So, setting up cable service, house already has cable in it, a tuner equipped TV picks up the analog channels, so I call and ask if its really necessary that a technician come to the house.

I was told that yes, because there are filters in the box that need removed. Really, is that true? I am pretty sure all that selection stuff is handled at the main office, but I could be wrong.

I was also told due to the amount of equipment, (one HD box and a cable modem at this point) the tech has to make sure that I am getting good signal the the service locations. Heck, before the tech gets there, I am going to spend hours making sure all the cabling I need is right, including making my own coax runs where I need them. Just hate to be tied down for half a day when I can do all this myself.

Wish I could get them to turn it all on, and I'll call if I have any issues.

I would trust these people like I would trust a barrel of monkeys with a banana.


Light Reading Cable - The Bauminator - Cable's New Dimension? (http://www.lightreading.com/blog.asp?blog_sectionid=419&doc_id=180319&site=cdn&)

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"Gerard Kunkel, Comcast‘s senior VP of user experience, told me the cable company is experimenting with different camera technologies built into devices so it can know who’s in your living room. "

Comcast Cameras to Start Watching You? — Online Video News (http://gigaom.com/video/comcast-cameras-to-start-watching-you/)

So, setting up cable service, house already has cable in it, a tuner equipped TV picks up the analog channels, so I call and ask if its really necessary that a technician come to the house.

I was told that yes, because there are filters in the box that need removed. Really, is that true? I am pretty sure all that selection stuff is handled at the main office, but I could be wrong.

I was also told due to the amount of equipment, (one HD box and a cable modem at this point) the tech has to make sure that I am getting good signal the the service locations. Heck, before the tech gets there, I am going to spend hours making sure all the cabling I need is right, including making my own coax runs where I need them. Just hate to be tied down for half a day when I can do all this myself.

Wish I could get them to turn it all on, and I'll call if I have any issues.


there are filters on the lines going into your box. So if your new package has more channels or higher speeds than the previous owners they need to come and manually remove the filters.

I do have my fun set up for me. Place has three generations of coax all over it, splitters, amps, and unused cables everywhere. Was originally an antenna setup, with five lines. Then cable was added, with its own three lines run, no attempt to coopt the existing coax. The last owners slapped up two sat dishes, each with two coaxes. Those were run to an amp, and they used a mix of the first two generations of coax back out of the amp.

For one bedroom, they ran a new line, not along the outside to that room, but only to the closest room, and swapped that rooms single wall plate out for a double, then simply drilled holes through the baseboard into the middle room, ran the coax through that room, drilled through that baseboard into the far bedroom.

I'm figuring about 2 hours with one of the kids to ID all these lines, another couple to reroute stuff so it's clean. Luckily, I built a line tracer using a piezo buzzer and a 9 volt battery for about $10, so identifying the lines even through the house will be easy.

I have extended basic TV. It was sometimes a little marginal as in sometimes seasonally the cable guy needed to adjust a line amp upstream to produce an acceptable display. The temperature compensating caps weren't doing enough apparently.

When I decided to add a cable modem, I installed a splitter and ran a line for the modem before they came out. Anticipating a distrust of any equipment not owned by the cable company, I also bypassed the distribution that normally feeds the TVs.

The installer found that the signal was weak. He replaced the splitter I'd just installed. No problem, I expected it as SOP. The signal was still weak but sufficient for modem setup. He traced it back and found that the cable from the road to the house was lossy. Two weeks later they installed a new buried cable.

The cable modem works fine, I reconnected the distribution amp and the TV is no longer marginal. Sometimes it worth the bother of letting the cable guy do the install.

I could, but I rarely find that an installer cares about some of the things I do. They are about getting an acceptable signal in the simplest manner. If it doesnt work, I'm okay with them making sure they are supplying what they are supposed to, signal-wise. But I would rather set up my own stuff first.

I plan a splitter right after the cable mount on the house to feed the cable modem, about 10 feet away from that point, as good or better than what they would install, then a direct feed through a +100 foot line to a distribution amp, which will feed direct lines to the seven TV points in the house. I will replace the older coax with new RG6 runs all with waterproof compression connectors, nothing crimped.

I believe the filters they are talking about are in the box at the curb, Not in your house. They do like to go in and check the signal before they leave though.

So much for that, unless of course the tech snuck a day early and removed the filters:) Appointment is for tomorrow, but here I am typing this from the house in question. And the TV in the main room is showing the full HD package. So I'm off to cancel the install guy, as I suspected, he's not needed. Here at the router, its 10mbps upload with a 9ms ping, powerline networking in the basement has the same with a 14 ms ping according to speedtest. :buddies:

And maybe the previous owner (pre-2007) had the full monte, but I suspect not.

there are filters on the lines going into your box. So if your new package has more channels or higher speeds than the previous owners they need to come and manually remove the filters.

Filters should be software or electronic, not hardware or anything that has to be physically removed.

So, setting up cable service, house already has cable in it, a tuner equipped TV picks up the analog channels, so I call and ask if its really necessary that a technician come to the house.

I was told that yes, because there are filters in the box that need removed. Really, is that true? I am pretty sure all that selection stuff is handled at the main office, but I could be wrong.



:faint:


I thought that tech went out with the 80's and A/B cable ..

.... yeah cable companies used to use a ? (signal filter really I am sure there is some high speed technical namefor it) device that basically filter the frequency that HBO / Showtime / and IIRC The Movie Channel out of the signal


Television encryption - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_encryption)


Cable Television Filters - Chapter 4 - The Cable Television Report (http://www.electronickits.com/cable/FreeCableReportChapterFour.htm)

Here at the router, its 10mbps upload with a 9ms ping, powerline networking in the basement has the same with a 14 ms ping according to speedtest. :buddies:



http://speedtest.net/result/1513476147.png

.... yeah cable companies used to use a ? (signal filter really I am sure there is some high speed technical namefor it) device that basically filter the frequency that HBO / Showtime / and IIRC The Movie Channel out of the signal


I believe it's called a bandpass filter, filters out specific frequencies or range of frequencies.

I believe it's called a bandpass filter, filters out specific frequencies or range of frequencies.

but they haven't been used by cable companies in about 20 years, now it's a setting at the office. They have two-way communication with your cable box and collect all kinds of data, some boxes can even tell how many people are watching each TV in your house.

They have two-way communication with your cable box and collect all kinds of data, some boxes can even tell how many people are watching each TV in your house.

That's true, but that only tells the box what to display. The filters prevent someone from tapping the cable at the pole and using their own illicit hardware. Unless the cable company has converted it's entire system to digital, the cable signal still runs over a broadband analog carrier.

That's true, but that only tells the box what to display. The filters prevent someone from tapping the cable at the pole and using their own illicit hardware. Unless the cable company has converted it's entire system to digital, the cable signal still runs over a broadband analog carrier.

I don't know in MD, but they would spike the lines every now and then in PA.

Their boxes were protected, but if you were stealing cable you'd come home and your box would be fried.

Then the cable company would await trouble calls from the thieves telling on themselves when they reported their cable being out.

Call customer service to cancel the service call for today, since I dont need a tech. Guy says the tech still has to check the lines for good signal, I say I'm showing 1080i and have 10mbps all over the house, no need to check anything.

He says something to the effect of "Well, if its all working before the tech gets there, there could be a problem, and the line could drop. "

Suuuure:killingme

I don't know in MD, but they would spike the lines every now and then in PA.

Their boxes were protected, but if you were stealing cable you'd come home and your box would be fried.

Then the cable company would await trouble calls from the thieves telling on themselves when they reported their cable being out.

What if you didn't have a set top box and just ran the cable into your cable ready TV? I cant see them doing this having to pay for 1000's of fried televisions.

http://speedtest.net/result/1513476147.png

Fiber? T-1?

What if you didn't have a set top box and just ran the cable into your cable ready TV? I cant see them doing this having to pay for 1000's of fried televisions.

Don't know, didn't work for the cable company..

Only know they did it, it worked, and was very successful.

Fiber? T-1?

a T-1 is only 1.5 M/ps


this is FiOS 35/35


it appears to be capped a little higher so I always get 35 ......

http://speedtest.net/result/1513476147.png

So, now, the next exciting episode in "You will by damn have a service call". Call @ 0800, say I don't need a tech, since it all works fine. Lady says I do, so they can check the levels. I explain that the levels are fine, it all works great. She tells me to hold while she checks.

Comes back on line, says they say they cannot close the ticket unless a tech signs off on the signals levels. I say again, they are fine, no need to check them, it all works. She cehcks with service again, comes back and says okay, but understand if there are issues on the line, you might have to pay.

Call wife, tell her she doesnt have to spend all day waiting for the guy. While on the phone she tells me that the net and the TV both went off. then 30 seconds later, TV comes back on. Net never does. Check at lunch modem says its connected, but computer cannot get any page to load. Hmmmm. Connect directly to orange cable, still get three lights, but no net.

a T-1 is only 1.5 M/ps


this is FiOS 35/35


it appears to be capped a little higher so I always get 35 ......

How much bandwidth is possible on FiOS? I just renewed for 2 yrs and upgraded from 20/5 to 25/25....

So, now, the next exciting episode in "You will by damn have a service call". Call @ 0800, say I don't need a tech, since it all works fine. Lady says I do, so they can check the levels. I explain that the levels are fine, it all works great. She tells me to hold while she checks.

Comes back on line, says they say they cannot close the ticket unless a tech signs off on the signals levels. I say again, they are fine, no need to check them, it all works. She cehcks with service again, comes back and says okay, but understand if there are issues on the line, you might have to pay.

Call wife, tell her she doesnt have to spend all day waiting for the guy. While on the phone she tells me that the net and the TV both went off. then 30 seconds later, TV comes back on. Net never does. Check at lunch modem says its connected, but computer cannot get any page to load. Hmmmm. Connect directly to orange cable, still get three lights, but no net.

You pizzed off the monopoly, and they responded. You should have let them complete the call.

Sounds like they ran remote diagnostics, which can knock you offline. Pull the power on the router, count to 30 and plug it back in. It may have 'gotten stuck' in remote loopback.

You pizzed off the monopoly, and they responded. You should have let them complete the call.

Sounds like they ran remote diagnostics, which can knock you offline. Pull the power on the router, count to 30 and plug it back in. It may have 'gotten stuck' in remote loopback.

No joy, that was the first thing I did. So, here's the next episode. Call, service guy can come out, and he does, about an 45 minutes later. And the game begins. First he comes into the den, hooks up an analyzer of some kind, takes about five minutes of punching buttons and looking at screens of something. then goes outside. Says he found my problem, was my splitter, an Ideal three way unit

IDEAL INDUSTRIES, INC. - 5MHz to 1GHz Splitters (http://www.idealindustries.com/products/datacomm/splitters/5mhz_1ghz_splitters.jsp)

Says its not compatible. puts on his unit, an Extreme Broadband Engineering Unit.

Odd, says I, because it worked just fine last night and this morning. They just go bad, he says. Then I ask why didnt I get a good signal when I hooked directly to the orange cable company cable on the side of the hose with my modem?

Ah, he says, that's because the connector on the orange wire is old and bad. And indeed, it was an old connector. But still, last night and this AM, it provided a good enough signal to give me 10mbps. I didnt get into a discussion about the odds of my brand new splitter failing at the same time as the orange cable connector finally packing it in.

So into the house, where the other end of the dual coax was. Only one had been hooked up. I leave him to do what he's doing while I play with the dog. I see him cutting off the two F connectors, and installing his own. then we get about 30-40 minutes of him with my laptop talking to someone, internet tech support, I think.

Finally ask him what up. says he cleaned up the connection a lot by replacing those connectors. One of them barely had any center conductor, and almost no shielding. I ask him for them, he digs them out of his bag. I point out the center electrodes, which are protruding about 1/16 to 1/8 beyond the connector, and ask which one is barely there. He tells me that the ones he did had more. Gets a bit unhappy, telling me that all of this is free, and that all he's done is make my marginal connections that going to fail better.

So, he tells me that the only problem left is that my wireless routers isnt working, I tell him that's okay, I'll fix it later.

So later, I call back and have the son do a speed test. Results? Shocker. 10mbps and a 5-7 second ping. So, all that for no change in what I had.

Thanks, Metrocast, had a great day. :sarcasm:

How much bandwidth is possible on FiOS? I just renewed for 2 yrs and upgraded from 20/5 to 25/25....



the Extreme goes 100 M/ps :jet: (opps they now offer 150 for $ 200 a month)


I so Wanted that ....... I can que up 8-12 downloads all sucking that fat pipe (42) and still surf the web ...... of course the hard drive handling the downloads is thrashing to write all the data :jerry:

I figure it will self destruct in 18 months and I will put in some sort of 12 Tb NAS w/multiple drives .........

you can also get a 'business' class account with 5 IP's and run whatever services you want


while I can download all day long consuming 42 Mps .... the Gods of Verizon will strike me down if I run a personal web or mail server


because ya know they consume so much bandwidth :whistle:


I have downloaded 543.1 Gb and Uploaded 3.2 Tb in the last 31 days ..... it should be higher total because I think I went over that in the 1st 4 weeks (we have had FiOS 6 weeks now)

NO CAP ...... no throttling like Comcrap or any of that other sneaky crap they were doing ........ traffic shaping - sending a constant stream of IP reset packets on certain ports my downloads use