SoCal FIOS outage(?) / static IP readdressing

Fri Jan 6 19:55:56 UTC 2017

> On Jan 6, 2017, at 08:21 , Leo Bicknell <bicknell at ufp.org> wrote:
> 
> In a message written on Wed, Jan 04, 2017 at 04:51:26PM -0800, Paul B. Henson wrote:
>> I'd call my business FIOS "prosumer" ;). Honestly, I'm not sure why
>> you'd get business FIOS over residential FIOS if you don't need static
>> IP addresses, at least if you're at an address where both are available.
> 
> I can't speak to Verizon, but I can speak to Comcast.
> 
> At a past address I had Comcast Business (cable modem) service at
> a residential address, and then later downgraded it to Comcast
> Residential service.
> 
> The similarities:
>  - Both used the exact same cable coming into the house.
>  - Both offered the same speeds.
>  - Both offered static IP's for an additional fee.
	— Not available in San Jose on residential service. If you want static, must go business here.
>  - Both clearly used the same routers, backbone, peering, etc.
> 
> The differences I could see:
>  - Cable Modem
>    - Residential: could rent a consumer grade or BYO (I did, a good one)
>    - Business: Comcast supplied and required their better-than-average,
>                modem.  It could be in bridge mode though.
	- San Jose, I was able to use BYO. Had to escalate several levels and pull several teeth to get
		bridge mode on the Comcast unit while I had it.
>  - Support
>    - Residential: 0-30 minutes on hold, the one dispatch when I needed
>                   a truck roll took ~24 hours.
>    - Business: 0-2 minutes on hold, I had two dispatches one where the
>                truck arrived within 30 minutes, the other in about 2
>                hours.
>  - Cost (At the time)
>    - Residential: $75/month.
>    - Business Class: $90/month.
	- San Jose, Residential and business both about $90/month. Difference is that Residential includes Television
		in that price.
>  - Data Caps:
>    - Residential: 250GB/month.
	- San Jose, I just received a notice indicating that they were just now instituting a 500GB/month limit on my service.
		Prior to that, no documented cap. I don’t think I’ve tried to move more than 1/2 a terabyte in any month, so I
		don’t know if there was an undocumented cap or not.
>    - Business: None (with two paragraphs of disclaimer)
> 

One other visible difference:
	- Residential: One mac address only, 15 minutes to reset DHCP server if changing MAC address
	- Business: Multiple mac addresses supported

> Differences I could not see/verify:
>  - Cable Modem Channel Selection
>    - I'm told in some cases business class cable modems get different
>      DOCSYS channels which have less congestion than typical
>      residential channels.  This of course varies greatly market to
>      market, and is also dependent on the number of both resi and
>      business subs on the segment.
>  - Packet prioritization.
>    - I'm told that business class packets are given somewhat higher
>      priority (QoS) in the network.  I could find no way to verify
>      this, and generally had no packet loss issues inside the Comcast
>      network with either service.
> 
> Ultimately the reason to buy business class at a residential address
> (and I think the Prosumer description is correct) is generally faster
> repair times.  On congested segments it may also result in slightly
> lesser packet loss.  Maybe, depending on how caps are done, it could be
> worth while if you move a lot of data.

In my case, I started residential and it was abysmal. There were so many
problems and multiple truck rolls did not resolve anything. Finally, I
resorted to business class in desperation (My choices here for any
bandwidth >1.5Mbps/384k are Comcast, Comcast, or Comcast). Within a few
days of installation, 3-4 truck-rolls later, I had about 3 months of free
service in credits and working service that was stable for years.

Later I downgraded back to residential and it seems that having gotten
the neighborhood equipment up to business class standards has resolved
the issues and things continue to be reliable.

> Obviously if these differences are worth the delta in price depends on
> your situation and the exact delta in your location.  At the time I had
> this I was working from home, so the extra $15/month insurance that I
> could do my job was money well spent.

The delta may be more variable than you describe as well. If you’re only
looking at internet, then it’s about $15 or maybe even $0 in some cases
(It was actually cheaper at one point to buy a la carte business class
internet than residential here). However, if you add TV, then the double-play
residential price is almost always such that your internet service price
a la carte is roughly equal to double-play price for both on residential.
They don’t offer double-play business pricing in my area and, in fact,
refused to sell me business class TV service in a residential unit. When
I was running business class internet, I was paying about $60 for TV and
$90 for business class internet, so it was $150 vs. $90. For me, it was
worth even that much larger differential at the time because at least the
service worked and at least I could get them to fix things when it didn’t.

To me, that was the single largest differentiator for business vs. residential
service. OTOH, this was in the years when Comcast was consistently winning
the most hated company in America award, so I believe there have been
some significant improvements in their residential service since then.
(Though I still wouldn’t call myself a “happy” customer so much as one
that is quite a bit less angry.)

I’d still like to get a real internet provider here, or better yet, more than
one that offered real bandwidth over fiber.

Owen