About Athena1951

I had Comcast come out to my house...twice.  They charged me $50 for one of the visits...but they didn't tell me about the charge before it appeared on my bill.  They did NOT fix the "intermittent-on" problem.  The firmware IS the latest version, and my wireless is *still* hanging at random intervals.    This problem was reported in forums back in April of last year, with a previous firmware version.  They have not been able to fix it in this entire past year...and I see no sign that they are even trying.  The usual advice is to buy more equipment...another router to attach to the Arris gateway.  Since I am retired, I don't *want* to buy more equipment, at my own expense, since I am paying them $7 for a device that is supposed to BE a wireless router.  Nor do I want to get on that treadmill of constant Comcast changes, and "my" equipment changes and upgrades in response.    ... View more

Even when it is working well, the Arris is known for having a very short range.  It has been suggested that the signal travels better if the modem is up off the floor, or in your case, I'd be sure it was on the second floor for the best signal throughout your house.    The problem with the firmware is that the signal is fine, but it itermittantly "goes to sleep".  Sometimes once an hour, sometimes once every five minutes, thereabout.  It's random.  If you are using a device and app, like my "Bonza" on my tablet, it constantly checks in with the bonza.com website, and it times out within a couple of seconds.  It hangs all the time.  Or it starts loading, then stops, and then times out and says I don't have an Internet connection.    It all depends on how Win8 handles the DNS.  If it is timing out while seeking the DNS, that would explain the problem you are having.  The questions are: how often does Win8 look for DNS servers?  Where is it looking?  What does it do when it can't find them...keep trying, or time out with an error immediately?  All of these things are dependent on both hardware and software within your PC.  Each device might be handling it differently, or have different settings.    ... View more

manisnana wrote:...my old laptop works an responds just fine, is this a windows 8 issue, if the error message is saying DNS server isn't responding doesn't that make it's a Comcast issue? I have the Arris TG862G modem and I have the Comcast "Blast" product. PLEASE can anyone help?! Is your laptop using a wireless connection?  Is your new Win8 PC using a wireless connection?  If your Win8 PC is connecting to the Arris wirelessly, try using an Ethernet cable to connect it.    If it starts working again, then you are having the same problem as everyone else here.  The "fix" is to use a cable.  The Arris had a firmware update recently, and now wireless home networks don't work right.  Until Comcast fixes the firmware, it won't BE right, and they haven't been able to fix it in over a year.  ... View more

@MisterEd51 wrote: I don't understand it. The solution is simple. Comcast may make you use one of their modems but using one of their router/gateways is entirely voluntary. If you don't like the equipment that Comcast has just use your own. Using one of their gateways is *not* voluntary.  Comcast decides what to lease to you, you don't.  Whatever you are using now, if you get a replacement, as I had to when my original modem died, they will send you the Arris gateway, while *calling* it a "modem".  The "home network hot spot" is their pride and joy.  They have announced it to all of their employees, while *not* telling them how they were going to implement it.  The only way out is to *not* use their equipment at all, and buy your own modem.  And if you do that, they will *not* support it in any way.  They are making big changes to their network...implementing IPv6 alongside IPv4.  If for any reason your home setup doesn't work with their network, and with any future changes they make to it, you are just out of luck.    They are leasing you *half* of the Arris.  They are retaining the other half, an independent RF signal, for their own use in setting up a public network.  Ask them for a modem...and they send you an Arris.  YMMV  ("your mileage may vary")   ... View more

Hey, if I'm *really* lucky, maybe they will ban me for daring to post the name of the person responsible.  :-)))))  And delete this entire thread.  Woohooo!      ... View more

The "piece of junk Arris" worked just fine for almost a year, before Comcast uploaded the new firmware that is needed to run the new "home modem hot spot" network.  They don't have to enable the network...just the download of the firmware is enough.  The Arris works just fine.  It's the firmware created by the Comcast department for IPv6 *headed up by ComcastTuska* that is causing all the problems.  Last year they were able to stop all the problems by rolling back the firmware.  This time they are not going to do so because they expect the hot spot network running off user-leased modems to make them sooooo much money.  Why should broken customer home networks stand in the way of profit?  :-P    Chris Tuska, are you there?     ... View more

I retired a year ago.  If I am paying Comcast $7/month for a wireless modem, I expect to get what I am paying for.  I do *not* expect to have to spend more money on extra equipment, which I have to support on my own...and which I will have to upgrade and update as time goes on.  I can't afford it on my budget.    Comcast should be ashamed of themselves...but they aren't.  This issue has existed in several firmware versions, going back a year ago, to April 2013.  ComcastTuska, are you listening?  :-P    ... View more

Yes, I see that, Barbara, and the previous thread started April of last year.  Same problems.  But at least some Comcast employees replied several times to that thread.  :-P  ... View more

I started having problems with my Internet slowing down to a complete stop about a month and a half ago.  One Comcast tech had me change the security; then he had me run the Comcast speed test: both IPv4 and IPv6 showed download under 20 Mbps and I have Blast!, which he said should be running 40-50.  He said I needed a new gateway.  It was delivered 4 days later, on a Friday...installed, activated, and afterward I ran the same speedtest: the speed was even slower.  They had a tech come to my house the following Tuesday, May 20th, 2014...he changed my gateway to Channel 11, and suddenly I was getting up to 55 Mbps.  I was sooooo happy.  Later that same evening I tried to get into the same MMO that I used as a test while he was here...and it wouldn't run without locking up...again.  Remembered seeing similar reports in a Comcast forum thread from a year ago, found my way to this thread.    The older thread mentioned the rollout of firmware apparently activating a public hot spot in home gateways for public/Comcast use.  It was identified as wifixfinity.  Customers were calling Comcast and demanding that Comcast shut down the public port on their home gateway, with mixed results; sometimes tech said it couldn't be done, sometimes it was shut off, and then turned right back on again 2 hours or 2 days later.  (Someone suggested that the person responsible didn't know that it would just re-establish automatically after shut-off...I have no opinion.)  A web page link for the customer to shut it off apparently didn't work, or only worked for some customers (or perhaps they successfully shut it off, and it re-established and they didn't check it).  This wifixfinity had the same channel as the Home network, and the same MAC address, and went up and down as the gateway was powered on and off.  It was stated that the Comcast public hot spot *always* went to the same channel as the Home network; there was some discussion that this was actually faster, as the software was aware of both connections and gave Home priority, whereas if they were set to different channels, they would simply fight each other all the time for priority.    I looked for this public hot spot with my tablet, and didn't see any such name, so I thought that couldn't be my problem.  Then I got a tablet-based wifi analyser app, and after staring at it for an hour, suddenly realized that what I thought was something I didn't understand about the analyzer was actually an un-named hot spot (or a hot spot whose name was "space").  After some experimentation, I discovered that the MAC address was *almost* the same as my Home MAC address (off by one digit), that it was on the same channel as Home-x9x9, so I changed my channel, and sure enough, the space-named hot spot changed its channel.  In fact, it changed immediately, while my Home network didn't actually change until my power went off.    Soooooo...I am here to report that Comcast (forgive me for calling names) has gotten even sneakier.  They haven't removed the wifixfinity public hot spot from the Arris TG862 gateway, they simply disguised it by giving it a name of "blank" and giving it a slightly different MAC address.  But it's still there.    And still causing me to lock up constantly.    I have a wireless printer, and a tablet I want to use on my home network.  I also want to move my PC to a different room in my small house.  Is there any solution besides buying a separate wireless router, something that Comcast will actually *support*, since they won't support non-leased equipment???    P.S. The lockups are affecting my wireless printer, too.  It locks; PC says it is connected to network, printer says it is connected to network, PC says it can't connect to printer.  I ignore it, and a minute or two later, it suddenly clears and prints without me doing anything.      ... View more