carwreck.com: around Boston harbor...

My broadband connection has gotten broaderer (sic).

I have been hearing rumors over the past few weeks that Comcast was handing out free service upgrades which doubled customer's download speeds. I had heard this mostly from people in Cambridge and points north who were originally served by MediaOne. My cable here in Charlestown was AT&T only so I knew it was on different infrastructure than those who were getting the upgrades. This led me to assume that I wouldn't see the speed increase.

A friend convinced me to try what he had heard was the necessary process, which is to reboot your cable modem by unplugging it for a few minutes. This resets everything and when you plug things back in it receives new, faster service (possibly by installing new firmware in the modem).

My download speed before the reboot was 1.7Mbit (as measured at nyc.speakeasy.net) and after the reboot it showed 3.3Mbit. Amazing!

Contrary to the warnings you see on TV... "You should try this at home."

happy new year!