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I often times wonder if someone knowledgeable ever answers that chat sessions for Comcast. It seems every time I get on their live chat system, I get some person who doesn’t have a clue what I am talking about initially. Here’s case and point:

Me > Routing issues with White Marsh and Westminster on Comcast.
Paul > Hello, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Paul. Please give me one moment to review your information.
Paul > I will be happy to help you with your concern today.Me >
Hello Paul – Traffic from White Marsh, MD is being routed to Westminster, MD and Westminster in turn routes traffic back to White Marsh routers. It then goes inan endless loop. Sites such as washingtonpost.com and apple.com don’t resolve and there haven’t been changes on our end. A traceroute confirms this activity. Additionally, I am unable to reach comcast.net/help (comcast.net works) to see the current network status. Here’s the traceroute:
Me > traceroute to apple.com (17.149.160.49), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 10.0.1.1 (10.0.1.1) 4.006 ms 1.402 ms 2.297 ms
2 73.129.208.1 (73.129.208.1) 9.090 ms 9.132 ms 10.930 ms
3 ge-1-22-ur01.whitemarsh.md.bad.comcast.net (68.87.130.137) 9.904 ms 19.030 ms 19.812 ms
4 te-8-2-ur02.whitemarsh.md.bad.comcast.net (68.87.129.170) 8.844 ms 16.714 ms 17.454 ms
5 te-9-3-ar01.whitemarsh.md.bad.comcast.net (68.87.129.165) 9.252 ms 8.106 ms 9.608 ms
6 * * *
7 * te-5-1-ar01.whitemarsh.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.252.126) 9.417 ms *
8 * * *
9 * * *
10 * * *
11 * * *
12 * * *
13 * te-5-1-ar01.whitemarsh.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.252.126) 12.763 ms *
14 te-9-1-ur02.westminster.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.252.125) 14.453 ms * 16.117 ms
15 * * *
16 * * te-9-1-ur02.westminster.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.252.125) 16.196 ms
17 * * *
18 * * *
19 * * *
20 * te-9-1-ur02.westminster.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.252.125) 19.897 ms 18.743 ms
21 * * *
22 * * *
23 te-5-1-ar01.whitemarsh.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.252.126) 17.804 ms 18.222 ms *
24 * * *
25 * * te-5-1-ar01.whitemarsh.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.252.126) 18.750 ms
26 te-9-1-ur02.westminster.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.252.125) 20.840 ms * *
27 * te-5-1-ar01.whitemarsh.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.252.126) 22.569 ms *
28 * * te-9-1-ur02.westminster.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.252.125) 23.461 ms
29 te-5-1-ar01.whitemarsh.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.252.126) 22.189 ms * *
30 * te-9-1-ur02.westminster.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.252.125) 24.993 ms *
31 * * te-5-1-ar01.whitemarsh.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.252.126) 23.457 ms
32 * te-9-1-ur02.westminster.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.252.125) 22.498 ms *
33 * * *
34 * * *
35 * te-5-1-ar01.whitemarsh.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.252.126) 25.290 ms 23.455 ms
36 te-9-1-ur02.westminster.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.252.125) 26.085 ms * *
37 te-5-1-ar01.whitemarsh.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.252.126) 28.712 ms * *
38 te-9-1-ur02.westminster.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.252.125) 26.489 ms * *
39 * * *
40 te-9-1-ur02.westminster.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.252.125) 30.314 ms * *
41 te-5-1-ar01.whitemarsh.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.252.126) 40.361 ms 41.721 ms *
42 * * *
43 * te-5-1-ar01.whitemarsh.md.bad.comcast.net (68.86.252.126) 29.075 ms *
Me > Then beyond that, it keeps looping between White Marsh routers and Westminster routers. It never reaches the final destination (apple.com in this case)
Paul > I apologize but you have to conyact Comcast home networking regarding your router issue.
Me > This is not our router that is an issue
Me > See the traceroute
Paul > Yes.

Since when is a traceroute that bounces back and forth between two hops that are NOT on my local network an issue with my home networking? Anyway, after several minutes of trying to explain it to the tech analyst (speaking of which if you’re an analyst, you should probably know something about traceroutes and be able to analyze them, otherwise you’re a tech representative in my eyes) he finally understood that this was not my problem.I first noticed the problem when I couldn’t get to sites such as washingtonpost.com or apple.com. Knowing that their servers were not down and there weren’t any known issues with the major backbones that provide those high-profile websites access, I decided to use an anonymous proxy to get to the sites. Sure enough, they responded.

Then the traceroute came into play. As you can see, it’s bouncing back and forth between White Marsh and Westminster. The Westminster router doesn’t want to let traffic pass through it and instead is rejecting it back to the sender thus getting me nowhere.After asking for a credit, the tech analyst couldn’t find my account via the account number (odd considering it’s printed clearly on the bill and is the same number I provided him). Ten minutes later I get a response saying he can’t find the account and to hold on. Sure, I’d love to hold on; I’ve only been doing it for the past fifteen minutes while you’ve been looking up my account.

Five minutes more pass and he says that the system is down due to an “upgrade”. I would have been much more receptive to that if he would have told me upfront that the upgrade was happening, but I highly doubt Comcast does essential upgrades that start at random times (i.e 2:37p on a Sunday afternoon) . But whatever, things happen, networks go down and emergency maintenance needs to occur. So I give him the benefit of the doubt..

We worked out a deal where he’d credit the account for the downtime and when I asked how much the credit was I get “Thank you for contacting Comcast! Where you are a Valued Customer! Have a great day!”I love canned responses. Especially when the technician didn’t sound a bit thrilled to chat with me and all of the sudden exclamation points galore!