.com
> New 3rd SUPER server with 99% completion
This is clearly spam. I am not having a problem
with my news server.
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Posted by f/fgeorge on July 10, 2005, 3:42 pm
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On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 01:08:36 -0700, Hu-mi Yu
>
>I recently signed up for COMCAST broadband. Working through their web
>page, I decided to buy my own MODEM. I have a ZOOM modem on my OS/2
>machine which has been working perfectly for many years, so I bought
>the ZOOM 5421 which looks to be the latest and greatest. It supports
>DOCSIS all the way up to 2.0. I thought I was going to do self install,
>but it turned out that self install is not available where I live.
>By the time the technician came out to the house, it was too late
>to return the MODEM.
>
>Thanks for reading this far. Any constructive suggestions?
>
Ever hear of DSL? Vote with your feet! If you don't like the service
tell them and switch! And I don't want to hear any THERE ARE NO OTHER
OPTIONS IN MY AREA, either!!!!
Satellite is available EVERYWHERE!!!!!
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Posted by Hu-mi Yu on July 10, 2005, 3:34 pm
If you were Registered and logged in, you could reply and use other advanced thread options
> On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 01:08:36 -0700, Hu-mi Yu
> >...
> >By the time the technician came out to the house, it was too late
> >to return the MODEM.
> >
> >Thanks for reading this far. Any constructive suggestions?
> >
> Ever hear of DSL? Vote with your feet! If you don't like the service
> tell them and switch!
Actually DSL is available in my area. Some of my neighbors have it,
and one Pacbell servicemen said they even put in a new equipment
closet half a mile away at the junction just to service our community.
When I make inquiries about service however, they always say "not
available in my area." This has been going on for years.
> And I don't want to hear any THERE ARE NO OTHER
> OPTIONS IN MY AREA, either!!!!
> Satellite is available EVERYWHERE!!!!!
I have looked at satellite. The problem here is that the equipment
costs a fortune. When you get it installed, the signals still must
travel up to the satellite and back down. The satellites are
in a geostationary orbit, something like 22,000 mile up. This means
that every keystroke travels 44,000 miles to my ISP and every response
travels another 44,000 miles back to me. This is a the better part
of a second added on to the usual network delays. We have all experienced
network slowdowns which introduce a second or two of latency, and it
is annoying.
Website design has also been taken over by ignoramuses,
and many of the sites do not give proper feedback when
you press a key. Sometimes I am not sure whether my
data has been sent, and so I am apt to press a key a
second or third time. This often results in nasty
consequences such as losing track of where I was when
all those responses send my browser off into space.
I can train myself not to press keys like that, but then I
end up waiting thirty seconds or more for a response that
never comes.
Satellite remains an option. I am sure it is wonderful
for streaming video, but I am not sure how long foreign
videos will remain interesting. There may be something
of a novelty factor here. Mostly I prefer to work with
text, and dialup is adequate for that. The bigger problem
is that the web pages are heavily laden with junk images
because they are designed for illiterates. A picture costs
far more than a thousand words. It is more like ten or
twenty thousand words. You would think some of those companies
would wonder why they pay so much for the traffic. Probably
they think the site is just popular because of the new
layout.
But the bottom line is that I have my doubts that satellite
will penetrate to the bottom of a redwood forest. It might,
but it would be expensive to find out.
Voting with my feet probably means emigration. I am a Republican,
and I am proud of my president, although I have to admit he is
less than perfect. But my area is run by machine Democrats.
They are highly protective of our Representative who is a major
Jewish supporter of military dictatorship with an important
committee assignment. Out of the shame of having a Republican
in the district, they even shut down the polling place in my
precinct. I can't even vote except by absentee ballot
where I have to put my name and address on the ballot. I doubt
my vote is even counted.
During the 1990s they were running interference on my dialup
connection. They even boasted of it. "We think you might
say something against Ms. Sneeze (not her real name)." I
didn't even know who she was, but they cut me off anyway.
They even cut off my phone. Why? Because I was a Johnson
era draftee, and I refused to alter my resume to show that
the Democrats never drafted anyone. My parents and grandparents
were also eyewitnesses to the nuking of a posh California fishing
resort called Port Chicago in 1944 (there were sailors there,
but it was *not* an ammunition loading port). This is another
machine Democrat caper that is ruthlessly supressed. She is
the last Democrat I will ever vote for. From now on it is
Republicans and minor parties.
The elected government in the US is increasingly irrelevant.
It seems like the people in control are careerists who cannot
be voted out. The issues that matter to me are not political but
personal and regional.
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