Void Main web site availability etc

[Void Main]

I have been having problems with my Cable connection for over a month now. It's been going down almost every day for the entire day. It comes back up in the evening until morning. What I have figured out is that this only happens on hot sunny days. On overcast days there is never a problem. I also have not had near the data rate that I used to have with my old modem. It appears to be a problem somewhere off of my property as I have had a new cable modem installed and I have checked all the cables outside of my house. I have a guy scheduled to come in Friday and look at it (hopefully it will be sunny and the cable internet will be down). I work every day and am gone most weekends. My wife works too and Friday is the first day she has off so the Cable guy can come look at it.

In the mean time, I just moved the forums and some other things to another server. I should probably have done this sooner. As soon as I get it fixed I will move everything back to the cable modem.

Sorry for the connectivity problems!!

[Jenda]

That's actually very useful for you. Us - we can't visit the site, true, but you! Your computer automatically ousts you on nice sunny days, as saying "get your ass out their and enjoy the weather while it lasts" and when it doesn't last no more, you can come back home and burn your eyes out in front of the screen...

[Basher52]

hey... u wanna get this dude outside, just 'cus its sunny...
man are you way off

this dude is to be inside and answer our questions, otherwise this site aint worth shi*

j/k dudes

[Void Main]

Ooops, I must have two machines at home updating the DNS entry because I noticed voidmain.is-a-geek.net was pointing to my server at home again. Just changed it back. This sucks because the forum database can get out of sync. Note to self: gotta fix that when I get home.

[Void Main]

Charter Pipeline sucks rotten eggs! It's been over 4 months and my cable still isn't right. It has been up fairly reliably lately but only connecting at around less than 400Kbps when I am provisions for 3Mbps. It seems that is about the minimum connection rate. I have had people out to my house 3 times and they have told me on each occasion that the problem is not at my house but somewhere down the line. I was told they would have it fixed within 8 days. On each occasion I never got a call back or a status. I have probably called Charter support around 20 times. I have talked to over a dozen support people and 2 supervisors. Not once have they been able to give me a status on my problem, all I get is the runaround. I have sent them graphs showing my problem. I have been very nice up to this point but I have given up hope. They are all idiots and I suggest that if you have the choice that you do NOT subscribe to Charter pipeline. Get DSL, get dialup, get anything other than Charter pipeline.

I am about to get a DSL connection and get satellite to replace my Charter cable TV. I hate to do it because I have been a customer for over 12 years on the TV side and have had pipeline for as long as it's been available in my area (a few years). I have always been very happy, but that was when things were working. I pity the person who starts to have problems like I have had only to get absolutely no support. I was going to report them to the better business bureau but I guess it would be a waste of time since they have had 767 other complaints in the last 36 months:

http://www.stlouis.bbb.org/commonreport ... =110075917

Then again, maybe I will get some sort of action if I report them.

Just a friendly warning.

[Jenda]

Ooh... pretty bad.
Getting ADSL with Nextra/Telenor soon. Just handed in the contract today. I hope they aren't such CeNsOrEd as your providers.

anyway, I have to go now - my new sax is waiting.

[Void Main]

Sax as in saxophone? I played alto in grade school.

[ZiaTioN]

May want to try Comcast cable if it is available. I have had it for a few years and have been pretty pleased with it. I used to have DSL with Verizon and I could not wait to get away from them. My experience with them was about the same as yours with Charter but probably 10 times worse because for the longest time thyey were the ONLY game in town for broadband and they knew it. They would not do anything for you because they knew that you either had to deal with their crappy service or go back to dial up. Plus I only had a 768KB up and 128 KB down package and was being charged like $50.00 a month for it. I tried to upgrade one time and they told me I lived too far away (15,000 ft is the limit and I was 14,900 ft away). Of course as soon as Comcast came to town they instantly upped everyones package to 1.5 MB down and 128 KB up which was still only half what Comcast was offering for cheaper.

If you are considering DSL I would stay far far away from Verizon. You would be better off staying with Charter over switching to Verizon. We have both Comcast and Charter cable in my area and for the price, packages, and uptime you can not beat Comcast. Right now I am paying $29.99 a month for 6 months for a 3 MB down and 348KB up package. That is the introductory price of course and after 6 months it goes up to like $49.99 a month and for $59.99 a month I could get their 6 MB down and 768KB up package which I am considering!

Overall I would say that I like cable over DSL any day. I know all about dedicated vs. shared bandwidth and all that jazz but unless you live in a large city this never comes into play (in my experience). I have done speed tests at all hours of the day and never get less then what I am supposed to be getting.

[Void Main]

I would agree with that if my cable worked properly. :) The maximum download rate I can get is 49KB/s (speed tests show 380Kbps). That's the highest rate I have seen in over 4 months. My connection was down for exactly 1 week (to the hour) recently and before that it has been very intermittent, being down during most days and up in the evening. They are the only cable provider that I can get. I only have a couple of options on DSL, one being YaHoo DSL (I don't really want it but it has to be better than 380Kbps).

[Jenda]

sorry to be so OT, but:

Yup! Sax as in SAXOPHONE! I spent just about all my money on a new, Czech-made tenor sax.

[Void Main]

Finally!!!!! Speed back up from 384kbps to 3Mbps! I can not believe it took 7 months, a dozen or more support calls, a half dozen calls to supervisors, threats of switching to DSL, and about a half dozen on site visits to get a modem properly configured! Thanks to one bright phone support technician this 7 month saga can now be put to bed. I had asked several times in the past if my modem was provisioned properly and each time they said yes. I kept telling them that the diagnostic page in the modem's firmware only shows a downstream rate of 412000. Now I'm not the sharpest hammer in the toolbox but even I know that 412000 does not add up to 3Mbps.

Luckily I got a sharp tack on the phone this evening when I called to reschedule another on-site visit. He recognized the modem was not configured properly and reconfigured it. Now I have the full 3Mbps download speed. There probably won't be a huge difference on site speed though because I only have 384kbps upload speed but I think I was down to a little over half of that during the last 7 months.

Now I can put this dang headache to bed!!