Delayed Ethernet Connection

Your symptoms are similar to those described in another thread on this forum. I and many others have been experiencing this sort of problem on Windows PC's, starting about two weeks ago.

Take a look at the thread titled: "Delayed Ethernet Connection"

That thread is locked so I just started a new thread on this issue:

"Thread re-start: Delayed Ethernet Connection"

Perhaps you would like to post on that new thread? Doing so would put all the needed symptoms and information in one place for Comcast to review. It's potentially significant that you are on a Mac; as far as I know, everyone else who has posted about this is on Windows.

It appears that the orginal thread about this problem was locked.  I don't know why but I'm hoping that we are able to continue the discussion here. I hope that others who were involved with that thread can find us here.

In the last post on the original thread, @ComcastChe wrote:

<< I understand, @SteveWW, which was not my intention, and I'm sorry you feel this way. I hope we're able to gather as much information as possible, including information that the Advanced Techs may ask down the line. Having this information readily available for them helps save time, so we don't have to keep coming back to your private messages to gather the additional info. To answer your questions, I took a moment to look at your private message to verify your current firmware. Upon further review, I confirmed your modem's firmware is up to date. It was just updated yesterday. I don't think the firmware is going to be the issue. But these things are good for the Advanced techs to know so they can save time searching. There were no other changes made on our end that we are aware of. >>

Thanks for your response but I'm concerned that you may have misunderstood my point about firmware updates.  I'm allowing for the possibility that this problem occurred because the gateway firmware was updated.  I'm not talking about an update that might have been done yesterday. I'm wondering whether gateway firmware was updated during the period Dec 10th thru Dec 20th, which is when I (and others who have posted aboout this) started to see this problem.  If there were firmware upates during that timeframe, perhaps one of those updates had a bug or an obscure side-effect that is causing this problem. Can someone at Comcast look into this?

All of us who are experiencing this problem had it occur at around the same time. And yet:

* We did not all experience gateway hardware failures at the same time

* We did not all make configuration changes to our systems at the same time

This problem has to be due to some external change, not something that might have been done by us as individual Comcast customers.

Can the "Advanced Repair Team" confirm that Comcast made no changes of any sort to network management protocols during this timeframe? Has the Advanced Repair Team tried to duplicate this problem in their lab so that they can troubleshoot it directly?

If that leads to a dead end, I suppose it's possible that this is due to a Windows 10 change by Microsoft. As we know, Microsoft posts Windows updates on the second Tuesday of every month. Updates would have been posted on Dec 8th which does arouse suspicion based on when we started to see this problem-- not everyone necessarily installs the updates immediately so if this is a Windows Update issue people might first see the problem on different days but more or less around the same time.

But if it is a Windows issue it would affect everyone no matter which internet provider they use, not just people using Comcast. I'm not seeing any evidence of this problem being posted on Windows forums as a general Windows issue so my suspicion at this time remains that this is indeed a Comcast issue of some sort.

Meanwhile, as for "gathering as much information as possible"-- there is already ample information in the original thread. When people posted they had this this problem they also described the symptoms and circumstances. In many cases people were quite specific about the various troubleshooting steps they took on their own.  One person found that when he connected his computers to his gateway through a switch, the problem did not occur which I think is an interesting and worthwhile clue to what is happening; in some fashion the presence of the switch is keeping the internet connection alive and ready for instant connection even after sleep. But you shouldn't need a switch for this to happen and none of us did need a switch prior to mid-December.

My reference in my earlier post about "not wasting our time" was with regard to not asking each of us to re-state information that was previously posted. That information is there in the thread, for anyone to review.

Can someone from Comcast confirm that this issue is under active investigation?

I'm confident that all of us who are dealing with this problem are patient and reasonable. We realize that most problems cannot be solved instantly (I can attest to this first-hand from my professional experience in this field).  But we would like to know that this problem is being taken seriously and is actively being worked on.  Several of the posts from Comcast employees earlier tonight seemed to suggest that we were being given a run-around. I hope that isn't actually the case.

--Steve

Within the past hour someone on this board with "Expert" status merged this thread and my Re-started... thread into the original thread which he also unlocked.

In other words, the original Delayed Internet Connection thread is open again and this material has been merged into it. That is the status as of this moment. Of course I hope the original Delayed Internet Connection thread conitnues to remain open.

That's right. I re-opened it. I couldn't believe why anyone here would have locked it in the first place.......

I'm still seeing these posts in the original Delayed Ethernet Connection thread. I hope they aren't locking threads down for people with this issue. 

Although many posters here are running Windows on PCs, I would like everyone to know -- Comcast in particular -- that this problem is not limited to Windows. I run a Mac with OS Catalina and pay for for the fastest high-speed internet available. I too began experiencing the same 20-30 second time lag in my Ethernet connection beginning in mid-December.  Checking Network in my  System Preferences the minute I boot up, Ethernet starts off telling me "this computer does not have an IP address." It then tells me the computer does indeed have an IP address but it is "self-assigned and cannot be connected." Then it connects and the yellow light turns green. I have refreshed the modem a number of times and that doesn't help. This is obviously a Comcast problem and while the delay is not long it is extremely annoying since it never existed before.

Thanks for posting, hjens. So, I think it's safe to say it's not a Windows issue. Hopefully Comcast is still monitoring this thread to gather additional information.

And thanks, EG, for merging and reopening this thread.

I might add that I reported the issue online to Comcast, first to some mechanical voice on their chat line, then to a real person, who said they would arrange for tech support to telephone me. No one ever did. Comcast's customer service does make one want to reconsider going through the hassle of getting another ISP. 

@hjens -- Thanks for posting here and following up with another post.  The fact that this problem also affects Macs is very significant. Now we know that this is not a Windows-only problem.  The overall evidence is clear that this is a Comcast problem.

Similar to your experience, I also was told I'd get a call from Comcast support but that did not happen. Yesterday I received a private message from @ComcastJoeTru-- he asked for the best phone number to reach me because someone in support wants to call. I responded immediately but I have not received a call.

The lack of clarity from Comcast is increasingly frustrating. Various Comcast people have "driven by" this thread and posted one or two items each and some of those posts have been in conflict with one another, which of course is not helpful.  No one has given any indication that there is meaningful activity in trying to resolve this problem.  As I posted earlier, I think we all understand that it might take some time to get a solution but we cannnot even get an indication that this issue is receiving any attention by the people who are in a position to investigate and resolve this.

As you point out, Comcast's behavior is raising serious questions about whether it makes sense to remain with Comcast. I'm on a contract that ends in August. What happens with this issue will weigh heavily on what I decide to do then.

I would like to thank Comcast for looking into this issue and the work they're doing.  This is not a high priority problem causing people to have outages.  This is a relatively short wait time once a computer is booted up or awakened from sleep.  Sometimes issues like these can be difficult to diagnose and repair.  I'm not a Comcast employee by any means and if the worse thing that happens is I have to wait a minute before connecting to the internet then I'm thankful that's all it is.

@SteveWW

I'll give Comcast's customer service or lack thereof a break for the holidays but plan to follow up with them after the New Year. I've been with Comcast for some time now but find it more and more tiresome to be hit with a massive fee increase every year, then have to haggle it down with one of their veeps in charge of customer relations. My latest contract ends in May and their handling of this issue may be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

I too am experiencing the 35 second delay. I hope Comcast will have a firmware update that will fix this issue soon.

@joelbrown1 

<< I would like to thank Comcast for looking into this issue and the work they're doing. This is not a high priority problem causing people to have outages. This is a relatively short wait time once a computer is booted up or awakened from sleep. Sometimes issues like these can be difficult to diagnose and repair. I'm not a Comcast employee by any means and if the worse thing that happens is I have to wait a minute before connecting to the internet then I'm thankful that's all it is. >>

I agree with much of what you've said here. But we don't actually know that Comcast is really looking into this. We do not know that they are doing any work on it.

My fundamental gripe is that we're not getting any meaningful communication from Comcast so we don't know if anything at all is being done.  We've been getting conflicting posts from Comcast staff  and at least two of us (including me) have been given commitments that a Comcast technician will call to discuss this further but that has not happened. We didn't ask for these calls, Comcast just said they would do this but they haven't followed through. Why do they make unsolicited commitments and then not meet those commitments?

I certainly agree that this is not a major issue. But the impact does vary from person to person. Every support organization has to attach a priority to every problem they get. Comcast might choose to attach a low priority to this item but they should let us know if that's what they've done.  Then, customers for whom this is a more annoying problem at least know that they should be considering other options (for example, buying their own gateway or switching to another provider). For other customers, a low priority might not be a concern and that's fine.

But Comcast isn't telling us much at all and what they are saying is not consistent. If Comcast would tell us definitively that they are actively working on this-- and also give an indication of how this is prioritized in their queue-- I'd be satisfied right now.  Conversely, if they are not working on this they should be up front about that and say so.  I won't be at all happy if that's the case, but I certainly would  want to know.

Also have been experiencing this and monumental packet loss issues since around the same time. Buying my own hardware and seeing how that fares me, also keep my $14/month where it belongs, to me.