Comcast Connectivity Issues

For when things break.

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XrunawayX
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Comcast Connectivity Issues

Post by XrunawayX »

We got Comcast at our new house, which when working seems to work well. For example, here is a Speedtest report: http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3646030873

Equipment (owned, not rented from Comcast):

Cable Modem (purchased June 10, 2014)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AJH ... UTF8&psc=1

Router (purchased March 27, 2014)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006QB ... UTF8&psc=1
(Before you say to drop Comcast for another ISP, it's my only option other than satellite.)

The problem we have is that our service drops out regularly. When gaming, I'll lose connection to the server or TS, or when working, I'll lose connection to the VPN. To add to the frustration, we live in an area with little to no AT&T cell service, so we rely on a Micro Cell to make calls....so when our internet goes out, so does our Micro Cell, so we can't even call Comcast to complain.

What I'd like to do is run some program that would monitor our connectivity throughout the day and log instances of dropped connection. If I had that, I could call Comcast and provide them with proof that we lose service on average of X times an hour.

I found this website which advertises a program that seemingly will do exactly what I want it to: https://www.netuptimemonitor.com/

I'm just worried that it's some virus in disguise. Do you guys think it's legit, or do you know of a similar program that will accomplish the same thing?

Or is there another method or recording connectivity issues and/or troubleshooting that I should try?
Last edited by XrunawayX on Thu Jul 24, 2014 8:21 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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RazY70
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Re: Comcast Connectivity Issues

Post by RazY70 »

You can give this a try: http://emcosoftware.com/ping-monitor

I think it basically does the same thing and it has a free version.
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TCZapper
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Re: Comcast Connectivity Issues

Post by TCZapper »

I usually just open a command prompt and run "ping -t google.ca" when I'm having spotty internet. There seems to be plenty of useful results by googling "ping logging".
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King6moh
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Re: Comcast Connectivity Issues

Post by King6moh »

Not sure if you had to change routers at all during this but when I got new service from Rogers (Canada), the modem itself came with a router. Since whatever they give you is usually horseshit, I disabled it and continued using mine. It may be actually dropping or it could be the router which is the issue (especially if you have your own plus theirs at the same time).
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matsif
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Re: Comcast Connectivity Issues

Post by matsif »

if you got a modem from the back of a guy's cable truck, get your own or request a new one and tell them to send it to you in the mail and not deliver it via a technician. in general, they give you a 3-5 year old modem that has been used for that whole time and is on it's last legs to begin with, then tell you it's your problem when it breaks. you're leasing it if it's not your own modem, therefore it's a requirement for them to replace it with functioning equipment, just like if the refrigerator broke in your apartment.

barring that, what everyone else has suggested should work fine. depending on what router you have (if you have one at all), it might be able to log connection uptime as well, which would also provide this service.
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XrunawayX
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Re: Comcast Connectivity Issues

Post by XrunawayX »

Probably should have included this info in my original post....I'll update that. But in the meantime, here is my equipment:

I own both of these (ie neither are rented from Comcast):

Cable Modem (purchased June 10, 2014)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AJH ... UTF8&psc=1

Router (purchased March 27, 2014)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006QB ... UTF8&psc=1
Fields
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Re: Comcast Connectivity Issues

Post by Fields »

You could probably write a simple batch script to do regular pings to a website and log the results to a txt file.
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Re: Comcast Connectivity Issues

Post by King6moh »

Hmm that's encouraging! Did they suggest the modem? Not sure if there would be a compatibility issue.

Either way to remove any doubts about the router, next time it goes down, I would suggest you plug in directly to the modem and see if there is still a lack of response. If it behaves the same way with or without a router, then definitely would suggest you look at the programs others have posted above. You could potentially inspect the cabling going into your modem too. Maybe there is a cut somewhere that could cause these random dead signals.
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Re: Comcast Connectivity Issues

Post by LCourage »

XrunawayX wrote: I'll lose connection to the VPN.
Are you always running a VPN or only when working?
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XrunawayX
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Re: Comcast Connectivity Issues

Post by XrunawayX »

King6moh wrote:Hmm that's encouraging! Did they suggest the modem? Not sure if there would be a compatibility issue.
A friend (MotherFo) suggested the modem and it was on Comcast's list of compatible devices.

I updated the router's firmware and also put a splitter in line before the modem to reduce the upstream power (which according to MotherFo was too high). Hopefully those two measures will have a positive impact.
Fields wrote:You could probably write a simple batch script to do regular pings to a website and log the results to a txt file.
"Simple" is a relative term.... :oops: If the above two troubleshooting items don't improve things, maybe I'll seek some help writing that script.
LCourage wrote:Are you always running a VPN or only when working?
Only when working.
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Re: Comcast Connectivity Issues

Post by Ash2Dust »

I'd get the IP address of the first hop past your house IP.
Ping that from your house.
And ping it from another place (work, friends, coffee shop, etc).

If you can ping it from another place while your home connection is down, then I'd look at your home equipment.

Easiest step as said above, is to remove the router and plug directly into the modem.

Comcast modems around here require you to reboot the modem if you connect a different MAC address device. Otherwise it will refuse to talk to the new device (computer) plugged in. One reason why routers do MAC cloning.

You can also use some of these tools such as smokeping or 24x7 Line Monitoring.
http://www.dslreports.com/tools
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Re: Comcast Connectivity Issues

Post by KaptenKarp »

The problem we have is that our service drops out regularly
Sounds like your station is very far away from your house and the station is overloaded


The best way to look into where the problem lies is to do a tracert command from your
cmd

ex tracert google.se

it'll look something like this (Done on a linux machine but it should show the similar results).
joakim@anubis:~$ traceroute google.se
traceroute to google.se (173.194.32.47), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 0.285 ms 0.409 ms 0.396 ms
2 * * *
3 se-A165-gw.bahnhof.net (46.59.117.1) 1.285 ms 1.275 ms 1.262 ms
4 sto-mar-ar1.sto-cr3.bahnhof.net (46.59.112.156) 1.606 ms 1.725 ms 1.714 ms
5 pni-c-google-1220154.bahnhof.net (85.24.152.102) 1.547 ms 1.530 ms 1.489 ms
6 209.85.250.192 (209.85.250.192) 1.611 ms 1.311 ms 1.316 ms
7 216.239.43.255 (216.239.43.255) 2.220 ms 2.403 ms 2.574 ms
8 arn06s02-in-f15.1e100.net (173.194.32.47) 1.530 ms 1.524 ms 1.511 ms
When you see this:

* * * *
* * * *
* * * *
* * * *

You know that some kind of equipment has lost connection
in the network.
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Re: Comcast Connectivity Issues

Post by Necromancer »

If you want a simple script, without downloading anything, then create new .txt file, put this inside:
Spoiler: show

Code: Select all

@echo off

set FILE_PATH="D:\ping.txt"
set ADRESS="www.global-conflict.org"
set ping_off=1

:BEGIN

for /f "tokens=*" %%A in ('ping -n 1  %ADRESS% ^|find "Reply from %1"') Do (
	echo %date% %time% - OK! [%%A] >>%FILE_PATH%
	set ping_off=0
)


if %ping_off%==1 goto BEGIN

:START

FOR /f "tokens=3 delims=," %%A IN ('ping -n 1 %ADRESS% ^|find "Lost = 1"') DO (
	echo %date% %time% - FAILED! [%%A] >>%FILE_PATH%
	set ping_off=1
)

for /f "tokens=*" %%A in ('ping -n 1  %ADRESS% ^|find "could not find host"') Do (
	echo %date% %time% - FAILED! [%%A] >>%FILE_PATH%
	set ping_off=1
)



if %ping_off%==0 goto START
goto BEGIN
change the file_path and Adress to your liking.
rename it to .bat and click it.

it will write a line with time stamp every time the connection changes (connection lost/resumed)
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XrunawayX
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Re: Comcast Connectivity Issues

Post by XrunawayX »

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Jeff>tracert google.se

Tracing route to google.se [74.125.225.184]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 <1 ms <1 ms <1 ms router.asus.com [192.168.1.1]
2 39 ms 30 ms 19 ms 76.25.16.1
3 59 ms 11 ms 9 ms te-4-3-ur01.fortcollins.co.denver.comcast.net [68.85.107.201]
4 8 ms 11 ms 9 ms te-8-4-ur02.fortcollins.co.denver.comcast.net [68.86.103.130]
5 15 ms 12 ms 15 ms xe-13-2-2-0-ar01.aurora.co.denver.comcast.net [68.86.104.85]
6 16 ms 15 ms 15 ms te-0-1-0-4-cr01.chicago.il.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.95.201]
7 18 ms 13 ms 13 ms xe-2-0-1-0-pe01.910fifteenth.co.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.82.6]
8 13 ms 13 ms 11 ms as15169-1-c.910fifteenth.co.ibone.comcast.net [23.30.206.106]
9 12 ms 13 ms 11 ms 72.14.234.59
10 28 ms 13 ms 28 ms 209.85.251.9
11 15 ms 13 ms 13 ms den03s05-in-f24.1e100.net [74.125.225.184]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\Jeff>
XrunawayX
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Re: Comcast Connectivity Issues

Post by XrunawayX »

Necromancer wrote:If you want a simple script, without downloading anything, then create new .txt file, put this inside:
Thanks Necromancer! I'll run this later today.
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