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[#] Mon Sep 08 2014 11:16:33 EDT from vince-q <vince-q@ns1.netk2ne.net>

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...at least for eighteen and a half minutes, until you erase it.

[#] Mon Sep 08 2014 23:36:37 EDT from Ladyhawke

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Thu Sep 04 2014 02:39:44 PM EDT from wizard of aahz @ Uncensored
FREE!! FREE AT LAST!


Got rid of Charter and went with ATT U-Verse

Best I could get here.. But 50 MB D/L speeds.. wheeee

and much faster ping times.

<Does Happy Dance>

and a DVR that doesn't suck!

Jeez, Aahz, where the hell did you move this time that the best you could get was *U-Verse*?  Or is this just another ploy to get work to move closer to you....



[#] Tue Sep 09 2014 10:16:27 EDT from wizard of aahz

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Been here in Connecticut for a while.. Backwoods CT at that.. Beautiful and peaceful. But a wee bit low on techonology and services.

[#] Tue Sep 09 2014 17:29:51 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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I can bring fiber to your house ... it won't be connected to anything, but I can bring it anyway.

Actually, 50 Mbps is plenty, especially when you're switching away from crappy cable company Internet. I've never seen a cable company do traffic management properly.

[#] Tue Sep 09 2014 18:42:16 EDT from vince-q

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2014-09-09 17:29 from IGnatius T Foobar @uncnsrd
I can bring fiber to your house ... it won't be connected to anything,

but I can bring it anyway.


Hmmm... that sounds like AT&T up here on the mountain.

[#] Wed Sep 10 2014 01:37:56 EDT from ax25

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Mon Sep 08 2014 08:41:14 AM EDT from fleeb @ Uncensored

I haven't personally tested the throughput of a mutant bubble eyed turtle dove under laboratory conditions, but I suspect it could beat out a stationwagon full of tapes for bandwidth with just one bird as long as you don't throw stones at it.

Ok, so not tapes, but sd cards:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakernet

 



[#] Wed Sep 10 2014 11:27:35 EDT from zooer

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Okay, bring that fiber to my house.

[#] Mon Sep 15 2014 23:30:35 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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Quaker Oat Squares. Yummy soluble fiber.

[#] Tue Sep 16 2014 08:43:06 EDT from fleeb

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Misread: Yummy soluble father.

[#] Tue Sep 16 2014 09:44:11 EDT from zooer

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Quaker Oats is a great ISP.

For Christmas my Mother would make a Chex mix type of snack with Quaker Oat Squares. It wasn't spicy it was
buttery cinnamon and sugar baked into nuts and QOS.

[#] Fri Sep 19 2014 15:57:38 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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One neato thing about Verizon FiOS is that your LAN is extended into all of the coaxial cable in your house. The router uses MoCA to feed Internet to the set-top boxes (and to receive the public Internet connection from the ONT, if you don't have an Ethernet drop on that side).

So if you have a spare router, which I do, you can use it as a bridge. In the guest bedroom which doubles as my home office, I plugged in to the cable TV wire that's in here, turned off DHCP, and now I have both Ethernet and a second WiFi access point (which was sorely needed).

(Of course, this is only a stopgap until I grow a pair and go into the possibly wasp-infested attic to run proper cabling.)

[#] Fri Sep 19 2014 20:21:24 EDT from zooer

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IF it used the coaxial cable throughout the house as a WiFi antenna that would be cool.

My sister has Fios, but they don't offer it here. We have to get monkey wrench ass raped by Time Warner each
month. If we ever do get Fios in this area I think TW will try to tell us how much they love us and we
shouldn't leave.

[#] Fri Sep 19 2014 20:46:35 EDT from vince-q <vince-q@ns1.netk2ne.net>

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Let's try this again now that the cat is not walking on the keyboard!

zooer:

Find an alternative source for your internet. Depending on where you live, that will mean that you have an almost endless list of ISPs, or that you are complete screwed and have only the cable company or a satellite internet provider.

Rule 1: unless you are the CIA or NSA, even dialup is better than satellite internet - period.

Once you have an ISP or several to use, compare their highest bandwidth price to what you have now.

You are NOT going to make the switch, however you ARE going to lie. So get your ducks in order, write down the imaginary competitive offers you will be discussing with Time Warner, and then make the call.

When you call, the first and only thing you will tell the phone person (sales droid, idiot, asshole - they all mean the same thing at Time Warner) is that you want to cancel your service.

The goal is to have the person transfer you to their "retention" department and NOWHERE ELSE.

Once you are talking to the retention whore, tell it that you are leaving UNLESS they IMMEDIATELY reduce your total rate to $xx.yy (you supply your own "magic price"). Tell them firmly but professionally that you have completely researched the issue and that you can replace their TV offering with a combination of rooftop antenna and online streaming from your new ISP. And yes, it can *almost* be done and depending on your TV preferences the *almost* can be replaced with *absolutely*.

The goal of your phone call is to drown the mind of the retention whore with one impression: you are completely "savvy" with the technology that delivers internet and television into your home and really really really really want to be a "cord cutter" and that you have a ton of relatives, friends, and neighbors, all T-warner customers, that are chomping at the bit to have you help *them* cord cut as well. Bla Bla Bla...

And stick with it until the retention whore gives you your deal. And make sure you get the deal for "twelve consecutive months."

It works. I did it myself last month and made Dish Network cut my monthly bill from $141.99/month to $89.99/month for the next 12 months. The phone call (not counting roughly 15 minutes of total on-hold time) took about 20 minutes, was very polite and professional, and BAM DONE, $52/month saved. Over the course of a year, that's slightly over $600.

One of the points I repeatedly made was the annoying habit they have of turning about 30 or more of the channels I receive into 30-minute "infomercials" around midnight Eastern time until 6AM Eastern. Since I am in California, that means I am paying for absolute horseshit during 2 hours of prime time. I emphasized that I am a "night owl" and am PAYING them for COMMERCIALS. And that this had to STOP and that I would be completely happy to sue them for fraud. Etc. Etc. Etc.

It worked.

And it could easily work for you.

[#] Fri Sep 19 2014 21:04:29 EDT from vince-q <vince-q@ns1.netk2ne.net>

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High Definition TV and the Scam

High Def TV is not the scam. High Def TV ***antennas*** are the scam (sometimes known as digital antennas).

Read the next sentence several times. It is "gospel truth" - period.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A HIGH DEFINITION TV ANTENNA.

An antenna is an antenna. Period. Whether it is the "rabbit ears" from your grandfather's tube tv, or that ugly VHF/UHF "thing" on your roof with rotator at the base (the "thing" is a VHF/UHF Yagi, by the way).

If you can grab a used rooftop antenna as described above from someone who has gone to cable or satellite, do it. Clean it up. Re-do the antenna-cable connections. Buy a new rotator at (believe it or not) Radio Shack ($59.99 - does not include the cable, but any 3-conductor cable will do).

Your outdoor antenna will, depending on where you live, get you ALL of your "local channels" (which includes all the sub-channels they carry) at ZERO COST. And if you are fortunate enough to live in a "good location" then you can do what I can do and receive roughly EIGHTY channels everywhere from Oakland/San Francisco to Sacramento, and to the north, to Redding. That is a LOT of free television!!!

For about $200 you can go to one of the Big Box thieves and buy a TiVO box that will allow you to schedule recordings of your free antenna TV to watch your favorite shows at *your* convenience (and if watching recorded stuff you can skip through commercials).

If you live in an area "governed" by a HOA, not to dismay. FCC RULES ABSOLUTLEY PROHIBIT any HOA or governmental entity from imposing ANY rule that impedes your RIGHT to receive over-the-air (or satellite) television - PERIOD. If your HOA tells you otherwise, just tell them to shove it and that you will be more than welcome to accept service of their lawsuit and counterclaim them in Federal court. They will back down - immediately.

But I digress.

I just don't want **anyone** to think they have to buy that fancy "high def antenna" to receive today's free stuff over the air. Of course, you *do* need a TV that is "digital compliant" (anything sold over the last ten or so years is fine), or you will need a converter (not expensive).

Thank you for reading this!

--Vince (K2NE)
Incidentally, I am published in the journals for my antenna designs and have lectured (visiting Prof.) antenna courses many times over the years.

[#] Sat Sep 20 2014 11:25:44 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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IF it used the coaxial cable throughout the house as a WiFi antenna that
would be cool.

That *would* be cool, but as I'm sure you already know, the whole point of coaxial cable is that it *doesn't* radiate any of the signal.

When I get a chance to rewire this place (nontrivial because of relatively new and energy-efficient construction) I will replace the cable stapled to the outside of the house by the crappy cable tv installer, with RG-6 and Cat5e run inside the walls to selected rooms.

At that point I'll probably splurge for a decent Cisco access point and mount it in the center hall of the house.

[#] Sat Sep 20 2014 12:13:47 EDT from vince-q <vince-q@ns1.netk2ne.net>

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That *would* be cool, but as I'm sure you already know, the whole
point of coaxial cable is that it *doesn't* radiate any of the signal.



I had a *huge* problem in my home office which also doubles as the VHF ham shack. Tons of cat-5 radiation getting into the 2 meter receivers. "Birdies" and all sorts of garbage.

The absolute cure was going to cat-5 shielded cable. No more birdies. No more intermod products. The entire 2 meter band is absolutely clean on receive. There actually is one signal left, but since it is not in the weak signal and SSB/CW portion of the band, it does not concern me in the least.

The bottom line - before considering coax, try shielded cat-5. Worked for me.

--K2NE

[#] Mon Sep 22 2014 01:17:05 EDT from ax25

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Just wrap your regular cat5 in tinfoil and ground at each end of the run.  It works just like tinfoil hats :-)



[#] Mon Sep 22 2014 08:31:19 EDT from fleeb

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How non-trivial is it to use fibre instead of wire?

[#] Mon Sep 22 2014 09:28:09 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

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Just wrap your regular cat5 in tinfoil and ground at each end of the

Misread as "wrap your cats in tinfoil"

And I may actually try it ... just for the lulz

[#] Mon Sep 22 2014 10:02:59 EDT from fleeb

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Please film that. Instant tons-o-views on Youtube.

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