I'm going to share a story about how I was barely able to stream from August 15th, 2016 - January 11th, 2017.
I am a regular video chatter and Twitch streamer. On Aug. 15th, a peer said my voice was chopping up in Discord. We agreed to move to my private TeamSpeak server, but the voice chop was happening there, too! After a short amount of time, the chop cleared up; however, the next night it happened again just enough to be an annoyance. I figured it was the nature of the internet, and it was not a very big deal because things happen on the Internet on occasion. So, I chalked it up to a common problems that happen.
After a couple of weeks, I noticed the problem had not gotten any better. I made my first call to Comcast with the complaint of repeated trouble on September 15. After going through all the troubleshooting steps, I waited for them to schedule an appointment.
-Flash Cut-
The first technician showed up around a week later (from CAVO communications, not Comcast) and said my modem was at fault. "Sir, a Motorola SB6141 is end of life,” the tech said. I was positive that it wasn't, but I went to the store that day and bought a Netgear CM600. Because while the SB6141 was Intel based, the CM600 was Broadcom based, and it should be a totally refreshed experience. It wasn't. The CM600 had the exact same symptoms as the SB6141. I waited for another appointment, and I ordered another modem. This modem was the flagship Motorola Arris SB6190. Same Problem... Ugh. I then called Comcast for what was now the 16th time about this issue.
-More time passes-
It's October 24th, 2016. Today is the first day an actual Comcast employee shows up. I've had 5 CAVO tech visits where they all scratch their head and say it should be fixed soon. I've spoken to supervisors in Chicago, Jacksonville, and Atlanta. I'm raising hell about an issue not getting fixed over two months. The Comcast man says it's a bad signal, and the whole system is moving to fix it.He offers a filter as a band-aid, but it doesn't change anything.
-Skipping the loop of events where the same techs come and says it will be fixed soon-
Now it's December 7th, 2016, and I have given up hope completely. I tweet about how I can't stream anymore, and Comcast is less reliable than my tethered T-Mobile and that they should be embarassed. T-Mobile tweets back in minutes saying, “How can we help?” and I say T-Mo was the hero, and I didn't need help form them.
Three days later, Comcast tweets to DM them. I DM them a picture of my last 50 calls logged to Comcast on the Account Activity page. I tweet 60 pictures of bad speed tests and historical data. Four days after that, now Dec. 14th, the two local supervisors are getting sick of my calls and come out to see the peoblem in person. I show them, and they leave.
-84 E-mails to the supervisors later-
We're getting nowhere. By this point, I have lost all hope of keeping Comcast and am looking at the "worse" options. An associate suggested I contact corporate. I add every Comcast employee/executive e-mail I can fathom or find and send off another e-mail on January 2nd, 2017.
Corporate calls me the next day.
I've now got a number to add to the contact options and start all over explaining everything. I call and call and 27 more e-mails later brings us to Jan 7th. They send a crew of six people to look at what's going on. They see the signal and say it's fixed. It runs okay for about 20 minutes then it is right back to square one. I call Patrick from corporate again and report that it is the same.
January 10th, 2017 7:12PM 1912 HOURS
A knock on the door. It is Comcast. Check your internet they say. I do. It looks flawless. Best numbers since it ever started. Wow! Finally. "What was it? I know some kind of interference that makes it intermittent but what kind?" They say it was a flickering street light's ballast from three blocks away the whole time, and they just didn't notice before, but it was showing on their tools. So, I saved the whole neighborhood!
That's a BRIEF summation of the struggle. The INTERNET IS FIXED AND I CAN STREAM AGAIN.