Now with edited thread title to be a bit more neutral :)
First off: As Smalls has noted, any number of other issues could be causing you to have internet connection problems - most commonly it has something to do with your router settings. However, I am attempting to raise awareness of another possible cause for the problem, especially if you have already gone through steps to fix your router settings and you often have problems wth peer-to-peer downloading.
Comcast uses a lovely little technology called "Sandvine" technology. This technology is designed to disrupt peer to perr communications, especially BitTorrent. It is known as "Net Neutrality Internet Traffic Shaping." Basically, the Sandvine technology impersonates the person you are trying to connect to in a peer-to-peer setting and sends a disconnection packet to you, which knocks you offline momentarily.
In addition to messing with peer-to-peer downloading programs, this process disrupts lots of other programs that have nothing to do with illegal file sharing and are completely and totally legal.
Guess what game uses a peer-to-peer system to create an ad-hoc network for its games? You guessed it, Halo 3.
Users have specifically encountered issues when using Halo 3 on comcast, getting tons of disconnects. As we all know, disconnects give you -1exp each time.
As a comcast user, I can confirm that they are indeed doing it and it indeed does interfere with Halo 3, as evidenced by the huge number of exp penalties I have because of dropped games (and the reason that I don't play ranked that much)
Not only is this incredibly annoying to tons of people who are not involved in illegal file sharing in any way, it is also borderline illegal. Comcast is acctually being investigated by the FCC and is being sued over it.
Now I'm sure many of you will say "get another internet service provider." Well, Comcast happens to be the largest cable company in the U.S., and also one of the largest ISPs. In many areas, you cannot get a cable connection without going through Comcast, which means that if you want a cable internet connection, Comcast is the only available ISP.
Personally, I'd love to see them get nailed to the wall by the FCC and sued into bankruptcy because they have the lowest customer satisfaction rating of any company in the entire United States, including the INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE.
But barring that, I'd love to commiserate here with other people this has happened to. Who knows, with enough support maybe we can get the bastards to acctually fix their technology and make it work with Halo 3.
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comcast#Net_neutrality_Internet_traffic_shaping[/url]
got almost all this info there. there are also some links that I got the rest of the info from.
A note: I have also noticed that for some reason I experience fewer disconnects if I am in a party with another player and I am also in a private chat with that player. If I am in a party with another player and I am NOT in a private chat, I often experience even more disconnects than usual.
Another note: A number of people have mentioned that switching routers fixed the problem for them. I am going to try this myself, but if you have changed routers and had sucess, please post here and let us know what router you had before if you remember it.
Edit: A little searching on Google has shown me that this is indeed a fairly common problem for Comcast customers, and that direct connecting your xbox 360 instead of using a wireless connection doesn't help the issue at all. I'm going to do some digging around as I can, and if I find out anything that helps I will post it here, though I will have to stop pretty soon tonight as I have class tomorrow. If anyone else finds out about anything, post it here and I'll update this post and make sure to credit you.
Edit2: Now with testomonials, yaay!
[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] LilHairy
This is why i have EXP penalties. I had the wireless gateway (Netgear WRT54G) from Comcast when Halo 3 came out and was lagged out of almost all of my games. I got the occasional 1 or 2 in during the day. I got rid of that and went back to wired internet. All i can say from experience is DO NOT get this wireless gateway with Comcast, it will lag you out of 98%of Halo 3 games(not certain on that statistic by the way, just a guess). I am not aware of other games doing this while using this particular gateway (I am pretty sure this is the only one Comcast provides to you) but i urge everyone do not use this with Halo 3![/quote]
[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] darthbob
As living in a small town in Oregon, Comcast has monopolized the Internet and I, along with so many others (I imagine) are 'receiving' the same issues. For instance, when I'm just casually surfing on my PC, everything's fine. But when I connect to XBL every 30 minutes or so my 'Motorola Surfboard Comcast Provided Cable Modem' will disconnect me.
Quite the Bull-blam!-ery. [/quote]
[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] bongbong03
I agree 100% that this is the problem. I had this exact same model from Comcast and I got booted constantly. Just look at my quits, I have around 50 or so. I'm still trying to recover from what that did to my ranked stats. Its really tough to move up when you are getting disconnected constantly and they still give you the loss. Anyone who has comcast must get rid of this thing now. It is worthless. I got a new dlink router instead of that netgear gateway and I've been working great ever since. It is also a waste of money to pay them $5 a month to rent that thing in the first place. DUMP THE NETGEAR GATEWAY PROVIDED BY COMAST NOW!!![/quote]
[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] SKiTz THEGEMINI
DUDE...seriously...you are my hero! The only cable provider in my area was just bought out by Comcast and the entire city is LIVID! I can't even begin to describe how terrible Comcast's customer service is. As soon as Comcast took over my internet connection became inconsistent and here's the kicker...right after they took over they RAISED PRICES because of the "improvements" in service they claim to be providing.
Comcast FOR THE COMPLETE AND UTTER LOSS!
And there's nothing I can do about it. >:([/quote]
[Edited on 03.10.2008 10:25 AM PDT]
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[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Lx PATCHES x7 I respect your opionion thats the first I have heard on the customer service. I am surprised about that it wasnt that bad a few years ago when I was there. I dont beleive the bit torrent problem causes lag but thats my opionion I havent actually investigated it. What I did say about the HFC plant is correct though. Most likely that is a bigger issue than anything else. The biggest problem with Comcast started with Mike Armstrong at AT&T Broadband, their main intent was to get as many customers as possible without even worrying or thinking about how they would actually keep the thing running. Comcast came in and took over, and have been very aggressive buying out as many providers as they can all over the nation. The office I worked in has 5 times the number of people working in it today and from what I hear of my friends still there, they are overwhelemed with trouble tickets. I think they have clearly bit off more than they can chew. I will give them credit though they are spending a ton upgrading their plants so eventually they will probably be the best option in the bigger areas anyway. In the smaller cities I would go with someone else. [/quote] As far as the BitTorrent thing goes, Sandvine also hasn't been around very long. If you weren't working there in 2007 you probably would not have heard about it at all - BitTorrent themselves didn't notice it until August of 2007. I respect your opinion as well and I don't want you to think my post was a personal attack in any way. There are alot of misconceptions about Sandvine because it is very new and Comcast has done a very good job at keeping it under wraps (they have gone so far as to pay people to fill seats at FCC hearings so that their opponets wouldn't be able to get in). I do think personally that they have bit off more than they can chew and are having trouble servicing rural areas effeciently, as from what I have seen and heard from others and people on this thread, those people who live closer to metropolitan areas don't seem to be having as many problems with Comcast. Whether this is an infrastructure problem or a Sandvine issue, we can't be sure of, because Comcast isn't going to be forthcoming about anything Sandvine related unless they get sued or the FCC forces them to. Your best bet is to investigate all your other alternatives before blaming Sandvine. In my particular case, I'd say things are pretty well narrowed down to 1. My router 2. Nodes in my Area or 3. Sandvine. As my problems with internet connectivity become much more pronounced any time I use any sort of torrent or peer to peer software and particuarly with Halo 3, I am inclined to believe that Sandvine is indeed the issue here, but I am going to explore all other alternatives first. But people should be aware that this could very well be their issue, especially if they are about to go out and spend a bunch of money on new equipment that may not improve their online experience at all.