topic Re: Don’t think the problem is coming from you when WiFi or internet is down in Electronics

Don’t think the problem is coming from you when WiFi or internet is down

Mindy D — Mon, 30 Dec 2019 00:50:53 GMT

When you have no internet, don’t believe it’s just coming from your home. ISPs take forever to acknowledge an outage. I have AT&T DSL internet. It’s been down since Dec.9 or 10. I’ve made so many contacts with AT&T and spoken to so many agents it makes my head spin. They make you go through innumerable steps to see if it’s you and check by unplugging and plugging in equipment. Crawling down under a desk through all the wiring is so much fun. UGH. Anyway, I’ll skip through all the beginning of this fiasco and my individual contacts and attempts to fix the issue.

Finally, on Dec. 26th a service repair technician named Steve came out and did some outside work and fixed a part of whatever outside equipment goes directly into my house. I spoke with Steve and he said that more repairs to their equipment coming from their hub is necessary and that this repair will be completed in Dec. 28th. The day came and went and still no internet so I called the repair number and of course they are closed.

I had been checking about my service online since the beginning. So today I went online again and AFTER ALL THIS TIME THEY ARE FINALLY ACKNOWLEDGING AN OUTAGE OF AT LEAST 200 ACCOUNTS.

I think that the company relies on its clients not knowing each other and that clients often think the problem is coming from their own home; usually thinking it’s just their own WiFi equipment. Many clients don’t report anything or don’t want to pay $100 for a service call. Representatives on the phone are NOT INFORMED OF POSSIBLE OUTAGES until after tech knows an outrage exists, so when clients call that are told by CS that they don’t know of an outage . Clients CAN NOT REPORT AN OUTAGE. They have to have a service call. For 200 or more people in my area to be out, this was probably going on with many of us affected. What is laughable is that last year I had the same problem during this time period.

Once the company fixes what ever is wrong I’ll probably switch to AT&T UVerse Internet. The problem with this is that I see plenty of complaints about this being down all the time and the price they give you is only for 12 months, so I don’t know whether they will just keep raising their price. They also can’t tell me if I’ll be able to self-install their Gateway modem/router combo until after I start my purchase. I’m not into a service call.

When my service is down I use my husband’s cell phone on LTE to post here or to use the Internet. I often go to a site called “Is the Service Down”. You put in your zip code and you can see a map where services from providers are down. There are people that post about their problems there too. The services are not just for internet but can be for phone, TV and others. There are maps for different providers. I don’t know how accurate this company’s infirmation is. but it’s nice to see that you’re not alone.

I’m already paying for Comcast Xfinity too. My HOA made a switch to them and sent out an opt out form which was buried behind our HOA dues and a community newsletter. We didn’t see this form until it was too late, so we are stuck with this additional bill even though we don’t use XFINITY. Yesterday, our AC needed servicing and our AC guy mentioned how much he disliked COMCAST Xfinity and that all his services were down. He did not know about our internet when he said this. He’s switching to something else. This is why we haven’t dropped AT&T for XFINITY. We’ve heard the same stories about problems with them.

Re: Don’t think the problem is coming from you when WiFi or internet is down

SouthernBee — Sun, 29 Dec 2019 22:35:54 GMT

@Mindy D : How stressful. Any other providers in your area to change service!? Hate when they tell you to stuff and not easy like you said to get under furniture or whatever to unplug or reset. Southern Bee

Re: Don’t think the problem is coming from you when WiFi or internet is down

SilleeMee — Sun, 29 Dec 2019 23:21:58 GMT

I dropped my DSL ISP (CenturyLink) and got Xfinity (coaxial) cable. DSL uses the same wire as a land line phone. It has it's limitations as far as speed (down and upload). When I switched to cable I noticed a improvement in my wifi throughout my house. Less or no buffering and better image quality. I won't go back to DSL.

Re: Don’t think the problem is coming from you when WiFi or internet is down

Mindy D — Sun, 29 Dec 2019 23:28:35 GMT

@SouthernBee wrote:
@Mindy D : How stressful. Any other providers in your area to change service!? Hate when they tell you to stuff and not easy like you said to get under furniture or whatever to unplug or reset. Southern Bee

There’s Comcast XFINITY, but they aren’t any better. Customers say they are worse. There’s also EarthLink and Hughes (satellite internet service). Funny, during my issue, our cousin’s internet in Charlotte, W. Va., one with ‘link’ in its name, also went down for a part of the time. He’s staying with his daughter so he want sure of the provudrr’s nsme.

Re: Don’t think the problem is coming from you when WiFi or internet is down

Mindy D — Sun, 29 Dec 2019 23:40:15 GMT

@SilleeMee wrote:
I dropped my DSL ISP (CenturyLink) and got Xfinity (coaxial) cable. DSL uses the same wire as a land line phone. It has it's limitations as far as speed (down and upload). When I switched to cable I noticed a improvement in my wifi throughout my house. Less or no buffering and better image quality. I won't go back to DSL.

Thanks. I know the speed will increase but I’m not sure it will solve my reliability problem. I hope it does. I will need to pay for additional router signal extenders if I switch to the Uverse gateway which had the modem-router combination. Currently, I use my own router and my WiFi signal is very strong. I just can’t stand this dsl nonsense anymore. One question. Were you able to self install the gateway for Uvrerse?

Re: Don’t think the problem is coming from you when WiFi or internet is down

SilleeMee — Sun, 29 Dec 2019 23:33:01 GMT

@Mindy D

Does your area have fiber optic internet? I know CenturyLink has FO in my area. It's the best most reliable type of internet service. You might want to check if it's available in your area.

Re: Don’t think the problem is coming from you when WiFi or internet is down

Mindy D — Sun, 29 Dec 2019 23:38:43 GMT

@SilleeMee wrote:
@Mindy D
Does your area have fiber optic internet? I know CenturyLink has FO in my area. It's the best most reliable type of internet service. You might want to check if it's available in your area.

AT&T does not have their Fiber in my area yet and I’m not sure if there are any other companies offering fiber optic here yet.

Re: Don’t think the problem is coming from you when WiFi or internet is down

SilleeMee — Mon, 30 Dec 2019 00:42:55 GMT

I did not self-install my router/modem because I needed to have Comcast/Xfinity install a cable to my house from the telephone pole out behind my house. I didn't have a cable outlet in my house for the router, in other words. Had to have them put a hole in my wall going to the outside. Took them 4 hours to do that job.

ETA - You can't use the same wire used for DSL to connect a cable router. DSL routers use a phone jack type plug whereas cable uses a coaxial screw-on connection. Completely different. But once the connection was made, I followed the instructions on screen and got my wifi with no problem. @Mindy D

Re: Don’t think the problem is coming from you when WiFi or internet is down

ValuSkr — Sun, 29 Dec 2019 23:54:02 GMT

I'd be very unhappy to be without internet service for so long while having to deal with the cable company's nonsense. You raise a good point - that it pays to be in touch with neighbors, to know if they're having similar problems. The NextDoor app would be a good starting point, if you have it. Failing that, I'd complain to my state representative and the public utility commission.

Re: Don’t think the problem is coming from you when WiFi or internet is down

patbz — Mon, 30 Dec 2019 00:54:48 GMT

@Mindy D : Sorry your internet has been down so long but doubt your blessings that at least you have multiple options for internet. We have Frontier (hate it; it's a joke! or Cellular One). At least the service calls are included (last year they came out at least six times and once the entire mountain was down!!).

Re: Don’t think the problem is coming from you when WiFi or internet is down

DearPrudence — Mon, 30 Dec 2019 03:04:26 GMT

I'm not following, no fiber in your neighborhood yet? In that case you're not going to get U-verse to replace DSL because U-verse is fiber, either all the way to the home, or fiber to a nearby node, and copper wire from the node. Fiber all the way is superior.

Re: Don’t think the problem is coming from you when WiFi or internet is down

Mindy D — Mon, 30 Dec 2019 03:21:36 GMT

@DearPrudence wrote:
I'm not following, no fiber in your neighborhood yet? In that case you're not going to get U-verse to replace DSL because U-verse is fiber, either all the way to the home, or fiber to a nearby node, and copper wire from the node. Fiber all the way is superior.

AT&T has Uverse here in my area but they also have a new service called Fiber. This service is not available in my area. I thought the same thing as you do DearPrudence, but when I checked on AT&T’s website that is what it says. I don’t know how Uverse is differentiated from Fiber because the website doesn’t say so. My area definitely has Uverse. I’ve spoken to multiple representatives about this and checked online many times.

Re: Don’t think the problem is coming from you when WiFi or internet is down

Nuttmeg — Mon, 30 Dec 2019 14:09:51 GMT

@Mindy D

I have had Comcast/Xfinity service for 26 years in my current home. I have had internet service since 2000.

I have an internet speed of 250 Mbps.

I may have a internet outage for maybe a day or two once a year. I never lose my TV service.

Since you already pay for service. You may want to see how well it runs in your area.

I would recommend posting on Dslreports.com in the Comcast forum. I would ask about the best internet speed for the size of your home. and how many devices will this speed support.

I do not install new hardware. I call and have a truck roll.

Re: Don’t think the problem is coming from you when WiFi or internet is down

Nuttmeg — Mon, 30 Dec 2019 06:33:35 GMT

@Mindy D

I live in an urban area,hurricane Sandy did a great deal of damage to all the underground cable lines. Comcast upgraded the system to part fiber. This is another question you may want to ask the boys on the board. How well does Comcast service work in your area?

Re: Don’t think the problem is coming from you when WiFi or internet is down

GingerPeach — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 18:32:57 GMT

I have a feeling you're not on the West Coast, @Mindy D but just in case you are, look into the provider Wave Broadband. I find their customer service to be excellent. They provide phone, internet, and tv.

Re: Don’t think the problem is coming from you when WiFi or internet is down

Mindy D — Thu, 02 Jan 2020 04:53:21 GMT

@Nuttmeg wrote:
@Mindy D
I live in an urban area,hurricane Sandy did a great deal of damage to all the underground cable lines. Comcast upgraded the system to part fiber. This is another question you may want to ask the boys on the board. How well does Comcast service work in your area?

I’ve been speaking to users here. They hate it. Not a single thumbs up.

Re: Don’t think the problem is coming from you when WiFi or internet is down

Nuttmeg — Thu, 02 Jan 2020 07:07:43 GMT

@Mindy D wrote:
@Nuttmeg wrote:
@Mindy D
I live in an urban area,hurricane Sandy did a great deal of damage to all the underground cable lines. Comcast upgraded the system to part fiber. This is another question you may want to ask the boys on the board. How well does Comcast service work in your area?
I’ve been speaking to users here. They hate it. Not a single thumbs up.

You can look for something that works better.