About r0gue007

That's positive news in general!   This thread was started some time ago, so its possible tech support has new scripts to follow for this issue.   If Comcast's first line of support can give a solid answer, then it dramatically decreases the customer time spent and eliminates complaints and the pain of a run around. The most frustrating part of my experience was being transferred to Comcast's paid outsourced home networking support when I knew they wouldn't be able to help me.    Can you please post the model of your replacement device so anyone hitting this discussion will know another model to ask for (in addition to Arris)?     ... View more

Totally understand your frustration scbailey. I concur with the prior poster who points to the simple fact of a firmware bug being the culprit. PPTP VPN is used by too many remote employees to be a conscious omission/block by Comcast.    I think it probably went down like this:   1) Comcast QA: "Technicolor TC8305C approved for use" 2) Comcast product manager: "Great! Order a million from Technicolor" ... some time passes... 3) Comcast support: "Oh @#$%#$@, client side VPN doesn't work. Customers are complaining, report to product manager" 4) At this point one of 3 things happens: - Comcast product manager for the Technicolor OEM gateways tells everyone to take a hike and simply doesn't care (give them Arris justification) - Comcast reports the issue to Technicolor, and Technicolor decides that they don't care enough about Comcast's business to fix the issue - Comcast reports to Technicolor, Technicolor works on it and finds some kind of critical path that prevents them from easily fixing it. Example: It’s a low level bug that can't be fixed by the exposed high level firmware that users can patch, requiring the gateways to be shipped back and flashed individually via a console cable. At this point Comcast and Technicolor decide together that we as customer's aren't valuable enough to help because we have no other viable high-speed internet choice in most areas. So they blow us off and live with giving out free 6 month NFL red zone promos to make up for all our lost time calling support (plus Arris devices as ultimate fix).   Obviously this is all my speculation, but it feels like what probably went down.    In general I am satisfied with my Comcast service outside of this one issue. But it would be really nice if someone from their support management team would develop a script for the tech support team so they don't waste so much of their customers' time on each new call. The worst part being when they try to push you off onto their paid outsourced tech support who try to promise and charge for a fix for a problem that has no current resolution. That's borderline unethical and happened to myself and many others before getting resolution.   /end rant         ... View more

The Arris is an all-in-one device, so you'll be good to go. Just get them to swap it out for you! ... View more

What type of VPN are you using? PPTP or IPSec?   What firmware version is on your Technicolor gateway?    Numerous people (including myself) have tried that setting with no success. ... View more

Hey There Queen-Evie -    While I understand that the prior user's post probably deserved to be pulled due profanity... you have to understand the absolute horrible level of frustration Comcast has caused for its loyal customers through this issue.   1) PPTP client VPN connections are used by MILLIONS of residential broadband subscribers to support work-at-home and other remote employees. They ARE NOT running businesses out of their homes and it is a sorry excuse to pawn support off by calling this a business use case.   2) All Comcast gateway devices have suported PPTP through NAT in the past, from my experience and others' posting. The Technicolor device is DEFECTIVE (bugged firmware) and Comcast needs to force the OEM to fix the issue by way of a firmware update.   Thanks ... View more

I don't believe these steps are working for others using PPTP and the Technicolor all-in-one device.   Are you using PPTP or IPSec VPN type?   I personally tried these explicit steps over a couple weeks and had to swap out to an Arris.  ... View more

That is a really depressing answer.   A quick search of ebay pulled up alot of TG862G gateways ranging up to $150. It may be that's your only option. Comcast has a huge installed base of these devices so I expect they will be supporting them for some time. :(   In my case Comcast was the only provider in my area who was going to get me 50Mbps+ (simultaneous Netflix HD streams, MMO gaming and persistent work VPN) to cover my family's demanding bandwidth needs.   I have a few employees where our application environment wouldn't gracefully support VPN, in those cases I've used TeamViewer or LogMeIn to remote them back to their office PC. Not quite as snappy as a local app deployment, and possibly some firewall issues depending on how locked down your work WAN connections are, but definitely worth a try. ... View more

This is an epic Comcast failure on three fronts:   1) The technicolor gateways need a firmware update to stop them from blocking the PPTP authentication ports. This is an incredibly simple firmware change and should have been done quite some time ago once Comcast began getting these consistent reports.   2) Comcast tech support needs official clarification and talking points from Comcast engineering. This process of wasting hours upon hours of support and customer time for a clearly defined and know issue is completely unacceptable.   3) Comcast needs to stop the rhetoric that we are business class customers. We are simply standard employees trying to work from home and that SHOULD NOT categorize us as business customers. As a side note, even if we were to somehow pay for business class service/support, Comcast would still need get their vendor to update the firmware on the Technicolor gateways to fix this PPTP port blocking bug.   For the record Comcast resolved this for me by:   A) Shipping me a replacement gateway -  Make & Model: Arris Interactive, L.L.C. tg862g Giving me free NFL RedZone / sports package for 6 months, HBO & Show for 3mo, to makeup for my time.  ... View more

This is really upsetting.   I spent hours on the phone with support and after being transferred and escalated many times they simply said they won't touch ANY VPN support for residential users.    They best they could do is ship me an SMC all-in-one wireless gateway, which I know works from past use.   If your PPTP VPN connection hangs on authenticating (veryifying name and password), call Comcast and request an SMC to replace your technicolor.    On a somewhat funny related note I did get the following for free from various people I talked to: - 6mo burst internet (+30Mbps over standard) - 6mo premium sports package (NFL red zone for the season) - 3 months HBO   Still not a good outcome, but better than nothing. 60Mbps is really fast and I was going to pay for RedZone anyway during the NFL regular season. ... View more

unfortunately I have tried all of these setps and still can't get my PPTP VPN to authenticate.   - Worked on my SMC all-in-one device - SMC wifi radio failed and comcast gave me a tecnicolor model - diabled firewall - tried all internal IP address ranges   I'm dreading calling Comcast support about this. Going to need a few hours time, alot of patience and a couple cocktails ... View more

same problem here   I just swapped out my failing SMC, got a 105+, even with firewall on custom/disabled or minimum I can't authenticate my VPN (PPTP).   Was hopeing to find something online before waiting on hold for support ... View more