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prusikSpent much of today waiting for the cable guy. I have to say, this may be the best experience I've ever had with repair work. The guy showed up within the four hour window. He very quickly figured out that the problem was that I was getting crappy signal into my unit. i.e., not me. (I decided not to suggest crappy input signal because I figure everyone suggests this. I'd spent an hour or two Monday experimenting to eliminate all the other possibilities, but there's no way he's going to believe I did that.) He did the complete visit in under 20 minutes.
Anyway, they need to replace the line which goes into my house. The good news: I don't need to be home for this. They'll just do it. (I was seriously hoping I'd get to see someone climb the pole just outside my 2 unit condo, but oh well.) The bad news: He attached a splitter to my upstairs neighbor's line for the duration. (This is how I'm able to write this blog post.) When they find out, I'm sure they won't be thrilled. (OTOH, they're replacing both lines. When it's done, they'll have a new line too.)
The digital cable is still wacky due to poor signal. It'd slipped my mind to check before telling the cable guy everything was now ok. (I'm not totally surprised by the digital cable wackiness though. Once the signal gets into my unit, it goes through a three way splitter. Apparently, all three way splitters are really two two way splitters cascaded. So, there's a 3.5dB loss output port and two 7dB loss output ports. The cable modem is on the 3.5dB loss port.) I'm going to wait until they've replaced the line before doing anything serious about this. However, for now, I may replace the three way splitter with a two way. I have three cable drops in my unit, but I only use two of them. I might as well recover 3.5dB of loss for the duration for the TV.
I can finally get podcasts again which means I now have, in convenient audio form, The Osteomancer's Son. I loved this story when I read it in Asimov's. I can't wait to hear it.
Anyway, they need to replace the line which goes into my house. The good news: I don't need to be home for this. They'll just do it. (I was seriously hoping I'd get to see someone climb the pole just outside my 2 unit condo, but oh well.) The bad news: He attached a splitter to my upstairs neighbor's line for the duration. (This is how I'm able to write this blog post.) When they find out, I'm sure they won't be thrilled. (OTOH, they're replacing both lines. When it's done, they'll have a new line too.)
The digital cable is still wacky due to poor signal. It'd slipped my mind to check before telling the cable guy everything was now ok. (I'm not totally surprised by the digital cable wackiness though. Once the signal gets into my unit, it goes through a three way splitter. Apparently, all three way splitters are really two two way splitters cascaded. So, there's a 3.5dB loss output port and two 7dB loss output ports. The cable modem is on the 3.5dB loss port.) I'm going to wait until they've replaced the line before doing anything serious about this. However, for now, I may replace the three way splitter with a two way. I have three cable drops in my unit, but I only use two of them. I might as well recover 3.5dB of loss for the duration for the TV.
I can finally get podcasts again which means I now have, in convenient audio form, The Osteomancer's Son. I loved this story when I read it in Asimov's. I can't wait to hear it.
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Date: 2008-05-21 08:13 pm (UTC)Out of curiousity, how much time was left in the 4-hour window they gave you? I always think a 4 hour window is a ludicrous expectation, especially when they blow it.
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Date: 2008-05-21 08:53 pm (UTC)(A workmate had Verizon FiOS installed earlier in the week. With a 8am to noon window, the installation guy showed up at 9am. Wow. OTOH, FiOS installation takes 4 hours.)