Are you Internet tech savvy? Look at the following and tell me what you see …

 
After watching the video in the previous post, Brothers, I felt that the video was a bit blurry and decided to upload an HD version of the video. What follows is a classic case of when you’re up to your neck in alligators, it’s easy to forget that the initial objective was to drain the swamp.

The upload to YouTube for the HD version from my iPad was taking forever. WTF?

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It all started two weeks ago (cue music from Alice’s Restaurant) when number two son got a message on his upstairs TV that we had to upgrade his cable box from Xfinity/Comcast. So I asked him to investigate and it turned out that we needed to collect our Internet cable modem and two cable TV boxes and take them to Comcast to exchange for newer models. He brought down his box and I got the downstairs box and modem and the very next day I took them to Comcast to swap them out. 

The next day I got a new cable modem, a master cable TV box and a secondary cable TV box and brought them home. Number two son took over the job of hooking up the new modem and master TV box downstairs and after at least an hour on the phone got the downstairs TV and modem working. However when he tried to get the secondary box connected to the upstairs TV it did not work. After additional communications with Comcast he determined that he needed another master box for his TV.

Days later it arrived and when he hooked it up to his TV he still could not get reception. After another session on the phone to Comcast, it was determined that a technician needed to come out to the house. 

Last Tuesday said technician (an independent contractor for Comcast) spent the entire afternoon running new cable, splitters, and installing a signal booster (a powered amplifier) in order to get a TV signal upstairs. As he was getting ready to leave I cornered him and asked him what he did (see previous sentence). He also told me that our Internet performance was poor and that there was nothing he could do on my end. He said he would put in a support ticket for Comcast to investigate on their end.

On Thursday (December 8th) I called Comcast to follow up and was told they had no record of any problem being reported. While on the phone I ran a speed test (see image above for December 8) and told them that I was getting about 160 download and 12 upload. I was told that my service level was for 100-150 download and 10 upload … the best available. My value of 160/12 was certainly better than 150/10, so all was good. I left it at that.

So tonight (December 9th) I tried to upload an HD version of the Brothers video (remember the Brothers video?). We’ll just wait for it to come around on the guitar. It was taking forever to upload. So I called Comcast to complain. The first thing we did was a speed test. My numbers were 107/0.9. Then 67/0.3. That is … 0.3 vs 10 … for upload. “How far away from the modem are you?” Comcast guy asks. A reasonable troubleshooting question as walls and pipes can interefere and slow Wi-Fi speed. I am already on the move with iPad and iPhone to the room with the cable modem/Wi-Fi. “I am two meters away from the modem with clear line of sight,” I tell him. “71/0.28 – my Internet sucks,” I continue. “Do you have a computer connected directly via Ethernet?” Comcast guy asks. I Skype number two son upstairs. His numbers are WORSE than mine on Wi-Fi.  (WTF x2) Comcast guy asks to reset the modem. OK. No improvement. I tell him that number two son has been complaining about poor performance. “How long?” Comcast guy asks. “How long?” I text number two son. “Two weeks,  maybe, since we got the new modem.” Comcast guy says he needs to send out another technician to look at our Internet. “Sunday afternoon is our first availablity.” Sigh … OK.

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Where was I? Oh yeah, guess I will wait until Sunday or Monday to try to upload the HD version of the Brothers video. Or maybe I won’t …