Comcast HSI Woes

on 02.07.07, 06:12am in computers • share on facebook • comments (6)

For the last several days, my home Internet connection has completely slowed to a crawl. I’ve tried resetting my cable modem, resetting the router, flushing DNS caches and even resorted to a complete network power down for 15 minutes to let everything just ‘rest’ for awhile.

Alas, no luck. My internet speed still feels like it’s going through two tin cans connected by a string.

So for the time being, it’s looking like Comcast’s DNS servers have forsaken me. What’s even more frustrating is that there’s no FIOS or DSL options available here, so I’m pretty much stuck with Comcast’s wonderful service right now.

Sigh. Technology – you gotta love it.

6 Comments

    JeffMc (February 7, 2007 @ 8:28 am)

    Well, all over the internet, DNS servers have been under attack, so it doesn’t surprise me. I tested my Comcast HSI at 10:20 am yesterday and I was getting over 7mbs download, once the DNS was resolved. That took a long time. My VOIP services have not been affected. I will say, between the hours of 4:30 till 9:00 PM, it slows to a crawl where I live, even after DNS resolves.

    Dave Goodman (February 7, 2007 @ 8:47 am)

    Have you tried http://www.opendns.com/ or one of the other free dns servers?

    gdkzen (February 7, 2007 @ 2:44 pm)

    Maybe your modem caught a spike during the blackouts. I started having problems like this after a power outage in CT. Turns out that a transformer blew up and sent spikes to the local cable splitter/buffer. Alot of people’s set top boxes were fried, and my modem became flaky. Everything returned to normal after I bought a new one.

    Brettski (February 7, 2007 @ 4:20 pm)

    Come on Steve, DNS issues are easy to overcome, and you work for Microsoft–I am sure there is other DNS server you can point your router too for a short time. Worse case, take an old machine, use your MSDN copy of Windows server 200x and set one up until this is passes. Use parallels on the the MacBook and setup another VM for a while. I have never used the free DNS services, so I can’t speak to them. Basically you need always need a contingency plan for DNS because Comcast is always having issues with their DNS servers. Good Luck!

    Steve (February 10, 2007 @ 5:02 am)

    The last thing I want to do is set up my own DNS server.

    But, you’re right – comcast’s dns servers are pretty unreliable these days.

    OffBeatMammal (March 2, 2007 @ 12:35 pm)

    I second the OpenDNS solution.
    Just updated my router to use that rather than the Comcast supplied ones and all of a sudden my connection got it’s mojo back.
    I even use OpenDNS on my Windows Mobile phone ;)

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