[187842] in North American Network Operators' Group
Consumer Equipment Sucks (Re: Thank you, Comcast.)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jared Mauch)
Fri Feb 26 14:41:47 2016
X-Original-To: nanog@nanog.org
From: Jared Mauch <jared@puck.nether.net>
In-Reply-To: <D2F61171.129996%jason_livingood@cable.comcast.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Feb 2016 14:41:05 -0500
To: "Livingood, Jason" <Jason_Livingood@comcast.com>
Cc: "nanog@nanog.org" <nanog@nanog.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces@nanog.org
> On Feb 26, 2016, at 2:28 PM, Livingood, Jason =
<Jason_Livingood@comcast.com> wrote:
>=20
> I think the bigger culprit is not the stuff ISPs buy but what =
consumers
> buy (aka COAM).
I=E2=80=99m certainly not a comcast apologist, (I do wish they would =
service the communities where they had their call centers, like here in =
the unserved parts of their Scio Township call center).
But Jason is spot-on here. There are clear scale problems when dealing =
with large numbers of customers, and no matter what some of them will =
use crap equipment.
We as an the techies in industry often =E2=80=9Cjust fix it=E2=80=9D for =
our friends/parents/colleagues. I am an enabler of CGN as I often help =
a local WISP with their environment when they should be doing IPv6 or =
something else. Often people are willing to leave as a customer because =
their device which gets no firmware updates blocks valid DNS requests or =
has some other problem.
These items are shipped freight 6 months in advance from someplace like =
Shenzhen and never updated, then when they don=E2=80=99t work, customers =
who don=E2=80=99t understand RF propagation issues, why running a cable =
through the wall is better, etc.. end up ditching because of the $200 =
gift card offered for 8 hours of time waiting for an installation =
appointment in 2 years.
These incentives are all wrong in the marketplace, we need better =
equipment, better people and better responses to the issues.
We all have committed various technical sins, I=E2=80=99m not immune, =
nor is Comcast or likely most people on the list. This thread was =
started because Comcast and the teams led by Michael actually worked to =
remediate abusive customer equipment that wasn=E2=80=99t their fault.
As we continue to connect devices to the network, the ability to do this =
type of remediation is essential. If you don=E2=80=99t believe me, look =
at the recent settlement with ASUS =
(http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/02/asus-lawsuit-puts-entire-industry=
-on-notice-over-shoddy-router-security/) or this twitter account - =
http://tinyurl.com/p6tfh8d where things are comically documented. =
(Short URL as it uses a profane term that some systems may filter).
- Jared=
