The Comcast Shuffle
August 10, 2006It’s probably not the best nickname, but that’s what I call the process you are told by Comcast to go through when you lose your Internet connection. Most of the time while you’re waiting on hold for their tech support, a recording tells you that most of the time you can fix your problem by following these steps:
- Unplug the power to your cable modem
- Unscrew the coaxial cable to your cable modem
- Wait about 30 seconds and plug both back in, starting with the coaxial cable
- Reboot your computer
They don’t tell you this on the recording, but if you have router you should unplug that after step 2. Once you finish step 3, wait for all of the modem lights to come back on and then plug the router back in. And, as far as the reboot, it’s not really necessary. In most cases if this process is going to work, it will without rebooting. Sometimes if it doesn’t immediately start working you can go into the Network Connections section of the Windows Control Panel and disable your Local Area Connection, effectively cutting off your computer from trying to connect to the Internet. Wait a few seconds and Enable it again. This does the same thing that a reboot would accomplish.
If you don’t get this message while waiting for your friendly tech support representative, don’t worry. When he/she answers that’s what they will tell you to do anyway. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t call tech support. Many times I find that they will walk me through these steps and my connection will magically return even though I’ve done the same thing myself four times in the previous 20 minutes. I’m convinced that they are sending some sort of refresh command or something through the lines while they are doing this with you.
I think what bothers me the most about this procedure is that Comcast acts like this is a solution to your problem and an exercise that you should be OK with routinely doing. Yes, it can many times fix your current issue, but it won’t fix any real problems you have. And more importantly, why should I be OK with having to go through this process every day?! I’ve said this to Comcast’s tech support people before, but what if your electricity went down all the time and when you called to report the problem they told you to go into each of your rooms and turn off the light switches. Then they said to go out to your circuit box and flip the breaker off and back on. Lastly, go back to each room and turn the light switches back on, finishing with a cheery “Is there anything else we can help you with tonight?”
Would the average person be OK with that? I would think not. So why should I be expected to put up with it from my ISP?
[...] When I arrived home this evening, of course, my connection was out. I didn’t bother to try the Comcast Shuffle, I just grabbed the phone and called Comcast while I was changing out of my suit. I figured if I was going to do something to fix their problem, I might as well do it on their time. [...]
[...] I unplug the modem, unplug the router, and start what I call the ComCast Shuffle. Waiting a few seconds, I plug the cable modem back in and sit down to watch the lights on the front of the box. A few minutes later they still haven’t all come on yet. [...]
[...] I’m a little surprised it took this long, but at 4:55 on Sunday my connection dropped. I was able to do the Comcast Shuffle and revive the connection, but just barely. It’s horribly slow will often pop in and out while I’m trying to read my emails. Posting this and the previous post are taking forever trying to type a little, save, then type a little more and save again before the connection drops. (Most of the time I get bumped offline and just type in Notepad and then transfer to the blog later when the connection returns.) [...]
[...] About a week or so ago I started having problems again. It started with a dropped signal that I was able to correct with a Comcast Shuffle. Then a day or so later the connection dropped and I wasn’t able to get it back. I called tech support and they said there was no problem in the area as far as they knew. So we tried to get the problem fixed over the phone, but weren’t successful. I told the woman that I didn’t want to put in a tech call yet, though. I was still hoping that it was just a problem in the area – one that had not been reported to the tech support offices in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. The next day it was working again. [...]