Comcast Visit

Comcast techs visited my house today, just before ten am, and it didn't take the guy long at all to figure out the problem with our connection. He took one look at the old 3Com Sharkfin modem that was installed when we got our cable connection back in 2001 and said, "Let me get you a real modem." Apparently the cable system in our area changed some settings a couple months back (about the time Eric and I started to notice the disconnects... hmmm), and most sharkfins didn't like the change at all and started acting up. He said most of his visits this month have been simple replacements of the old modems.

So I'm monitoring my connections closely, now. The system has been up for over 20 minutes without a disconnect, which is unusual but not unheard of with the sharkfin. I'm hoping that the modem was the problem. It would be nice to have a stable internet connection again.

My old modem was a Sharkfin. My new modem claims to be a Surfboard. At least the Sharkfin actually looked like a fin. The new modem looks nothing like something you'd take to the beach to ride the waves on.

Update: Two hours and no outages. I'm not ready to declare victory yet, but this is longer than it's gone without dying for a couple of months. My fingers are still crossed, but I'm beginning to relax.

Another Update: Five hours without an outage. It appears that the Sharkfin modem was, indeed, the culprit. I wonder if the Surfboard will last three years, too, then become obsolete?