Comcast@Home --- High Speed Internet from Comcast Cable; Works Great with Motorola Modem
by three_ster - Written: Jun 07 '06
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Pros: easy to set up, great customer service, always nice deals, not too expensive
Cons: none so far
The Bottom Line: Comcast has coupled great customer service with reliable internet, and turned me into a very happy customer with all their services.
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| three_ster's Full Review: Comcast@Home |
Purchasing and maintaining Internet for your home or apartment shouldn't be a difficult thing to do, and I have been lucky enough to have a great experience while obtaining mine. Living in an area monopolized by Comcast Cable, I registered first for cable television services, and later for high-speed internet through them. It just seemed easier to go through the same company for both of these utilities, so Comcast got business from me two times over. Getting internet through them works basically the same as a cable television connection does, and uses the same wall hook ups to do so. Between the computer and the cable hook-up is a cable modem that is used to interpret the signal and provide you with security at the same time. I must admit that I thought it would be more complicated to set up internet at the house then it turned out to be, and it was mainly due to the customer service that I have come away with such a high opinion of the services that Comcast has to offer. Having seen a great deal being offered through Best Buy where I could receive the internet for a start-up of only $19.99 per month I decided to give it a try. The discount was offered online, and applied to customers who already had cable television through them. If you don't have cable through them already, they will still give you a discounted rate of $29.99 for the first few months. For my deal the $19.99 was going to be my monthly charge for the first 6 months. After that the cost bumps up to $42.95 for the high speed internet access.
For the plan that I signed up for, the high speed internet service provides me a downloading speed of 6 Mbps as well as an Uploading Speed of 384 Kbps. If I wanted to bump the payment from $42.95 up to $52.95 they will provide a downloading speed of 8 Mbps and an Uploading Speed of 768 Kbps. To put those numbers into a little more understandable term, the rate of 6 Mbps is far more than a normal computer user such as myself really needs. This is what they list as the best case scenario with the plan (or maximum rate), and for someone like myself that uses the internet to chat, send e-mails, play games, or visit many web-sites this speed as worked perfectly for me. Downloading time is not that long, and working with an older computer, I never experience delays with the internet or with my service. Through my many years of computer use, I have come to expect that problems with eventually occur with internet services or with the computer itself, but since signing up with Comcast I have still experienced only good things to speak of. I had thought that when I first signed up for the service that I was going to experience a problem right away, but that was avoided by a great customer service representative. What I had done was sign up for my services through Best Buy, and they had told me I would be contacted within 48 hours for a service technician to come out to the house and get everything working. Well that didn't happen, and I called the company thinking that they was going to be a problem setting up everything.
When I first started talking to the man on the other end of the phone, I figured I was going to be in over my head trying to explain exactly what needed to be done, and what I had already signed up for. It turned out that no information had been forwarded from Best Buy over to Comcast, and I had to give some new information to clear up exactly who I was. Explaining which plan that I had signed up for, he fixed everything on his end so that it showed I was going to be an internet customer, and he explained each step to me as he was going through it. Clarifying that I had purchased the self-installation kit, he additionally helped me to set up the cable modem which I had purchased to hook up with my computer. The particular brand that I went with (and highly recommend) was the Motorola SURFboard SB5120 Cable Modem. It was a simple modem to set up, and after connecting it to both the cable hook-up, and the computer, he reset the signal over the phone, and I was almost immediately connected to the internet. He talked me through the basics for setting up my Belkin Wireless Router on top of that, and was extremely helpful in answering all of the questions I had in regards to both of the computer hardware components. It was so nice to be able to talk with a friendly customer representative who cared about setting me up correctly the first time, and was patient as I went through all of the steps with him over the phone. Right away he insured that I will be happy with my Comcast high-speed internet for some time to come.
One of the things that Comcast does offer, is that you can rent a cable modem from their offices for a rate of $3.00 per month. I had thought that since I would be using internet for a while, and that since I could reuse a modem at my convenience that it would just be easier to purchase one for myself. They also do offer cable internet services to people who don't have cable television through their company, but it does cost a little bit extra to have that done. By bundling the services I end up saving around $15 to $20 total on a month's bill of services rendered. I think that Comcast has a lot of options when it comes to using the internet that makes it easy for someone to sign up with their company. Living in a big city, I don't have to worry about not being serviced by them, but living in a monopolized area I also lack the choices of different companies to go with. The latter is one of those things that can put you on edge with the fear that there isn't another company to easily turn to if you get frustrated with your current services. With Comcast high-speed internet, I have never experienced any down-time, and there have not been any times where the internet connectivity slowed down while I was using it. My peak uses are usually in the evening hours and on the weekends, and I have yet to experience any delays with the services that I use. Another added benefit that Comcast provides is the ability to make payments online, so that if you cannot make it down to their offices or don't like to use postal services, you can just log on at any time to pay your bills. I have to say that I have been very happy with every aspect of Comcast Internet services including the pricing, the customer services, the availability of the helpline, and the overall usability of the services that they provide. If they keep up this service, I am going to be a satisfied Comcast customer for a long time to come.
Comcast Phone Line: 1-888-Comcast
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 19.99 month
Version Number or Year: 2006
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