Comcast Cares

An interesting thing happened a couple hours after my last post and a similar notice posted on Twitter regarding this issue; I was contacted by ComcastBill on Twitter asking if I needed any help. I hadn't had a chance to contact tech. support so this pre-emptive contact on their part was a pleasant surprise. I replied with my experience (see previous post) and that I would like to have the line tested. Unfortunately, I had already left school for the weekend and would not return until this past Wednesday due to an illness early in the week. My reply was recieved after ComcastBill had left the office so ComcastBonnie (on Twitter) followed up.

When I returned to school last Wednesday, I ran a few tests on the network to see if the issues had cleared up. So far, the disconnection issues have not returned. Our speed seems to have returned to expected levels too (see below).

I don't know how long Comcast has been doing tech. support via Twitter but I love the idea. Saves me time on the phone. Also, while I have no direct knowledge that they actually changed anything on their network, at least their AWARENESS of the issue has resulted in better connection quality. Thanks, Comcast!!

What's Happening?

Over the last the days, our internet connection has been spotty. The firewall appears to be handling the load (50 total nodes) with no problem, but at times, webpages fail to load. I powercycled the the cable modem yesterday, which seemed to help but the Internet is still sluggish. I ran another speedtest and came up with the following results...





Compare this to the result I blogged about last May when they launched their Boost feature.



While I realize this is not scientific, at the time I ran today's test all students and teachers were in the mulitpurpose room for an assembly. Only a couple of office staff could have been online at the time. Pings work internally with no problem but sometimes don't hit the internet. Something is fishy. What's up, Comcast?

To Cache or Not To Cache

Untangle server continues to run beautifully. It is amazing to me how slick the interface is. For me, the interface, with it's virtual "rack" makes the whole package the perfect solution for those with limited knowledge in this area. Customization is easy and it is astounding how much power you get in the open source package. Add in the Commercial packages as needed and you have an easy to manage kick-butt gateway with options for any need. With my limited network administration background, the feature set combined with the interface and the availability of support was the clincher for me. See the screenshots here.

The one feature I do find missing however is a caching "rack". After doing some research on this recently, I have discovered that there is some disagreement among IT professionals as to the need for caching in the current online environment. Some argue that, since most pages are dynamically generated, that caching does little good and may actually cause a bottleneck in your network. Others counter that educational institutions often visit the same sites over and over again so caching is still a benefit. If you have thoughts on this debate, please leave them in the comments.