Comcast + Java =



  • I buy a new game from Steam, I download it. The download is maxing out at 1.5 mbps... that's way too low, right? I think Comcast must be throttling me for some reason. (Punishment for hosting a LiveStream for > 24 hours?) So lemme figure this out.

    Problem is, I signed up on some low price come-on deal, and I don't remember what plan I have. No problem, I just need to log into my account and look at my last bill, right? (Long-time Comcast customers are already sniggering at my naivety.) Because when you view your bill it says, only, "XFINITY Internet"... yes, this is a company billing me for a mystery product!

    Fine; there must be somewhere on the site where I can find what plan I have. Maybe I can change my service level, see what it's currently set at... nope, no link for that. Well, ok, maybe if I look in "Users & Settings"... nope. Time to consult the help system.

    Comcast's help system looks like a live chat window, but it's not. It's actually a really, really stupid robot. You ask it a question, and it returns with 37 radio buttons that answer approximately every question ever except for the one you asked. When I finally narrowed it down to the question I wanted, it told me:

    Yeah. There's no automated way to find out what service I'm paying them to provide. Look, Frontier (who took over from Verizon, and are the reason I switched to cable) were fucking awful. They were excretable. But guess what? My Frontier bill said, right there in black and white "Frontier Broadband Services 5 mbps/1.5 mbps". Right there on the bill. Congratulations, Comcast, you're officially worse than Frontier at something.

    Fine, whatever. I'll click the fucking link, it's still probably quicker than digging my cellphone out and calling. (More sniggering.)

    Hey, here's a trivia question for you, what do all fucking terrible software experiences have in common? You guessed right! It's JAVA!

    Lovely. Look at that beauty. I ended up sending them an email, asking what my plan is, and why my bill doesn't say what I'm even fucking paying for. (Fuck, how is that even legal? Especially with all the "oversight" US broadband providers are supposed to fucking have? Seriously.)

    Question for next time: is there a quick and easy way to tell if Comcast is throttling my connection? Like http://www.iscomcastthrottlingme.com or something? Thanks.



  • Update: I tried a couple of bandwidth monitoring tools, and it appears that either Comcast is throttling Steam specifically, or Steam is throttling itself(?). Either way, normal HTTP downloads are running at full speed, it's only Steam affected. Weird.




  • That's just precious.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Hey, here's a trivia question for you, what do all fucking terrible software experiences have in common? You guessed right! It's JAVA!

    You know, your Java software experiences would be somewhat less terrible if you installed the plugin.

    What did you expect, anyway? ActiveX?


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @pjt33 said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    Hey, here's a trivia question for you, what do all fucking terrible software experiences have in common? You guessed right! It's JAVA!

    You know, your Java software experiences would be somewhat less terrible if you installed the plugin. What did you expect, anyway? ActiveX?

    Wow. When did they redo Windows Update in Java?

    I've never had Comcast for internet, so I've never experienced their legendary customer service. But, yeah, what's a better option for this than a java plugin? Can, say, flash do it? That's probably the only thing more likely to be installed than Java. Although phones work well for conversations like that. I've been using Google Voice for most calls lately, which has its own plugin for Chrome.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Look, Frontier (who took over from Verizon, and are the reason I switched to cable) were fucking awful. They were excretable. But guess what? My Frontier bill said, right there in black and white "Frontier Broadband Services 5 mbps/1.5 mbps". Right there on the bill. Congratulations, Comcast, you're officially worse than Frontier at something.
     

    Comcast/Xfinity.  TRWTF.  I'd be interested in hearing the problems you had with Frontier.

    We didn't have Internet through Comcast.  We just had them for digital cable.  But from 2005 to 2009, they jacked their rates from around $50/mo to over $70/mo.  Randomly, we would get META-5 errors trying to use On Demand.  All they'd ever tell me was that their was a communication problem with the box and they'd send a reset signal to it.  Because regular cable channels would always work correctly in that time, I just figured the box had a bug or was a piece of shit.  It got to be really bad to the point where On Demand was basically unusable at times.  They never could tell me exactly what kind of communication error META-5 was.  Since we had Verizon for landline service, we decided to try FiOS (to include landline, television, and Internet).  We got it and haven't looked back.

    Comcast really proved how slimy they were when Frontier was in the process of taking over FiOS.  They had ads on bus stop benches saying "FiOS is leaving Oregon.  Comcast is here to stay."  Having not heard anything, I was confused and concerned that Comcast would be The One and Only Option, which made me seriously consider giving up cable and high-speed Internet.  As it turned out, yes, Verizon sold to Frontier and it was more than a name change behind the scenes.  But in my experience, for all intents and purposes it was just a name change.  No change in service, no interruptions, billing changeover was smooth, no issues.  But less than a year later, I started seeing ads for Comcast saying that the name was changing to Xfinity.  Lipstick on a pig and all that, but I thought, "Well shit, at least FiOS had an excuse -- the company was changing.  Comcast just wants to hide its name."  I seriously considered contacting the Oregon AG and filing a complaint for deceptive advertising.  Never did though.  Our Verizon/Frontier contract expired and we've been paying the same rate ever since.  No increases.

    In fairness, we have Comcast at work for MAN service to remote clinics and the connection has been rock solid.  They're quite slow on getting new installs done, but once it's up and running, it's good to go.  Service is fast.  We've had problems with Qwest's (now CenturyLink) offering, but we use theirs too and it's not particularly bad when it's working, but service has been problematic at times.  But I digress . . 

    From your other postings, you run your Internet connection harder than I do.  I don't have any remote access into my home network.  We as a household don't do any gaming.  We go to a select set of Web sites and do e-mail.  But it Just Works, which is more than I can say for Comcast/Xfinity.

     



  • @boomzilla said:

    @pjt33 said:
    @blakeyrat said:
    Hey, here's a trivia question for you, what do all fucking terrible software experiences have in common? You guessed right! It's JAVA!
    You know, your Java software experiences would be somewhat less terrible if you installed the plugin. What did you expect, anyway? ActiveX?

    Wow. When did they redo Windows Update in Java?

     

    Is that addressed at blakey? If it's addressed at me, it seems to be an even more perverse misinterpretation of what I wrote than is usual even on this forum.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @pjt33 said:

    @boomzilla said:
    @pjt33 said:
    @blakeyrat said:
    Hey, here's a trivia question for you, what do all fucking terrible software experiences have in common? You guessed right! It's JAVA!

    You know, your Java software experiences would be somewhat less terrible if you installed the plugin. What did you expect, anyway? ActiveX?

    Wow. When did they redo Windows Update in Java?

    Is that addressed at blakey? If it's addressed at me, it seems to be an even more perverse misinterpretation of what I wrote than is usual even on this forum.

    Sorry, I over-optimized my quoting. It was really at blakey. I also wanted to comment on your comment (the other stuff I wrote), and noticed that you were quoting the same stuff that I was going to quote, so I just quoted your comment, including the quote of blakey. Any solution seemed awkward, and that's what I picked.



  • @boomzilla said:

    But, yeah, what's a better option for this than a java plugin? Can, say, flash do it?
    Flash is one option, but every time I used such chat system so far, they just used HTML and JavaScript.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @blakeyrat said:

    "XFINITY Internet"... yes, this is a company billing me for a mystery product!
     

    No mystery. The prefix "Ex" is the exact opposite of the prefix "In". For example, "External" vs. "Internal".

    Thus, "Exfinity" is the exact opposite of "Infinity". It's a service that is nothing but bounds, and ends before it begins. That sounds very much like Comcast Internet to me.

    Truth in advertising, masked with an "X".


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @ender said:

    @boomzilla said:
    But, yeah, what's a better option for this than a java plugin? Can, say, flash do it?

    Flash is one option, but every time I used such chat system so far, they just used HTML and JavaScript.

    Wait, I thought we were talking about a voice chat. Were you just talking about a text chat? Or is there really a way to do that with just HTML and JS?


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @blakeyrat said:

    Yeah. There's no automated way to find out what service I'm paying them to provide. Look, Frontier (who took over from Verizon, and are the reason I switched to cable) were fucking awful. [b]They were excretable[/b]. But guess what? My Frontier bill said, right there in black and white "Frontier Broadband Services 5 mbps/1.5 mbps". Right there on the bill. Congratulations, Comcast, you're officially worse than Frontier at something.

    That's pretty funny, but you probably meant "execrable."



  • @pjt33 said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    Hey, here's a trivia question for you, what do all fucking terrible software experiences have in common? You guessed right! It's JAVA!
    You know, your Java software experiences would be somewhat less terrible if you installed the plugin.

    What did you expect, anyway? ActiveX?

     

    Quiet with your logic.



  • @FrostCat said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    Yeah. There's no automated way to find out what service I'm paying them to provide. Look, Frontier (who took over from Verizon, and are the reason I switched to cable) were fucking awful. They were excretable. But guess what? My Frontier bill said, right there in black and white "Frontier Broadband Services 5 mbps/1.5 mbps". Right there on the bill. Congratulations, Comcast, you're officially worse than Frontier at something.

    That's pretty funny, but you probably meant "execrable."

    No, he means they were shit.



  • The thought that there's someone out there worse than Frontier scares the hell out of me. Frontier is the phone company that patched an ethernet cable on one of our T-1s with wire nuts.



  • @pjt33 said:

    @blakeyrat said:
    Hey, here's a trivia question for you, what do all fucking terrible software experiences have in common? You guessed right! It's JAVA!

    You know, your Java software experiences would be somewhat less terrible if you installed the plugin.

    What did you expect, anyway? ActiveX?

    Are... are you for real? I'd expect HTML. Look into "XMLHttpRequest", it's pretty slick and only, what, 7 years old. Or perhaps Flash.

    BTW: it turns out that Steam reads out in megaBYTES/sec, so there was in fact no throttling in the first place.



  • @nonpartisan said:

    Since we had Verizon for landline service, we decided to try FiOS (to include landline, television, and Internet). We got it and haven't looked back.

    Lucky bastard.

    Verizon was too busy installing FIOS in Bumblefuck, Kentucky to get around to putting it in the fucking Seattle area until a few months before they sold to Frontier. First thing Frontier does? "Fuck FIOS, no new installs anywhere EVER." Fuck Frontier.

    The only reason I stuck with Verizon so long was:
    1) While slow, they had good reliable service
    2) Their billing and customer service wasn't a WTF (other people have had problems, but I never had)
    3) I was expecting FIOS to come to my town any day now

    They sold to Frontier, in a giant "fuck you" to all their customers, and I lost all of those things in the same day. I'll never give Verizon another cent due to that, fuck them.

    When I called Frontier to cancel, and the operator (who was quite nice) asked me why, I said flat-out: "I've had the same internet speed since 1997. Since you cancelled FIOS, as long as I stick with your company, I have no chance of ever increasing that speed. Meanwhile, Comcast can offer me 3 times the speed right now this instant. So yes, of course I'm canceling-- and believe me I hate Comcast, but lesser of two evils."

    @nonpartisan said:

    They had ads on bus stop benches saying "FiOS is leaving Oregon. Comcast is here to stay."

    Well, that ad is plain wrong. Comcast always lies in ads-- you should see the lies they tell about satellite TV. But it is true that if you don't have FIOS now, you'll never get it, and there's no hope of ever increasing your bandwidth speed via DSL.

    @nonpartisan said:

    From your other postings, you run your Internet connection harder than I do.  I don't have any remote access into my home network.  We as a household don't do any gaming. We go to a select set of Web sites and do e-mail.

    See, you have FIOS and you're not even fucking using it! I hate the everything.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @blakeyrat said:

    @pjt33 said:
    @blakeyrat said:
    Hey, here's a trivia question for you, what do all fucking terrible software experiences have in common? You guessed right! It's JAVA!

    You know, your Java software experiences would be somewhat less terrible if you installed the plugin.

    What did you expect, anyway? ActiveX?

    Are... are you for real? I'd expect HTML. Look into "XMLHttpRequest", it's pretty slick and only, what, 7 years old. Or perhaps Flash.

    Uh, wait...are you saying that java thing was just a text chat? Or that you know of an html/js voice chat? The screen shot says "speak with," which seems different than "chat with," which is what I'd expect for a regular text chat. Or have you already forgotten what you posted about?



  • @boomzilla said:

    Uh, wait...are you saying that java thing was just a text chat? Or that you know of an html/js voice chat? The screen shot says "speak with," which seems different than "chat with," which is what I'd expect for a regular text chat. Or have you already forgotten what you posted about?

    I'm thinking you're reading too much into "speak with". It also means "generically communicate in some fashion with".

    But ok, let's assume it's VOIP voice chat: Flash, or give me a Skype alternate, problem solved.


  • 🚽 Regular

    If I had the opportunity, I would replace all those stupid "automatic chat robots" with Cleverbot or Omegle and see how long it would take anyone to notice. I'd think the ensuing complaints that their robot is asking them about their penis or breast size and to take off their clothes would provide some cheap entertainment.



  • @RHuckster said:

    If I had the opportunity, I would replace all those stupid "automatic chat robots" with Cleverbot or Omegle and see how long it would take anyone to notice. I'd think the ensuing complaints that their robot is asking them about their penis or breast size and to take off their clothes would provide some cheap entertainment.
     

    That might actually be an improvement compared to some of the idiots I've "spoken with" on support chats.  Comcast techs in particular would benefit from liberal application of cluebat.  Also, talking to random people on Omegle would be just as effective in getting my problems solved and more entertaining.



  • @Lorne Kates said:

    No mystery. The prefix "Ex" is the exact opposite of the prefix "In". For example, "External" vs. "Internal".

     

    So the opposite of "increment" would be...?

     



  • @da Doctah said:

    @Lorne Kates said:

    No mystery. The prefix "Ex" is the exact opposite of the prefix "In". For example, "External" vs. "Internal".

     

    So the opposite of "increment" would be...?

     

    outcrement

     



  • @da Doctah said:

    @Lorne Kates said:

    No mystery. The prefix "Ex" is the exact opposite of the prefix "In". For example, "External" vs. "Internal".

     

    So the opposite of "increment" would be...?

     

    Are you trying to imply that prefixes only apply to things that are words regularly?  PREPOSTEROUS!

  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @Sutherlands said:

    @da Doctah said:

    @Lorne Kates said:

    No mystery. The prefix "Ex" is the exact opposite of the prefix "In". For example, "External" vs. "Internal".

     

    So the opposite of "increment" would be...?

     

    Are you trying to imply that prefixes only apply to things that are words regularly?  PREPOSTEROUS!
     

    My babby is prehumous.



  • I'm not going to ask what you meant by that.  I'm scared of the answer.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    . Look, Frontier (who took over from Verizon, and are the reason I switched to cable) were fucking awful. They were excretable.

     whaaaa?  the only problem i've had with frontier was a snafu in their setup system.  it took them some effort but they fixed it. once it was fixed my service has been rock solid, without fault and the full 25mbit symmetric i'm paying for.

    only problem i've had since then is a driver and firmware update for my Ceton InfiniTV 4 caused the host ID and data to change so i had to call tech and re-pair my cable card.  took them about 45 minutes because they had to get tier 3 to de-pair it first. 



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Lovely. Look at that beauty. I ended up sending them an email, asking what my plan is, and why my bill doesn't say what I'm even fucking paying for. (Fuck, how is that even legal? Especially with all the "oversight" US broadband providers are supposed to fucking have? Seriously.)

    Sending an email instead was probably a wise choice, the WTFery only gets worse after installing Java and using their chat. I recently discovered that even though I've been logging on and paying my bill every month (I don't trust them to do autopay), I couldn't actually *view* my bill. I had to go through that f'n online chat with multiple persons? (not sure they were actual humans) and it was full of so many WTFs I think I have a scar from banging my head on the desk so much. I wanted to capture the conversation to post on here but of course the applet won't let you copy it. I tried painstakingly scrolling through and screenshotting the window until about halfway through the applet crashed the browser and I lost it.

    If you ever have to contact them about an issue with your web account, don't. Just live with it and move on.



  • @Lorne Kates said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    "XFINITY Internet"... yes, this is a company billing me for a mystery product!
     

    No mystery. The prefix "Ex" is the exact opposite of the prefix "In". For example, "External" vs. "Internal".

    Someone has to mention "Ex-parrot" around now.


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