Experiences with Comcast Ethernet

Wed Jan 5 04:27:51 UTC 2011

On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 4:05 PM, Dylan Ebner <dylan.ebner at crlmed.com> wrote:
> My company has about 2 dozen Comcast business cable accounts at satellite offices around the
> Midwest. We are looking at adding an additional ISP to the mix and we are thinking of purchasing an

you are looking at an additional ISP, like multihoming your offices?
or 'you need more pipe in the offices'?

> Ethernet circuit from Comcast in an attempt to increase performance on those connections by keeping
> all
> the traffic within Comcast's network.  Comcast, of course, has assured us this will result in "noticeable"

If you bought an L2 ethernet link from 'office' to 'somewhere' why
would speed be better? The previous question I asked (clarifying
question) aims to help disambiguate this some...

o If you buy a gig link to Comcast's IP network (with IP services from
Comcast) that's one thing (then all, you hope) offices on the same
network are 'faster'. You won't be crossing any of the (potentially)
problematic isp peering links other folk have mentioned.

o If you are buying ethernet transoprt to connect the offices together
in a large vpls/mpls domain you'll probably be better off speed wise
(unless there is drastically higher latency or loss) vs the existing
links you have to comcast's IP network. (note also the VPLS/MPLS
domain doesnt' imply external connectivity, necessarily)

o If you are buying ethernet transport to link the offices to an
external peering/ISP partner/provider then whatever happens on
Comcast's IP network is immaterial (mostly) to this part of your
network.

-Chris

> speed increases for those accounts. I am more weary. Does anyone have any experience with
> Comcast's
> ethernet offerings? How reliable are they? Do Comcast cable connections see a significant
> performance improvement?
>
> Dylan Ebner, Network Engineer
> Consulting Radiologists, Ltd.
> 1221 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, MN 55403
> ph. 612.573.2236     fax. 612.573.2250
> dylan.ebner at crlmed.com<mailto:dylan.ebner at crlmed.com>
> www.consultingradiologists.com<http://www.consultingradiologists.com>
>
>