Mediacom issues continue and continue and...!

Pingplotter software and yes, red is bad!

After having been a subscriber for over a decade, I've known service from Mediacom to be both exemplary and occasionally a little bit  horrific. Since moving into Taneycomo Terrace, it's been more the latter, as of late! The problem, I feel, is that subscribing to this company is a lot like playing Whack-a-Mole! As soon as one problem is fixed it seems there is always something new just around the corner. I'm not implying that this company has incompetent leadership and infrastructure... I'm stating it! If you have an alternative, any alternative, please subscribe to another service. If this mess of a company is the only choice you have, write the FCC and demand they get a competing service in your area!

Just getting this post published took numerous tries as the internet kept locking up! a quick glance at the graphic above confirmed the reason. A packet loss rate of over 60%! What are packets, you may ask? I like to think of them a small pieces of information that travel to and from servers. It's how we get to see stuff on the screen. When information gets 'lost' for whatever reason, the user will experience longer than normal wait times before anything 'happens' on their screen. High loss rates make working the net somewhat like walking through waist high mud. And, for those of us who pay for premium cable services, this is unacceptable.

After calling a Mediacom tech friend, I learned that they had been receiving numerous complaints (duh) and that a person would be out my way to splunk out the problem. I'll append this post in a day or so to report on any improvements...

A final note. Were I on the Board of Directors, I would strongly consider cleaning house...as this simple post took over 2 minutes to upload! Also, a complaint was filed, by me, with the FCC. I would encourage others who have had similar bad service, do the same.

October 16 - I heard from the Mediacom people that they had been working hard on a fix. They even reported a slight improvement had been made, but also admitted that the main problem was ongoing.... No word on when this problem would be be fixed. Posting is now a real effort and requires multiple tries. My Vonage phone no longer works, (it voice over IP) and I now spend hours looking out my window... (I'm beginning to feel a little like Anne Frank). More updates to come.

October 17 - Another day came and went with continued poor network service from Mediacom. If anything, my Internet connection was even worst than the day before and nothing was heard from their office as to any progress that might have been made. Oh, and I'm pretty sure the techs don't work on Sundays.

October 18 - My overall network performance envelope was in the crapper as some sites refused to load or stalled midway through. I was informed via email, that Mediacom still did not have a handle on the problem, that they 'were working on it.' Monday will be the start of the second week of this kind of crappy service... or is it the third? Getting hard to remember.

October 19 - Woke up to find that my connectivity issues concerning the Internet had gotten worst! I couldn't access my dot-coms for file maintenance and other popular sites wouldn't load at all (Word Press, etc)!  A call to Mediacom's tech division revealed that they were experiencing 'area wide disruptions' - hmm. I'm now wondering just how deep this rabbit hole goes...

On another track, I had occasion to stumble across a sidebar, when I searched 'Mediacom, with over 132 reviews. Amazingly the average was ONE AND A HALF STARS! I've never seen a company with such a low consumer rating before... And, page after page, the reviews read pretty much the same as this one below!

And, that was one of the nicer reviews... So, let me append what I said about this company cleaning house - I would tell the CEO to definitely start the firing process at the level of Director of Customer Relations, and then work his or her way down from there...

October 20 - Another long and frustrating day working with an Internet connection that was only there part time.The video of the latency problems I've been experiencing and which was only 1.57 meg in size, never was able to load!

Oct 22 - On the day before, a tech had come out and determined that it was actually my aging Dell XPS that was the problem. How he came to that conclusion, I'm still not sure. No matter, I've decided to acquire a new system running OS 7. I'll revisit this post some week hence when it is up and running.

Oct 26 - Success at last! After about two weeks of problems, a technician came out and finally determined that it was the cable modem that was causing all my problems!! Once it was swapped out, all my problems went away. so, it must be true what some people told me - their modems suck, by and large! And now, three weeks into this bad relationship, I find that the cable line is jammed with static (aka jttr) -  a problem that leads to.... wait for it.... long delays!