<BEGIN RANT AGAINT AT&T READ NO FURTHER IF YOU DON'T CARE TO SEE IT>
Okay, I have to chime in on this one. I have had a cable modem for
almost two years now, first in Manchester and now in Goffstown. I love
the speed, hate the reliability of the network.
Recently I upgraded to digital cable as well and all hell has broken
loose.
Granted, this happens when I hammer the modem fairly hard (i.e.
network Quake3) but it still shouldn't occur.
Over the last month or so the cable modem has begun to lose block sync
several times a night. I began registering calls with AT&T. The first
two times the techs asked me if I had a firewall, I answered yes and
mentioned it was linux based, they said good. They couldn't really do
anything for since the modem regained sync...
Tuesday night was the last straw. I lost block sync and place the third
call to AT&T. They tried to blame it on everything but their equipment.
- It could be your modem (valid)
- It could be your gateway causing the modem to lose sync
- It could be the game server not sending data correctly and causing the
loss
I mentioned hearing that adding digital cable increased line noise and
needing to recalibrate the line to fix the problem, they dismissed that.
I asked that they send someone out anyway to take a look at the problem.
They refused. At this point I had spoken to a front line tech, who
knew
nothing. His supervisor, who made me hook the line to a winblows
machine
to diagnose the problem. (Note they didn't ask me to do anything other
than boot the machine into winblows...).
After the refusal I asked for his supervisors supervisor. (this is the
person who blamed the game server...) I requested a tech to come out
and she finally scheduled it. More than likely to get me off the line.
The tech came out and was pleasant to deal with. The only irregularity
we saw was the head end unit (goffstown-9 for others who may be in the
same region) had a signal noise out of spec. They haven't listed that
as the culprit yet. The tech left a loaner Lancity for me to try
instead
of mine, hoping that my modem was bad. Same thing happened. Tonight
it is a 3com DOCSIS modem...
I will grant good phone support people are hard to come by. And if
they are good at it, they can make more money somewhere else. They
should be able to give correct technical information though!
If any AT&T users want the web page and instructions to check their
line, let me know and I'll send the address...
Just as a humorous aside, the company that invented UNIX won't support
its use.
<END RANT AGAINST AT&T TECH SUPPORT MY APOLOGIES FOR THE SOAPBOX ABUSE>
Bob Bell wrote:
>
> Now that AT&T is added broadband Internet access in Nashua via
> cable "modems", I need to figure out whether I should buy a cable modem
> or rent one from AT&T for $10/month. I'd thought I'd ask this group for
> its advice.
>
> First, does anyone have an opinion or renting the cable modem or
> buying one in general? Pros, cons, and recommendations?
>
> Secondly, I'm really interested in the specific cable modem. I went
> to Circuit City (where AT&T says to get the modem from), and they are
> selling the Toshiba PCX1100 for $200, and there's also a $50 rebate.
> The price doesn't sound so bad. I remember hearing some things on the
> list about the Toshibas, though. Circuit City wouldn't say what modems
> AT&T would be leasing out, except to claim that they all have the same
> performance. Recommendations and advice are appreciated.
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