Jump to content
Spartans Home

So... Comcast


Recommended Posts

Well, my comcast franchise owner has been bent on doing massive upgrades to the area.... which makes me very happy.

Today they told me to reboot my modem and check my speed. They went on to say I should see approx. a double in speed.

I pay $59.95 per month for my internet connection. So I rebooted the modem.

I did a little speed check between me and Chicago.

4420712854.png

 

I have to say... if this is my new speed consistently (normally my internet speed is rock solid) I am a very happy camper.

Although the upload could be better... they are seriously throttling that.

 

I did several more tests to NY city. They were all almost identical as follows

4420756056.png

 

So what they have done is consistent with my expectations.... amazing a cable company could do that actually :thumbsup_anim:

Edited by Zathrus~SPARTA~
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is all based on the infrastructure they are forced to use in the area.

The area I live in is fairly new, this subdivision was built in 2004. The city was founded in 1974.

So the infrastructure is new and easy to replace/upgrade.

 

Down in Tucson, there are areas where the DSL ISP's can only provide 7mb/s. This is because of the size copper wire they are being forced to use

in the telephone infrastructure. In addition, it is really expensive upgrading from infrastructure that is 50 + years old.... because it is total replacement of everything in the system.

Comcast does fairly well even down in Tucson, because for some reason Comcast is very aggressive at upgrading it's infrastructure in this entire area. I am guessing I am just lucky

and have a good Franchise owner here. They went past my subdivision laying fiber optic cable all the way to the next town about 3 months ago.

I think I can actually have fiber optic to my house now if I choose to pay the absurd price they charge for the install and monthly fee.

 

Oh and Pringle do your speed test to a major hub like Chicago, Dallas, New York or Atlanta. That helps reduce the probability a local ISP problem will screw your speed since it is only those

between you and the hub that can affect you.

Edited by Zathrus~SPARTA~
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is all based on the infrastructure they are forced to use in the area.

 

Yep, this is mostly accurate. The cable company has to work deals with the local government for use of the utility lines. However, a lot of it is also up to the company on how much they're going to invest in infrastructure and new technologies.

 

For the cable company I work for, we have fiber running down to almost all the nodes. We also just upgraded our entire CMTS infrastructure to move to DOCSIS 3.1. Those two investments combined allow us to offer much higher speed tiers.

 

For reference:

4-5 houses feed into a tap (the small green box or pole sitting in your or your neighbors yard)

Up to 8 taps feed into an amplifier (usually located on the aerial utility lines, but can also be underground)

Multiple amplifiers feed into a node (large green box, usually one per neighborhood or subdivision)

Multiple nodes feed into a hub (Hub contains the CMTS hardware, which is where your cable box terminates)

For television, the next hop is the Head End (where all the provider satellite feeds are received by the cable company and inserted into the cable network)

For data, the next hop is the data center (this is the demarc for your cable provider. from there it exits out into the "Internet")

 

House -> Tap -> Amplifier -> Node -> Hub -> Head end or Data center -> Satellite feed or "Internet"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Yep, this is mostly accurate. The cable company has to work deals with the local government for use of the utility lines. However, a lot of it is also up to the company on how much they're going to invest in infrastructure and new technologies.

 

For the cable company I work for, we have fiber running down to almost all the nodes. We also just upgraded our entire CMTS infrastructure to move to DOCSIS 3.1. Those two investments combined allow us to offer much higher speed tiers.

 

For reference:

4-5 houses feed into a tap (the small green box or pole sitting in your or your neighbors yard)

Up to 8 taps feed into an amplifier (usually located on the aerial utility lines, but can also be underground)

Multiple amplifiers feed into a node (large green box, usually one per neighborhood or subdivision)

Multiple nodes feed into a hub (Hub contains the CMTS hardware, which is where your cable box terminates)

For television, the next hop is the Head End (where all the provider satellite feeds are received by the cable company and inserted into the cable network)

For data, the next hop is the data center (this is the demarc for your cable provider. from there it exits out into the "Internet")

 

House -> Tap -> Amplifier -> Node -> Hub -> Head end or Data center -> Satellite feed or "Internet"

 

:exclaim: NERD ALERT :exclaim:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...