Question for Xfinity users

Hey guys, I’m about 30 hours into my Xfinity experience and not feeling all fuzzy and warm about their service. I’m paying for GIGABIT (they spell it with all caps) service and not only have I been getting about .5 Gb when running speed tests outside of their network, but my connection been bouncing all day. I’m using a personally owned Netgear CM1000 modem connected to an Orbi RBR50 router and two RBS50 satellites via Wi-Fi mesh. I have great Wi-Fi connection throughout the house, but the Internet connection drops about once an hour for about 5 to 10 minutes. In other words, about the time it takes me to recognize I’m down, say a few unkind things about the Comcast management, go upstairs, and see that the little planet icon on my modem is flashing, see the Orbi light showing offline, and think yeah, this ■■■■■ is down. If I wait for a few more minutes or power-cycle the modem, it comes back up - for another hour or so. Then it bites me in the hunkis again. The outages are well timed in that they usually happen at the worst moment. Like working in QuickBooks Online and trying to send a client a big invoice, or in the middle of an OS update for a client’s VoIP system.

Anyway, I spent a couple of hours teaching the Comcast tech the basics of IP networking this afternoon while he sat on my modem telling me that everything looked great. Classically it went down about 10 minutes after he connected, then was rock solid after that. I queried him if my modem’s firmware version was what they considered up to date (customers are not allowed to update their modem’s firmware on their privately owned cable modems I learned ← probably a good thing) to which he said that I shouldn’t worry about that. OK.

I made an agreement to run what he called “hardwired” to my laptop until tomorrow to see if my router was causing an issue. I did this until I realized that Comcast won’t issue more than one IP via DHCP in my configuration. I put a intermediary switch between my modem and my router, then plugged my laptop and router into the switch. I found that the second device would not receive an IP address. Bastages! Which is my question. Should I get more than 1 IP address?

Fortunately, I have access to an endless reasonably deep supply of IPA and Pale Ale.

You should only get one public address if you’re plugging directly into the modem.

Stupid question: do you have a surge protector between the cable line and modem?

OK, thanks for that. Confirmed my suspicions.

No, but was contemplating one. I’m assuming since they are burying the cable in the ground next week, that it will be a potential bringer of fire.

Update. Since putting an intermediary switch between the modem and the router, I’ve not lost connectivity yet. So either the tech made a change on their end (likely) or the cable modem and router, both Netgear products, weren’t happy connecting to each other. The later is unlikely, but I have seen this on the commercial side, especially if the upstream router is looking for the customer premise equipment (CPE) Ethernet port topology to be statically configured, as in 1000BASE-T full duplex.

As far as the Gbps speed he had me test to https://speedtest.xfinity.com, which did show a bandwidth of the low 900s Mbps. But when I test outside of their network, I only get about half of that. ATT in Atlanta would give you ~ 950+ no mater who you connected to. And it was symmetrical. I know that it probably seems like I am complaining about owning an embarrassment of riches compared to what some folks have access to. I understand that and don’t want to sound greedy. But it does point to how service providers falsely market their products. I suppose if I were streaming from Comcast, I would not be whining. But I chose to be as agnostic as possible, allowing me to pull up tent pegs and move on when either better service or a better deal comes along. Keeps them honest IMO.

I was going to suggest trying without the surge protector if that was the case, as I used to have one and found out it messed with the signal. Apparently they’re supposed to be grounded in a different way.

Beyond that… Hate dealing with ISPs.

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Nope. You’re paying for something. You should get it. Doesn’t matter its relativity to what others are getting.

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