I didn't expect it to work out as well as it did - I'd heard so much bad stuff about Comcast. This is specifically about the local office and my experience with them, and their technicians. Specifically, this is an internet-only installation - no TV stuff at all.
1. The original installation was far better than I thought it would be - the "cable guy" was older, and a real veteran of everything that could go wrong. He had the cable tested and terminated quickly, then we made a new hole through the living room wall and installed the cable there. We tested it again and the signal was good, and with the Comcast modem (an old used Motorola 5100 Surfboard) was downloading at about 20Mb. Very cool. He told me about the termination on the cable and how I could sneak "basic" TV off if I wanted - but I didn't want.
I hadn't understood that I needed a router as well as the modem - the AT&T DSL unit I was replacing had them combined. I called Comcast, and the rushed me a free (!) router - a Netgear 1000 (N150) - it has worked pretty well for the last year, except it doesn't like talking to an AppleTV over WiFi (but hard wired is fine), and it's slow talking to iPhones.
2. Then I realized when my "trial period" ran out they started to charge $7 a month for the modem (the router was still free), and I thought it was a good time to get my own. I wanted to get the super fast one, but I didn't know if it would work any better than the one I had, so I bought the current incarnation of the Motorola Surfboard (5101u) from a big box store - the firmware date is 2004. Installing it was easy, and getting Comcast to activate it was a piece of cake - I tried to call them up and spent a lot of time on hold as the technician did some magic, but I tried to just browse into it and BEHOLD it was able to activate itself! Yay! The technician was confused by that, but it worked, and the download was up to 26Mb. Very cool.
3. I then needed to return the old modem, and since I got a new router too I bundled both up and took them to the Comcast office - the one on Airway. I was prepared for the worst (based on the other reviews), but decided to be cheerful and see if I could get it to work well for me. There were almost no cars in the parking lot (a good sign! - midday on Friday). The "take a number machine" was broken, and I just took a seat , and right away the guy at the counter was free and called me up. He took both the modem and router back, gave me a receipt for them and said the computer showed them returned and wouldn't charge me any more (we'll see). He was very technically knowledgeable and I liked that.
Then he found a way to save me some $25 a month with a trial TV subscription (which I won't use) - I just need to deactivate it in six months. Then he gave me a few spare cables I needed anyway, and I was done in about 15 minutes. Very cool. So, I'm happy.
So, new modem, new router, and much faster internet, and we're saving money. read more