off-topic question for the DIYers

  • Thread starter Thread starter FALKEN
  • Start date Start date
FALKEN

FALKEN

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so my cable "randomly" went out again yesterday.

I went outside to look at the box and it was open (usually it is locked with a special nut only the cable company can open). it seems that the cable line was connected to the house ground.

q - is this how they turn you off? did they turn off the wrong house and then forget to close the box?

or is this to prevent a lightening strike from blowing up my television, etc?
 
thanks.

what I don't get is the digital phone thing. I mean, my cable goes out like every 3 months for no reason. how would you call them???
 
Cell phone :D

Coming into the house I have digital cable (with cable modem), and a robust DSL line for my server farm. And two voice lines, and my wife and I each have a cell phone.

With the monthly cable modem based interner increasing in price (now to $55 a month) I'm ready to cancel. I can easily route "surfing traffic" through my server farm (the DSL) and it won't be any slower or faster based on what surfing either of us have time for. The DSL went down for 5 weeks at one time, in four years. And that wasn't my ISP's fault, that was the local telco's fault. They were supposed to remove the equipment just above it, and deinstalled my isp's gear.

Anyway, very soon the cable modem, and the two voice lines are leaving. Combined savings will be close to $100 a month.

I've considered several of the voip solutions (Vonage, and voice over cable from my cable company) but for the same reason as you, I'm not going to take 'em up on it. Verizon has unlimited calling for $40, which is less than I pay now. But, I get unlimited cell phone minutes after 7pm EST for $10. My wife and I share 1500 "anytime" minutes a month, which we never hit.

And if I really want to pig some network bandwidth past what my DSL can handle, I have no less than four neighbors with wide-open WiFi that I've connected to for experimental reasons. I have a wireless router on my internal network that I can easily "set" to attach to any of them, and I just change my default gateway setting in the house from my cable or dsl router to that particular router, and I'm surfing on my neighbors.
 
I have my HD Cable, ISP, and Phone all through Charter. When you do all 3, they give you a package deal. By dropping my std phone and picking up VOIP, I got free movie channels, upgraded internet service, free long distance in CONUS and my overall outlay went DOWN $25 per month.

I have to have a cell for my business anyway so if I ever have issues, that's how I contact them.

I've had DSL and Cable both and I'll say that at least in my area - I'd never go back to DSL. The cable is much faster and much, much more reliable. The longest I've been out (other than when we lost power in a huge storm for 3 days) has been about 3 hours.
 
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