I learned something last night.

Our Internet service provider is Comcast. When we originally had it
set up Comcast provided the wireless router. About a year ago we
were experiencing increasing drop outs of connectivity to the Internet
although our computers and wireless devices connected to the router
fine.

I finally called Comcast and they did some remote tests. They
informed me that our router had come to it's "End of Life". Not
being very IP savvy, I thought that was a hilarious way of saying
"Your router is dead". But it really means it is obsolete in terms
of being able to sync to newer system standards.

So, I went down to Best Buy and bought a new router. Hooked
everything up and it has run fine for the past year .... until a few
days ago.
We started experiencing similar problems that we had encountered with
the original one with very spotty connection to the Internet that kept
dropping out.

Initially I thought maybe the new router was now obsolete also however
I checked the manual that came with it and determined that it was
designed for both D-2.0 and the newest D-3.0 standards.

Turns out Comcast has been upgrading to D-3.0 in our area recently and
the router needed a "reset" to handle it. A simple power down, wait,
and power up does not accomplish the reset. There's a small hole in
the back with a momentary switch that you need to depress for 5
seconds or more while the router is on in order to initialize a reset.
Comcast can do this remotely, but you pay a service charge for it.

Anyway, I pushed the little switch in with a pen, held it for over 5
seconds, and let it reboot. So far, so good. Service has been
stable with none of the drop outs we've been experiencing for about 4
days. On a hunch, I also went to a couple of speed test websites
and discovered our download and upload speeds have increased also.

Thought I'd post this info in case there are other computer age
technology challenged people like me out there.

On 9/17/13 8:21 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
I learned something last night.

Our Internet service provider is Comcast. When we originally had it
set up Comcast provided the wireless router. About a year ago we were
experiencing increasing drop outs of connectivity to the Internet
although our computers and wireless devices connected to the router fine.

I finally called Comcast and they did some remote tests. They
informed me that our router had come to it's "End of Life". Not being
very IP savvy, I thought that was a hilarious way of saying "Your router
is dead". But it really means it is obsolete in terms of being able
to sync to newer system standards.

So, I went down to Best Buy and bought a new router. Hooked
everything up and it has run fine for the past year .... until a few
days ago.
We started experiencing similar problems that we had encountered with
the original one with very spotty connection to the Internet that kept
dropping out.

Initially I thought maybe the new router was now obsolete also however I
checked the manual that came with it and determined that it was designed
for both D-2.0 and the newest D-3.0 standards.

Turns out Comcast has been upgrading to D-3.0 in our area recently and
the router needed a "reset" to handle it. A simple power down, wait,
and power up does not accomplish the reset. There's a small hole in
the back with a momentary switch that you need to depress for 5 seconds
or more while the router is on in order to initialize a reset. Comcast
can do this remotely, but you pay a service charge for it.

Anyway, I pushed the little switch in with a pen, held it for over 5
seconds, and let it reboot. So far, so good. Service has been stable
with none of the drop outs we've been experiencing for about 4 days.
On a hunch, I also went to a couple of speed test websites and
discovered our download and upload speeds have increased also.

Thought I'd post this info in case there are other computer age
technology challenged people like me out there.


The last time I spoke with our cable provider, I was told I needed a new
cable modem, too, in order to take advantage of the "new, higher
speeds." So I asked "what speeds, precisely?" The answer I got indicated
speeds I already was getting, so I didn't upgrade the cable modem for
$5.00 more a month. I have a separate router, as do many people, so I
didn't see any need to even think about replacing that.

The cable company persists in trying to sell me on its phone service,
which runs over its internet cabling. I got rid of one of our land lines
but we still have one that we rarely use. About 99.9% of our calls these
days are from or to our cell phones. Phone over internet is no more
reliable than its cable TV provider, and I've never been impressed with
our cable provider.

Every so often, I think about converting from cable to dish, but the two
dish companies here seem unwilling or incapable of distributing info
that is clear and understandable.

On Tue, 17 Sep 2013 08:33:31 -0400, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

Every so often, I think about converting from cable to dish, but the two
dish companies here seem unwilling or incapable of distributing info
that is clear and understandable.

===

Satellite TV service is very susceptible to thunderstorm outages.
Fiber optic is the way to go if they have it in your area.

On 9/17/13 8:54 AM, Wayne.B wrote:
On Tue, 17 Sep 2013 08:33:31 -0400, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

Every so often, I think about converting from cable to dish, but the two
dish companies here seem unwilling or incapable of distributing info
that is clear and understandable.

===

Satellite TV service is very susceptible to thunderstorm outages.
Fiber optic is the way to go if they have it in your area.


Verizon keeps talking about FIOS around here, but it isn't delivering.
It likes population density, which we don't have.

"F.O.A.D." wrote in message
...

On 9/17/13 8:54 AM, Wayne.B wrote:
On Tue, 17 Sep 2013 08:33:31 -0400, "F.O.A.D."
wrote:

Every so often, I think about converting from cable to dish, but
the two
dish companies here seem unwilling or incapable of distributing
info
that is clear and understandable.

===

Satellite TV service is very susceptible to thunderstorm outages.
Fiber optic is the way to go if they have it in your area.


Verizon keeps talking about FIOS around here, but it isn't delivering.
It likes population density, which we don't have.

----------------------------

Verizon FIOS is available in our area. They were promoting "free"
hookups if you signed on for several years, so we checked into it.
Our house is located about 500 feet from the road and all the
utilities (cable, electric) are buried underground in conduit that was
installed when the house was built. The Verizon guy shook his head.
They would only do a "free" overhead run which was impossible because
there are no telephone poles anywhere.

On 9/17/13 10:01 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:


"F.O.A.D." wrote in message
...

On 9/17/13 8:54 AM, Wayne.B wrote:
On Tue, 17 Sep 2013 08:33:31 -0400, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

Every so often, I think about converting from cable to dish, but the two
dish companies here seem unwilling or incapable of distributing info
that is clear and understandable.

===

Satellite TV service is very susceptible to thunderstorm outages.
Fiber optic is the way to go if they have it in your area.


Verizon keeps talking about FIOS around here, but it isn't delivering.
It likes population density, which we don't have.

----------------------------

Verizon FIOS is available in our area. They were promoting "free"
hookups if you signed on for several years, so we checked into it.
Our house is located about 500 feet from the road and all the utilities
(cable, electric) are buried underground in conduit that was installed
when the house was built. The Verizon guy shook his head. They would
only do a "free" overhead run which was impossible because there are no
telephone poles anywhere.





Our little private road and the public road that leads into it have
underground electric, telephone, and standard cable. The public road
leads to a regular service county road and then about a third of a mile
away, a state road. The county road, much, much older, has overhead
electric and telephone and, I presume, cable.

A year or so ago, I saw the cable infrastructure installers using their
equipment to run optical cable to the two public schools on the state
road, but they didn't go any farther. None of the feeder roads directly
connected to the state road got optical cable, either.

In article , "Mr.
Luddite" says...

"F.O.A.D." wrote in message
...

On 9/17/13 8:54 AM, Wayne.B wrote:
On Tue, 17 Sep 2013 08:33:31 -0400, "F.O.A.D."
wrote:

Every so often, I think about converting from cable to dish, but
the two
dish companies here seem unwilling or incapable of distributing
info
that is clear and understandable.

===

Satellite TV service is very susceptible to thunderstorm outages.
Fiber optic is the way to go if they have it in your area.


Verizon keeps talking about FIOS around here, but it isn't delivering.
It likes population density, which we don't have.

----------------------------

Verizon FIOS is available in our area. They were promoting "free"
hookups if you signed on for several years, so we checked into it.
Our house is located about 500 feet from the road and all the
utilities (cable, electric) are buried underground in conduit that was
installed when the house was built. The Verizon guy shook his head.
They would only do a "free" overhead run which was impossible because
there are no telephone poles anywhere.

When Comcast came to our office park, they ran fiber optics throughout
the park, 7 different office buildings, through the existing conduit.
Then once inside the buildings (3 or 4 stories, lot's of suites) they
could run where ever anybody wanted it. It was pretty interesting.

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...

On Tue, 17 Sep 2013 08:33:31 -0400, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

Every so often, I think about converting from cable to dish, but the
two
dish companies here seem unwilling or incapable of distributing info
that is clear and understandable.

===

Satellite TV service is very susceptible to thunderstorm outages.
Fiber optic is the way to go if they have it in your area.

------------------------

I can understand that in your area given the almost daily
thunderstorms you have during the summer. Up here we have a few, but
not often.
When we were in Florida we had Direct TV but we were only there for
the winter months with few thunderstorms.

The only problem I have up here with Direct TV is that a tree has
grown a leaf laden branch directly in liine with the dish to satellite
view.
It's not normally a problem unless the wind is strong, blowing the
limb and leaves around. A tall ladder and a chain saw will take
care of that soon.
Oh ... and if we have a heavy, wet snowfall, I have to brush it off
the dish once in a while. I mounted the portable dish on the railing
of a porch that goes off my man cave, so that isn't really a big deal
to do.

In article , "Mr.
Luddite" says...

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...

On Tue, 17 Sep 2013 08:33:31 -0400, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

Every so often, I think about converting from cable to dish, but the
two
dish companies here seem unwilling or incapable of distributing info
that is clear and understandable.

===

Satellite TV service is very susceptible to thunderstorm outages.
Fiber optic is the way to go if they have it in your area.

------------------------

I can understand that in your area given the almost daily
thunderstorms you have during the summer. Up here we have a few, but
not often.
When we were in Florida we had Direct TV but we were only there for
the winter months with few thunderstorms.

The only problem I have up here with Direct TV is that a tree has
grown a leaf laden branch directly in liine with the dish to satellite
view.
It's not normally a problem unless the wind is strong, blowing the
limb and leaves around. A tall ladder and a chain saw will take
care of that soon.
Oh ... and if we have a heavy, wet snowfall, I have to brush it off
the dish once in a while. I mounted the portable dish on the railing
of a porch that goes off my man cave, so that isn't really a big deal
to do.

I've heard they have come a long way as far as rain and storms blocking
signal. Do you find that to be true?

"iBoaterer" wrote in message
...

In article , "Mr.
Luddite" says...

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...

On Tue, 17 Sep 2013 08:33:31 -0400, "F.O.A.D."
wrote:

Every so often, I think about converting from cable to dish, but
the
two
dish companies here seem unwilling or incapable of distributing
info
that is clear and understandable.

===

Satellite TV service is very susceptible to thunderstorm outages.
Fiber optic is the way to go if they have it in your area.

------------------------

I can understand that in your area given the almost daily
thunderstorms you have during the summer. Up here we have a few,
but
not often.
When we were in Florida we had Direct TV but we were only there for
the winter months with few thunderstorms.

The only problem I have up here with Direct TV is that a tree has
grown a leaf laden branch directly in liine with the dish to
satellite
view.
It's not normally a problem unless the wind is strong, blowing the
limb and leaves around. A tall ladder and a chain saw will take
care of that soon.
Oh ... and if we have a heavy, wet snowfall, I have to brush it off
the dish once in a while. I mounted the portable dish on the
railing
of a porch that goes off my man cave, so that isn't really a big
deal
to do.

I've heard they have come a long way as far as rain and storms
blocking
signal. Do you find that to be true?

---------------------------------

Hard to tell because I don't know how it was way back when. If we
have a very heavy thunderstorm roll in with thick clouds and rain,
I'll lose the sat signal until it passes. Same with a heavy
snowstorm. But, it really has to be coming down in buckets to screw
it up. My dish isn't anything fancy ... just a portable oval type
with one "pickup" or whatever it is.

What amazed me is when I had it on the boat. Scituate Harbor tides
can run 10 feet (low to high) and I never lost the signal or
reception. Also, if it was really windy and the boat was moving
around a lot in the slip, it also didn't bother it. This was a fixed
disk ... not one of the fancy auto adjusting servo types. Worked
well.