By Mike Wendland, Detroit Free Press Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Mar. 4--COMCAST WORKING TO GET NEW NETWORK UP TO SPEED: Like it or not, it's all Comcast.net now.
The 180,000 subscribers to Comcast's cable Internet service in metro Detroit have been completely switched over to the company's new broadband network. The last step came Friday, when Comcast cut off remaining links with the MediaOne and @Home Internet services it used before @Home went bankrupt.
It's been a challenging transition, with frequent complaints of slow downloads and sluggish e-mail. But now that Comcast.net is here, what are some of its features?
While users have complained that in some cases the new network is 50 percent slower than the old service, it still is about 30 times faster than a standard 56 kilobyte dial-in modem.
Comcast.net also brings several new services.
First, Comcast.net users now have 25 megabytes of storage space available online. They can use it to store files they want to access from other computers. Or they can also use it to create a personal Web page. e-mail from any Web browser, even if it's not hooked up to Comcast. This is great for travelers who don't want to be out of touch.
The ability to manage user accounts has also been improved. Users can add six names besides the master address assigned by Comcast, allowing, for example, family members to have their own e-mail addresses.
You can learn about those features at the main Comcast Web site (www.comcast.net).
But don't expect to walk away with answers to all of your questions. The site appears to be under development and isn't very user friendly. Over the weekend, I spent 15 unsuccessful minutes trying to figure out how to build a personal Web site. The help file came up as a dead link, and there were no obvious instructions on-screen.
The same goes for the Web storage area -- no instructions, and remote e-mail access was not yet functioning.
One would think that Comcast's main Web site would be more accessible given the heat the company has taken over poor service in Michigan and around the country.
Comcast said the many service difficulties and glitches resulted from having to rush the new network's implementation. The network wasn't supposed to be operational until June but was rushed into service when @Home decided to shut down for good.
"The alternate was that all those former @Home customers would have been without any Internet access at all," said Comcast Michigan spokesman Bill Black.
Meanwhile, the transition to Comcast-only e-mail seems to be working well. After a shaky start Friday when e-mail worked only intermittently, the system stabilized over the weekend.
I've been testing the e-mail system since Friday. On Friday, test messages sent on three of my Comcast accounts took as long as four hours to reach their destination.
Similar tests Sunday, however, showed great improvement. All three test messages arrived within 1 minute.
Black and Comcast Vice President Eric Schafer said the changeover has been an involved process and occasional disruptions are inevitable for the first few weeks. They've asked for patience as the network is fine-tuned.
Obviously, a lot of work still needs to be done. But it's improving day by day. And after two months of frustration, that is welcome news to Comcast subscribers.
Contact Mike Wendland at 313-222-8861 or mwendland@freepress.com.
To see more of the Detroit Free Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.freep.com Copyright: (c) 2002, Detroit Free Press. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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