On Sat, 17 Mar 2018 20:19:06 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 3/17/2018 7:33 PM, wrote:

I have no doubt it is faster, I just wonder how that really helps
unless you have a dozen people steaming movies at the same time.
I can support 2 movie streams and browse at 10 meg.
My net response doesn't really change in any noticeable way whether I
have those streams going or not and it is not unlike my FIL's Comcast
connection. For some reason the net seldom ever "snaps" here whether
you are on Comcast or DSL. I was actually surprised because he brags
about what his speed is supposed to be and he has a machine on W/10.
(so Harry can't blame the CP/M machine I am supposed to be running)
We must have some kind of choke point upstream somewhere.
I know there is a speed bump at Giganews because a big download from
them goes about the same speed whether I have one going or 3. If I am
downloading music I will start 3 instances of Agent and get one going
on each. Per song, it stays the same but I am getting 3 at a time.



When Comcast came to our house about 3 years ago and updated all the
gear the tech told me that it was part of a nationwide upgrade project,
primarily to handle the new (at that time) Xfinity 1 services.
He said they were starting on the east coast and west coast and expected
to update all areas over the next couple of years. Maybe they haven't
got to your neck of the woods yet.

Apparently not. Considering the reputation they have here I am sure
they will be bombarding us with ads once they do upgrade their
physical plant. When they were patching up after Irma they did not
upgrade anything that I saw. They just hung up the same old "hardline"
that was laying in the road for 2 weeks, only replacing the section
that got run over and over and over.

One thing I noticed during the recent storms and power outages. There's
a large, metal Comcast "box" not far from us that I believe houses
distribution amplifiers. During the power outage Comcast had come by
and hooked it up to a small Honda generator like the one I have. They
put a chain through the generator handle and to a ring welded on the
Comcast box so nobody would walk off with it. I assume that's why we
still had cable service even though we didn't have power. When I went by
it looking for coffee a Comcast/Xfinity truck was there and the guy was
refueling the generator.

That is pretty normal. Century link had a generator on our
distribution box too.
That is the flaw in the new technology that takes the luster off of my
POTS line. They are not running on the central office "battery" these
days. The central office is that box on the side of the road and the
battery only lasts about 30 hours.
There was a story on the news here about a guy who dragged a cord out
from his generator and powered up the neighborhood. I imagine it would
only have to be hooked up a few hours to get another day out of the
battery.