Hints On USB Wi-Fi?

[Cluttermagnet]

Wow that is something Clutter. What could they possibly be thinking to charge you for not having service

It is kind of amazing, isn't it? But that's what they did, and I have the invoices to prove it. I've seen one other company do that, personally- collect 'first month's rent' up front, then try to collect it again as last month's rent. And then turn me over to collection when I declined to double pay. It gets even more amazing, however. Just as I was about to go out my door Sunday Saturday on an extended day trip with my friend, down to visit with her relatives and a bunch of their friends, there comes a call on my machine... I recognized the number as belonging to that contractor, and I just 'had to' pick it up and talk to them.So here was their deal- 29.99 for 12 months, then rolling over to 60 dollars a month. I about hit the ceiling. "Wait a minute," I said. "We had a deal on the table and it was 29.99 for 6 months, then rolling to 42.95 per month!""Oh, OK, you can get that," I am told. Maybe I could have asked for the Hope diamond and gotten that thrown in the deal as well? So anyway, the 6 month deal got negotiated and agreed on. Supposedly I will have service back on within a day or two. It wasn't back on as of late Saturday night, however. Just the Concast tease page. And get this- I pointedly asked the guy about my balance. He said it was zero. I wasn't sure I had heard that right. I asked him to repeat it... Zero. I wouldn't be 'dragging them through the mud' this way if they hadn't done that to me the past month. I'm more than a little irritated with them. The crabfest was fun (but I ate chicken ) I heard some very, very interesting info Sunday afternoon from my friend's son. Seems he has one of those Verizon 3G playthingies, cost him about 150. He told me some surprisingly low prices were being charged for his wireless internet time. Also mentioned how you can get various little cards which will make a desktop tower or a laptop work on his network. And amazingly, he claims he has no bandwidth limits imposed. No download size limit, in other words. I'm going to need to check that out personally to see how accurate a picture I was really getting about 3G internet. I almost don't believe what I think I was hearing. It almost sounds as if people are starting to get affordable internet broadband options around here. Wouldn't that be something? :"> I'm tired from having fought this fight. I learned a few things. I will continue to do so. I have a couple of projects I will stay on, as they were good alternatives for those no longer on cable.Edit: No cable internet as of 2:30PM Sunday. Not surprising, really. This probably won't get done until some time Monday, when people return to work. Thank goodness for 'good old' dialup. Edited August 17, 2010 by Cluttermagnet

[Cluttermagnet]

Anyone notice how many replies this thread has garnered? It's up to 5 pages now. Also, the reads to posts ratio is pretty darned high. Appears that a lot of lurkers are finding this thread of interest, FWIW.Edit: 6 pages. 35 to 1 read to post ratio. Interesting.

Edited August 17, 2010 by Cluttermagnet

[zlim]

Just one note of caution, if it is being pushed in your area of PA, as it is being pushed in my area, avoid Clearwire. (Currently being pushed through Best Buy, Clearwire trucks parked in the area and inserts in the newspaper).I'm telling friends who ask about it to wait until I hear more PA feedback. Someone at Freedomlist, in Portland, OR had it and it was very problematic for him.Here's the thread http://www.freedomlist.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32814Prices for Clearwire are good at $30 (it uses the 4G network so I don't know speeds), cheaper than my current $44.95 for Comcast. Verizon is about $20 but that's for up to 1Mbps and with Comcast I get 8Mbps and speedboost up to about 16 so considering the speeds, Verizon is not a bargain.

[Cluttermagnet]

That's interesting, Liz- despite the warnings. I think the guy in that thread with the bad review was the major part of his own problems. I'll keep a close eye on these emerging services. Some day may they make sense for me too.BTW still no Concast service as of noon Monday. I'll recheck it a few times during the afternoon and evening. The dialup is getting real old.

Edited August 17, 2010 by Cluttermagnet

[securitybreach]

Hopefully it will be on soon Clutter. I could not imagine the pain you must be going through.

[Cluttermagnet]

As of Tuesday morning, the Concast registration windows continue to mock me. Oh, BTW if you actually try entering the customer account number, you get 'clutter who?' Nonsense like check sums not being right, invalid account number, etc. So obviously they have not seen fit to turn it back on just yet. I will have to waste my time calling them later today to see what their problem is now.

Edited August 17, 2010 by Cluttermagnet

[Cluttermagnet]

Spoke to Concast around 10AM. They found that nobody had bothered to set up an appointment to have me reconnected. Otherwise, everything so far as my payment and the deal I had negotiated had apparently been recorded. Seems that customer requested disconnects cause them to dispatch a field tech to diddle with the local drop to the customer. Apparently it's either a hard disconnect or a filter gets installed. So it looks like I wouldn't have had cable restored for however long I would have cared to impatiently wait and stamp my feet. It took a phone call to rattle their cages and get them to set an appointment. It turns out that Thursday, 2 days from now, is the soonest they can get someone out here. Oh, I'll wait. As if I had any choice in the matter. I agree with those who have described Concast as a large, dysfunctional bureaucracy Also, my account is still temporarily listed inactive by them. It will be until the tech restores service. Meanwhile, my modem still connects, and I can see the sign in page, but it doesn't see my account number as being valid. So I must have gotten the filter, I guess.

Edited August 17, 2010 by Cluttermagnet

[securitybreach]

Well glad you are getting service restored (something is better than nothing). :thumbsup:I am surprised there is a login page for your internet from Comcast. I have had a cable modem for years and I dont think I have ever had to login in to use the internet.

[zlim]

I don't have the Comcast software installed anywhere, don't use Comcast as my start page so as a result, I've never logged in either. I fire up my browser and surf.I did create a Comcast account lately, just to see what streaming tv shows and movies are available - free.

[striker]

I don't have any ISP software installed, no need for that.I don't have a homepage in my browsers, they're all blank.I don't need to log in at my ISP.I fire up my browser and surf. I fire up my email to fetch them, and Poppy is watching the mail accounts and lets me know when there is a mail waiting for me. (I first look at the headers/subject/sender with Poppy: if I don't want the mail, I delete it with Poppy without ever having looked at it. )

[Cluttermagnet]

Well glad you are getting service restored (something is better than nothing). :thumbsup:I am surprised there is a login page for your internet from Comcast. I have had a cable modem for years and I dont think I have ever had to login in to use the internet.

OK, I have confused the issue by using some awkward labels above. The Concast page I am referring to should be very familiar to any of their customers who have ever been cut off for getting behind in their monthly payments. It is more of a new customer registration page, actually. I suppose it might have some relevance to a brand new Concast customer who is very inexperienced and would allow Concast (or whoever) to download software packages onto their machines. It's essentially a first time customer validation thingie. Other than that, the registration page is essentially a 'customer mocking page'. Regardless of where you try to direct your browser, you get this annoying 'do nothing' page from Concast. It's sole purpose is to let you know that you can connect to Concast servers but will not otherwise be allowed actual internet access.Once service is restored, your browser 'works again' and you stop seeing this annoying page. Instead, it lets you onto the net and you see whatever sites you address in your browser. Edited August 18, 2010 by Cluttermagnet

[Cluttermagnet]

I don't have any ISP software installed, no need for that.I don't have a homepage in my browsers, they're all blank.I don't need to log in at my ISP.I fire up my browser and surf. I fire up my email to fetch them, and Poppy is watching the mail accounts and lets me know when there is a mail waiting for me. (I first look at the headers/subject/sender with Poppy: if I don't want the mail, I delete it with Poppy without ever having looked at it. )

I do pretty much the same, striker. My FF opens to a blank page. I never install ISP software, toolbars, etc. And I never have to log in on Concast. Unfortunately, I do have to log in on dialup. For one more day, anyway.

[securitybreach]

OK, I have confused the issue by using some awkward labels above. The Concast page I am referring to should be very familiar to any of their customers who have ever been cut off for getting behind in their monthly payments. It is more of a new customer registration page, actually. I suppose it might have some relevance to a brand new Concast customer who is very inexperienced and would allow Concast (or whoever) to download software packages onto their machines. It's essentially a first time customer validation thingie. Other than that, the registration page is essentially a 'customer mocking page'. Regardless of where you try to direct your browser, you get this annoying 'do nothing' page from Concast. It's sole purpose is to let you know that you can connect to Concast servers but will not otherwise be allowed actual internet access.Once service is restored, your browser 'works again' and you stop seeing this annoying page. Instead, it lets you onto the net and you see whatever sites you address in your browser.

Ah, thats make sense. They have a redirect page for when your not online.

[striker]

Ah, I see.

[Cluttermagnet]

Today in about 3 to 6 hours from now, I should once again have cable internet.I have resolved to continue my learning about alternative internet portals, and to cast a wide net in my search. For now, I'll focus on getting dialup to work on later Linux distros (I'm presently still using obsolete Ubuntu Dapper 6.06). I'll also continue learning some of the many facets of wifi, an area I was mainly without any experience in, prior to this year.It proved very wise to hang onto my Verizon POTS line, and to keep my inexpensive dialup ISP all2easy.net. Although the Verizon line is amazingly overpriced, I haven't seen any really persuasive alternative service IMO. I wanted dialup internet available as a backup. The ISP is very reasonable at 4.95 per month. I get not only the dialup capability, but also a 5M web space (good enough for anything I'd ever do) and 2 email accounts. Not a bad deal! The POTS line cost has crept up to over 30 dollars per month- and that's for only basic service. Max of 65 calls a month (outgoing); then after that, it's ten cents (0.10USD) per outgoing call. Unbelievable. But OTOH it works when power is out, even for days on end. Let's see your cell phone do that. "Now where did I leave that automobile charger cable?" ;)Hmmm- actually I do pay extra for "Caller ID", 8 dollars per month. Overpriced but indispensible IMO. So my basic phone line is really more like 22 dollars. We get frequent power outages in my area, but I have my POTS line to stay in touch with friends. I just fire up my bottled gas Coleman lantern and 2 burner stove, make some coffee and dinner, listen on my battery radio for news about how the power utility is doing with restoring power, and enjoy some telephone chatting.I'll be looking for an affordable laptop or netbook. Who knows- perhaps Santa Claus will smile on me this year? I've been good, honest...

Edited August 19, 2010 by Cluttermagnet

[Cluttermagnet]

Concast tech just left. I have cable internet again. More later- I just discovered a little H2O in my carpets downstairs. We had very heavy rains yesterday. So I'm mopping up with some towels. "If it ain't one thing, it's another..."

[securitybreach]

Yeah !!! Welcome back to the wonderful world of broadband

[colin.p]

It proved very wise to hang onto my Verizon POTS line, and to keep my inexpensive dialup ISP all2easy.net.

I hear yah. Right now I'm using my wife's Vista laptop, as it is the only one that has a modem. My wireless ISP's 3.5 ghz modem box has quit working and I will have to wait until some poor sucker has to scramble up onto my 20 foot high roof and take the box off the 15 foot pole to fix/replace it. My other computers either have no modem, or it is an internal winmodem and I am not too interested in getting them to work in ubuntu.That's why I have always kept a spare dial-up account. I use 295.ca (2.95 a month) for a backup, plus I use the webspace they give me, included in the price.

[amenditman]

Concast tech just left. I have cable internet again. More later- I just discovered a little H2O in my carpets downstairs. We had very heavy rains yesterday. So I'm mopping up with some towels. "If it ain't one thing, it's another..."

Congratulations on out waiting them.Sorry to hear about your other domestic issue. Hope it's nothing serious.

[Cluttermagnet]

Congratulations on out waiting them.Sorry to hear about your other domestic issue. Hope it's nothing serious.

It's sure easier on broadband. So far, so good. I have it in writing now, the rate I was promised. In 6 months there will be a rate adjustment. I imagine they will keep their word. Time will tell...A couple of times in the past 10 years, we have had some foundation seepage after heavy rains. It's exacerbated by soil settlement near the foundation (need to fix that), also by plugged rain gutters that overflow. Our gutters are constantly getting filled with all the junk our trees send down, year round.It's amazing how much misery a scant 2 to 4 gallons of water can cause, with carpeted floors and particle board furniture. Not enough to require a wet/dry vacuum- removal is by stomping on bath towels to sop it up. About a dozen per session. Takes 2-3+ sessions to get it all. It keeps seeping for a couple of days. Extra laundering, etc. It's not pretty what it does to particle board/ veneer furniture. I'm running our whole house fan a lot of hours lately. Next comes some sessions with a bleach solution to try to knock down the mold and mildew. Ugh! Edited September 9, 2010 by Cluttermagnet

[striker]

It's sure easier on broadband. So far, so good. I have it in writing now, the rate I was promised. In 6 months there will be a rate adjustment. I imagine they will keep their word. Time will tell...A couple of times in the past 10 years, we have had some foundation seepage after heavy rains. It's exacerbated by soil settlement near the foundation (need to fix that), also by plugged rain gutters that overflow. Our gutters are constantly getting filled with all the junk our trees send down, year round.It's amazing how much misery a scant 2 to 4 gallons of water can cause, with carpeted floors and particle board furniture. Not enough to require a wet/dry vacuum- removal is by stomping on bath towels to sop it up. About a dozen per session. Takes 2-3+ sessions to get it all. It keeps seeping for a couple of days. Extra laundering, etc. It's not pretty what it does to particle board/ veneer furniture. I'm running our while house fan a lot of hours lately. Next comes some sessions with a bleach solution to try to knock down the mold and mildew. Ugh!

O man, been there done that! The last time we had that, I let some specialist workers replace the drainage around the house. While removing the old stone one which laid there since the house was build around the late thirties, I saw with own eyes the drainage was there but in several pieces around the house. The rain pipes coming down from the gutter went into nothing, that is right into the soil.So that's why the garden got lower and lower, year after year. Anyway, we replaced the drainage system completely including the connection of the rain pipes and gutters to it: since then all is well again.

Our gutters are constantly getting filled with all the junk our trees send down, year round.

You've got to clean them two times a year Clutter, and there are filters for that available too. Myself I prefer to clean them up regularly, and I don't use filters. I did for a short time but these things tend to block the water going down into the pipe when leaves and all sorts of junk gets together around the filter.

[securitybreach]

You've got to clean them two times a year Clutter, and there are filters for that available too. Myself I prefer to clean them up regularly, and I don't use filters. I did for a short time but these things tend to block the water going down into the pipe when leaves and all sorts of junk gets together around the filter.

Yup, you got to clean them a couple of times a year depending on what type of client you are in (leaves, etc). I have never used a filter and did not even know they sold filters for it, so thanks for the tip.

[onederer]

We've lived in the cellar over 24 years now. Never been able to finish the inside of the house (no $$$). When we built the house, we put drainage inside and outside the foundation. We tarred the outside of the foundation, or used a waterproof coating. Never put up gutters to avoid maintenance problems. We installed an awning over the cellar door exit to keep the sun out and the rain away from the door.Considering that the cellar's cement floors are insulated underneath (no contact with the ground), one can comfortably walk barefooted on them in Winter without getting frozen feet. The only time we got water inside was when we tried to heat the area with coal. When we came back from church, the wood boiler had overheated and what a mess! The safety plug in the boiler had melted, and water was just constantly pouring into the firebox, and overflowed on to the floor. Otherwise, we're dry and cozy here.

[Cluttermagnet]

Is it surprising, then, that most insurers refuse to cover these sorts of things? Not very. FWIW this event was not all that bad, relatively. Only one small area affected. Everything will dry out eventually...

[Cluttermagnet]

I have begun the hard work or adding clay soil to build up the grade next to our foundation. This is one relatively small area and I'm just doing it by hand with wheelbarrow, shovel, etc. I don't really have the time to do this. I'll continue to make small additions from time to time, and will be more aggressive about clearing the gutters this fall. They fill up repeatedly, seem to take so little time to re-accumulate stuff after cleaning. This has been only a rare problem associated with extra heavy rainfall or with extra long rainy periods. Happened twice now in the past 10+ years.