Time Warner RoadRunner Broadband Internet Access: Not A Happy Camper Am I

So. 

Time Warner came by by yesterday to install 5MB/DOWN – 768K/UP broadband service in my home office.  It all started well enough, with the technician calling me at 9:30 or so and showing up *early* to do the install. (the appointment window was from 3 – 5 PM).

I flew home after work to put the service through it’s paces and was extremely happy with the speed of graphics-intensive web sites such as MLB.COM which seemed to just appear on my screen all at once, rather than “paint’ sequentially as all of the page components load in one after the other via DSL.

Videos were smooth, playback was nearly instantaneous and all was good with the world.  I tested the load speed of various other sites with very similar results. All good with deliciously quick downloads of all my favorite  podcasts to follow, right?  RIGHT?

Ha.

After allowing me the very merest, tantalizingly small taste of *fast* broadband nirvana, the connectivity gods RIPPED THE LOLLIPOP from my greedy little fists and decided to screw me but good.  What happened, you ask? 

The Router Nightmare
After testing the service while it was plugged directly into my PC, I decided to disconnect my still functioning DSL connection from my Linksys 802.11G Wireless Router and plug in the Roadrunner cable modem.

I accessed the configuration screen for the Router and tried a few of the choices they had there. After about 20 minutes.of no success, I called their Helpdesk to find out the arcane incantations that might one might need to chant to get the Router and the cable modem to play nice together.

I got a quick response from a nice lady who was ABSOLUTELY NO HELP whatsoever.  The very first question that I asked her was enough to get her to stammer and hem and haw and place me on hold.  What was so difficult you might ask?  The Roadrunner DNS Servers.  That’s right, folks.  1st Tier support could not provide me with something as basic and fundamental as the DNS servers used by Roadrunner.

She stated she did not have that information and proceeded to transfer me to Tier2.  At that point ( again, after a very brief wait, impressive!) I spoke with a gentleman who seemed to be much more clued in.

As far as he was concerned, this was a simple process that involved setting the Router software to “Automatic Configuration – DHCP” and power-cycling the modem. After various iterations of this, the lights on my Cable Modem were FLASHING in a sickly manner and he could not detect a *signal* from my cable modem on his end.

He decided a technician visit was in order and transferred me to the local Time-Warner office to schedule a visit by a RR technician to troubleshoot the modem. I bade him a good day and decided that I would try some further troubleshooting on my own to see if I could get it to work.

6 hours later… (12:35 A.M.)
NOTHING.  I was so tired, I could not see straight. I re-established my SBC-Yahoo! DSL connection and decided to further research a solution in the morning at work.  Seeing as to how I had to get up at 4:30 AM, I was facing a full day at work on 4 hours sleep.

Thanks, Time Warner / Roadrunner.  Thanks a lot.  Quite a sterling little start to our business relationship we have going here. 

Not.

Comments

[font9a]

24.93.41.127
24.93.41.128

Are the current austin.rr.com domain controllers.
I set them up hardcoded in my wireless modem.

If they change you may have to go back to DHCP from your wireless modem to the cable modem. I have no idea if performance is impacted in any way.

My more intuitive POV is that ISPs are using packet filtering and throttling back on P2P, Torrenting-like behavior, and any kind of programming they just don't like (like watching BBC instead of NBC online)....

cynical. --f

[font9a]

24.93.41.127
24.93.41.128

Are the current austin.rr.com domain controllers.
I set them up hardcoded in my wireless modem.

If they change you may have to go back to DHCP from your wireless modem to the cable modem. I have no idea if performance is impacted in any way.

My more intuitive POV is that ISPs are using packet filtering and throttling back on P2P, Torrenting-like behavior, and any kind of programming they just don't like (like watching BBC instead of NBC online)....

cynical. --f

[Donovan White]

So, what was the end result of TW's service call (the tech probably should have checked the levels prior to completing the install if they were that bad, hindsight is 20/20). - concerned TW employee