So I was helping a customer hook up their Internet service from comcrash. The had their modem, and i was there to set up the computer and hook it all up to the Internet. So first thing first… the new laptop, one easiest to get online was running SLED. So… yea, we where not looking good from the start. I connect up the Ethernet card, hey, hey I got an IP address! Sweet. Lets go hit Google!
Your operating system is not supported. Please call comcast support at blah blah blah…
What? not supported? Fine. Maybe they need a mac address or something, they didn’t when I was a customer but what the hell. So I had the customer call them while I was doing something else, and she talked to some guy told him she was on linux.
Oh, Sure thing, let me transfer you!
Welcome to LinkSys support, Press 1 for windows, Press 2 for Macintosh
Thank you ComSignalLost.
So, good ol redial button… yes, its linux, L-I-N-U-X, thats the SuSe distro, specifically the SLED distro, Suse Linux enterprise desktop, SLED!!!, yes, suse.. I’ll hold…
Well, I guess she found some docs, like verified my DNS address, had me trace route to a gateway or DNS server I don’t remember.. but a few token trouble shooting techniques…
So while she put me on hold, I queried a few servers and noticed all my names where going nowhere, but consistently doing so. So I popped out my iPhone and loaded up the open dns web page, snagged their IP addresses and within five minutes; hey everything works.
For the record of support calls where openDNS fixed the problem… (and I only do house calls once a quarter if that…)
So for the official count.
OpenDNS: 2 vs ATT: 0
OpenDNS: 1 vs ComCast:0
An Odd thing happened though. That Internet thing, its like big, and very interconnected. Some say that the 7-degrees of keven bacon theory has a good amount of legitimacy in that one router can find another router within about 7 hops, and of course we have to add or subtrace a few hops for router favoritism. So while talking to this support lady, she had me traceroute a server. It took 19 hops. I trace google and a few others ranging from 20 to 25 hops.
Holy crap. At least 16 hops to get to a public router??
I can only imagine how insane their network map would have to look for that many hops.
2 Comments
Hello!
I work for Comcast and noticed your blog. If there is anything we can do to assist in helping out this or any other customer of yours, please email our team at We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com. We’d be happy to help/troubleshoot.
Kind Regards,
Melissa Mendoza
Comcast Customer Connect
National Customer Operations
Hi Customer Service Rep.
Problem has been fixed, and the customer was able to do as they liked. Any form of aid you could do should be directed at your script reading tech support. My first suggestion is to hire people who don’t have to rely on scripts to do their jobs.
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