Comcast Outage

After a number of shorter outages, our Comcast connection in Galax went down at 1:15 AM yesterday morning and came back up at 3:11 AM this morning. Woody watched from Galax, I watched from Independence, Bijk (https://www.bijk.com/p/effdcd35) watched from Prague and what we saw was <nothing>. Comcast said, "We're working on it, no ETTR".

Searching on a working Internet connection - http://twitter.com/#!/search/comcast%20outage - we found evidence that the outage was at least as wide as Knoxville. Neither Comcast status URLs  http://online.comcast.net/networkhealth/outagecheck.aspx nor http://kb.cable.comcast.com/casper/outage_board/ worked.

Feeling a bit like Howard the Duck, we whined a bit, folded our hands and waited.

A pleasant, but not entirely effective, customer service rep provided the following dialog:

Bennette Robin > Hello James, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Bennette Robin. Please give me one moment to review your information.
James > My Issue: Internet down
Bennette Robin > Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
Bennette Robin > I'm sorry about the issue you are having with our services. I'm not going to waste any time here, let's get right into fixing it.
Bennette Robin > Just to set the right expectation, to have your internet service restored, we usually need to send a technician over to check on our wirings and equipments.But as your analyst for today, I will do all necessary troubleshooting steps first to help you to restore your problem. However, when all else fails, I will have to schedule a technician to have this problem fixed. Would that be alright?
James > It would be better if you listened to symptoms first
James > 1: darkangel.local (10.4.0.9) 0.228ms pmtu 1500 1: 172.17.40.1 (172.17.40.1) 76.012ms asymm 2 1: 172.17.40.1 (172.17.40.1) 16.183ms asymm 2 2: 172.17.40.1 (172.17.40.1) 24.657ms 3: 172.17.100.5 (172.17.100.5) 77.776ms 4: 208.94.92.221 (208.94.92.221) 37.356ms 5: 64.209.102.217 (64.209.102.217) 26.521ms 6: te-0-13-0-0-pe01.ashburn.va.ibone.comcast.net (75.149.228.145) 32.470ms 7: pos-3-11-0-0-cr01.ashburn.va.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.86.145) 34.730ms 8: pos-1-8-0-0-cr01.atlanta.ga.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.87.90) 47.791ms
Bennette Robin > Yes, James please go ahead I am hear to listen.
James > Connection broken in Atlanta
Bennette Robin > James, is this the first time you had this problem
Bennette Robin > Sorry for the typo. Please disregard that last message.
Bennette Robin > James, is this the first time you had this problem?
James > No. There was an earlier outage after midnight and they have happened before
James > 74.94.88.242 > Not responding. Service conn on 74.94.88.242 is not OK : Host does not respond to ping System unreachable for 1 poll periods (0 seconds) 74.94.88.242 is unreachable
Bennette Robin > I am sorry that this is happening with your service. Let me check that in your account, so we can pinpoint the source of the problem.
Bennette Robin > For verification purposes and for me to better assist you with this concern, would you please provide the following information: The Name on the Account Billing Phone Number on the Account Service Address Account number or the last 4 digit of the SSN on the account.
James > I am not on site but ssn is ***-**-7376
Bennette Robin > James, may I have the name on the account, and the service address please.
James > The phone number may have been 276-236-3400
James > Service address is 115 W Grayson St, Galax, VA 24333 2nd floor
James > I just pay the bills
Bennette Robin > James, do you have a business account with Comcast?
James > James Tarvid, LSNet
James > Yes
Bennette Robin > I would like to set your expectations that you have reached the Comcast High Speed Internet service technical department for residential subscription and I've checked on our system and it tells me that you do have a Business account. With that I would advise you to please call our Business Department to this number, 1-800-3161619, for further assistance. Rest assured that you will be assisted immediately.
James > I have no phone service at the moment, we use VOIP
James > Do you post status on Twitter? Is there an outage URL?
Bennette Robin > Let me check on that for you.
Bennette Robin > James, I do apologize for the inconvenience. I just verified that Comcast is currently undergoing a system upgrade and I can assure you that there is nothing wrong with your phone service. We appreciate your patience and please bear with us on this since we are doing this to provide the best possible service we can give to all Comcast subscribers. This will not take long and I can see it in our database that it is scheduled by our highly skilled engineers to be fixed within the soonest possible time.
James > 16 hours and waiting. Is there a URL for status?
Bennette Robin > Let me check on that information.
Bennette Robin > James, just to clarrify waht URL status are you checking for?
James > The URL where Comcast posts network issues
James > Twitter is not reassuring
James > http://twitter.com/#!/search/comcast
Bennette Robin > Thank you for waiting, James.
James > http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=1157&doc_id=20605...
Bennette Robin > Here is the site you can check on the status of the outage http://online.comcast.net/networkhealth/outagecheck.aspx
James > Bad Request (Invalid Hostname)
Bennette Robin > You can also go to comcast.com and type in the search box for outage update.
Bennette Robin > That is the only URL we have regarding outage updates.
James > tarvid@tarvid-desktop:~$ ping online.comcast.com PING online.comcast.com (63.251.179.5) 56(84) bytes of data. ^C --- online.comcast.com ping statistics --- 15 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 14110ms
James > Might as well report it as down as well.
James > Is this like the DNS failure after Thanksgiving last year
Bennette Robin > Rest assured our technician are already working on restoring the service in your area.
James > How about restoring the web server at online.comcast.com?
Bennette Robin > Please do check on your connection from time to time.
James > I check on it every 5 seconds
James > I like my Comcast connection
James > And you seem like an agreeable person
Bennette Robin > Thank your for being a loyal customer.
James > But I feel like Howard the Duck - trapped in a world he never made
Bennette Robin > I get what you mean, I do feel that at times.
Bennette Robin > Let me check on my sources if I could provide you with alternative URL for better outage updates.
Bennette Robin > James, here is an alternative url for you http://kb.cable.comcast.com/casper/outage_board/
Bennette Robin > I'm glad I was able to help you. Do you have any other questions or concerns I can help you with today?
James > tarvid@tarvid-desktop:~$ ping kb.cable.comcast.com PING kb.cable.comcast.com (8.15.228.169) 56(84) bytes of data. ^C --- kb.cable.comcast.com ping statistics --- 13 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss, time 12095ms
Bennette Robin > James, are you still with me?
James > I thank you. You have been gracious
Bennette Robin > Thank you for being very polite and for appreciating the my efforts, this is a great way to start my shift. (smiling)
Bennette Robin > Just to let you know, at the end of this chat there will be a short survey. I would appreciate it if you would take a moment to complete it so we can continue to improve the service we provide to you.
Bennette Robin > Thank you for choosing Comcast for your entertainment needs! Our goal is to provide you with a consistently superior customer experience – that’s our guarantee. Learn more about the Comcast Customer Guarantee at http://www.comcast.com/corporate/Customers/CustomerGuarantee.html?fss=cu...
Bennette Robin > If you need assistance in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us through Live Chat or E-Mail (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week). Comcast also offers great FAQ and Help forums located at www.Comcast.net to help you solve many issues on your own. You can also reach us through our Hotline 1-800-XFINITY (1-800-934-6489).
James > I'll let you go. I know you get evaluated on how many people you can handle.
Bennette Robin > Analyst has closed chat and left the room