HDBoy

We've had Comcast Internet service for 20+ years and once again, have been having severe and recurring Internet slowdowns for at least a month in Elk Grove, CA, 15 miles south of Sacramento. We have our own cable modem, a one-year-old (and Comcast sanctioned) Motorola — one of the fastest available. This has happened before, it will happen again and again. Infrastructure problems (moisture rusting punchdown block connectors inside the outdoor cable boxes that step down fiber-optic to copper wire at the curb...aging equipment and switches inside neighborhood "central office" boxes that serve major intersections, etc.). Comcast has long battled widespread local infrastructure problems that limit bandwidth nationwide. And they also overprescribe their nodes (i.e.: sell service to more customers than the local bandwidth actually supports). Comcast constantly Tweets that it doesn't "throttle" customers and that it supports "net neutrality." Something is very wrong at Comcast. Either they do throttle, or that claim is true only because the can't throttle a POS service that never reaches the advertised specifications. Our Comcast service has been dog-slow for about a month. Just 756 kbps (on Ethernet) this morning — that's crappy dial-up quality service. Finally took time to troubleshoot, and found three problems: Interfering 5GHz WiFi frequency, slow even on Ethernet and low WiFi signal in one room of the house with impenetrable walls for the radio. Changed 5GHz WiFi and WiFi improved. Rebooted all the wired network devices and Ethernet improved. Now, I have to check my test results over the past month or so and call Comcast as even my Ethernet connection speed stills 50-75% slower than what we pay for...The connectivity problems never ends with Comcast. Never. Try these steps: - Check and report your speeds here as both WiFi and direct Ethernet connections. - Use a WiFi-signal App like iStumbler (Mac) to detect possible interference from neighbor's WiFi, which might be using the same frequency as you in either 5GHz or 2.4GHZ spectrums. Change the WiFi frequencies used and test again. - Make sure your microwave's frequency isn't interfering with your WiFi signal. - Reboot your cable modem, switches and routers and retest. - Use the log-in feature here to document and chart your Comcast performance results on both WiFi and Ethernet over time, like a week, month or quarter, THEN call Comcast. You'll have documentary evidence from this site to show Comcast, ask for refunds or rebates, and force them to figure it out.

Apple Stores gradually have dropped the price of component repairs, which now are about 50% lower than they once were. This past summer, my sister replaced a cracked display and lid on her 2008 Intel MacBook Pro (15") for about $450 (It wouldn't have cost her that much if she had done the work soon after it happened, but she delayed after initially cracking just the upper housing. Eventually, her clumsy kid picked up the MacBook Pro by the lid and cracked the screen). Just a couple of years ago, that repair would have cost about $900. Beside great tech support, Apple seems to be passing along to customers the manufacturing savings it's realizing from gangbuster sales. If your local Apple Store no longer works on the oldest machines, they'll direct you to a reliable, affiliate repair facility, as will the techs at Apple's 800 support number. That said, if this Mac does not have an Intel Core2 Duo processor or better, it would be wise to direct the money toward the cost of a more modern MacBook Air (under $1,000) or an iPad (@$499-$800), or a refurbished deal at the online Apple Store. Modern Macs offer a lot of benefits. I know money is tight for the 99%, but be careful not to throw good money after bad when it's really time to upgrade. I have another friend on a budget who gradually spent nearly $1,100 reparing and upgrading a used, 2007 MacBook Pro a friend gave her last year. One thing after another went wrong and a repair tech really hosed her. She could have bought a new machine with that much money.

Why did the interface and testing data reported change for the test results page? A few weeks ago (when I first joined) testmy.net reported the ISP's Connection Speed (peak bandwidth I think) AND actual download/upload speed test results. Now, users only see the download/upload speeds. The inclusion of the Connection Speed data was the only information that differentiated this testing site from all the others. It provided valuable context, so that computer users would be constantly reminded of the differences between the faster services many think they are paying for and the actual, slower service that is being delivered by disingenuous ISPs. Please return the fine detail data to the test results.