Maybe it’s just me, but an Internet provider that does not support pings or traceroute is problematic.

I’ve had my Comcast cable account for over three years – it’s been though three or four owners (I think I first got it with Excite@home before they did their incredible we-won’t-sell belly-up), and – for the most part – I’ve been very happy with it. It’s quite zippy (though they have capped the upload speed, which is a handicap for a developer like me), and the outages have been very infrequent and – with one exception (over 24 hours) – pretty short.

I’ve generally been satisfied; I’ve recommended it to many other friends/associated.

But – for whatever reason – my ability to either ping or traceroute past the Comcast gateway has evaporated over the past couple of months.

This isn’t just a brief outage, the ports or protocol (ICMP) appears to be blocking pings and traceroutes (outgoing). I’m talking all the time for the past 2+ months.

And the most frustrating part of all this is the customer support – it really is horrible. I have opened four tickets on this single issue, three have been closed with an “it must be your system” statement with no change in my inability to use these base Internet tools.

Hmm…it’s my system??

• OK, I do have a home network. So let’s plug the cable directly into any of the four boxes I have in the office. Even after the recommened recycling of box and modem, same lack of functionality.
• Comcast has said my OS is the problem, and I should call Microsoft. Uh…

• Which of the three OSes that I running is the problem (Win2000, WinNT, Linux 7.3)? All three?
• So I should ask MS about the issues I’m having with my Linux box?
• When I use dial up on each of the machines (to a different ISP), all is well?
• If it’s my machine, how come I can ping or traceroute to the Comcast gateway (not in my house/on my property)…but it dies there? That means it’s outside my equipement, ja?

• In response to direct questions, Comcast is unwilling to say yes|no they do|don’t support ping/traceroute.
• In Comcast’s help forums, Comcast techs have posted messages asking for users to post their trace routes so they can see how an upgrade went…uh, I can’t do that….
• Comcast has consistently insisted that they are not blocking any ports. OK. Then explain what’s happening here.

But I vent.

Just had to.

The sad part is that Comcast has been, overall, very good.

But this is a big negative, and the customer support has been downright rude and – thus far – unable to even acknowledge that this is an issue (again, they won’t say is isn’t a problem, either), much less give me some resolution.

Oh well…let’s hope that fourth ticket will get the job done. Sure, that’s the ticket!