Comcast Down - Whole Eastern Seaboard

So apparently Comcast is having MAJOR issues with their internet service ... Twitter is lit up with people all over the country complaining that they are without internet.

I manage to get a weak connection from a coffee shop near me to figure out what to do since I am myself on Comcast here in DC. Apparently its an issue to do with their DNS.

I'm not a computer person but on Twitter they were saying to switch DNS on my settings to 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 which is apparently something to do with Google.

I did it and so far it's working.

Anyhoot, I was wondering if anyone could explain to me what all of this means and how come I can use google to get to the net even though they are not an ISP? And what is 8.8.8.8?

eta: google feed

Cheers!

8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 are Google's DNS servers, more here:

en.wikipedia.org...

Welcome to being a Comcast subscriber. I lived in Philly for eight years, and the two biggest banes of my existence were Peco and Comcast.
Moving down South, I've had nothing but great service with my Time Warner Internet.

reply to post by Regenmacher


Should I be using the 8.8.8.8 even after Comcast sorts out their own DNS?
Is there any difference/advantage?

reply to post by Mactire


lol yeah ... I used to have TW in NYC but it isn't available here ... Comcast are the only ones that provide cable broadband internet service which is the fastest available to me. I don't use them for anything else ... long live Directv!

Best @comcast tweet yet:

Someone let me know when @comcast fixes their problems. In the meantime, I'll be here talking with my wife.

lulz

reply to post by schrodingers dog


I have a connection in Michigan but it's a bit dodgy.
I can't connect to some servers right off and the connection is very slow.

reply to post by jfj123


If you go to your settings and switch DNS to 8.8.8.8 it will clear it right up.
In fact I think it's working faster than when I was using the Comcast DNS.

reply to post by schrodingers dog


I had comcast and dealt with it for many many years. Thier customer service sucks, always has. Look into AT&T Uverse. Better price and better customer service.

Looks like it's back up and running ... ugh, I think I might stick with the google DNS anyway.

Now I sit and wait for my pro-rated refund.

reply to post by schrodingers dog


Do you realize that there is still no internet traffic in Nevada, Wisconsin, Georgia, Texas, Ontario, Vancouver, etc.? This is still ongoing, it's not fixed yet everywhere.

Thanks to the user who-me? we have this convenient link: www.internettrafficreport.com...

reply to post by WashingtonGrewHemp


Mmm, when I said it's working I meant for me and those tweeting from the major east coast cities ... sorry, I guess I should have been more specific. But those alternate DNS digits should work for everyone with this issue.

I just started this thread. It might be related to the comcast problem, they are blocking Netflix.
Here is the link.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by schrodingers dog


You probably know what it means by now, but if you do not, here is a simple explanation.

Although it's easier for humans to remember "abovetopsecret.com" than "67.228.0.162", the Internet communication protocols use only IP addresses (groups of numbers like the previous one).

As IP addresses are independent (the fact that one IP address like 67.228.0.162 is in the US doesn't mean that 67.228.0.163 is) there is only one way of making the connection between the names and the IP addresses, but having tables with both.

Those tables can exist on any computer, from your home computer to specialised servers that only have that role.

When you write "www.abovetopsecret.com" on your browser your computer will look at the local table for a corresponding IP address, and if it doesn't find any then it will ask for it from the IP address listed in DNS server list in your computer's network definitions. That computer does exactly the same thing, looking first at its own list and asking for it if it doesn't find it to the DNS server in which it relies to update it's own list.

Seeing that the closest to your computer the faster the connection is, the best option is usually to use your ISP's DNS server, but using a different server doesn't present any problem.

Besides Google there are several DNS servers publicly available, as this list shows.

Another major outage this evening:

Widespread Comcast outage, and how to route around it
www.annarbor.com...

Posted: Dec 5, 2010 at 11:20 PM
Comcast has suffered an outage, reports Chicago Breaking News, which extends to Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Minnesota. The troubles started at about 8:30 p.m. Eastern time, and are related to the Comcast domain name system (DNS) servers.
This is not the first Comcast outage related to name server issues, reports Engadget, which points to an earlier set of name server outages on the East Coast that affected network users in late November. Similar issues occured in 2005, reported CNET at the time.

Service just came back on completely around 1:15AM. I was off since about 9PM. Freaked me out, what with all the Wikileaks stuff going down.

reply to post by this_is_who_we_are


Yeah, that went through my mind as well ... especially since he day it went down for us was the day the leaks were starting. This is the byproduct of frequenting ats with a bob attached to our backs. The slightest anomaly triggers exponential over reaction.

Comcast was down in the whole State of Michigan two days ago for about 24 hours but not every area was down that long, for me it was about six hours, I called the next to get credit for my inconvenience, they gave me a week, that is not automatic you have to ask for the credit.

The tech I talked to called it a crash, it did freak me out for a while as I just hooked up my new computer less then 24 hours before it happened.

I have been with Comcast for ten years and this is the first time this has happened in all that time, they are very reliable in my opinion.