This is an FYI: Screaming helps. Screaming a lot helps even more. Last week I helped a friend trouble shoot her Comcast Cable connection. She was basically unable to do anything. Couldn't read e-mail over AOL. (in fact she couldn't even establish an AOL connection at times.) Couldn't do even the simplest and smallest of downloads. Her trouble began with all the bad weather we were having in Baltimore a week ago.
I have long suspected a Comcast cable problem with her set-up, but Comcast kept saying everything was fine. A week ago I phoned them, and they "pinged" the line, had us disconnect, reconnect, unconnect, connect, etc, etc. They said everything checked out ok, but they'd send a technician anyway. (This may have had something to do with the mention of FIOS being newly available in her neighborhood, but who knows.) The technician came out the next day. Checked everything out carefully. Said that the problem was the cable which ran from the street to her house -- a 150 foot run --which needed to be replaced. Replacement could take between 7 - 21 days! Many phone calls later (and after FIOS had been ordered), Comcast replaced the cable between her house and the street in about 4 days. The connection on her TV service is fine, as it has always been, and the connection on her computer is now rock solid. So she's sticking with Comcast for now. (It took 4 hours to get Verizon to cancel the FIOS installation! -- we hope.) Oh yes, I forgot to mention that my friend is also getting a $300 credit on her next Comcast bill. Bearing in mind that they have a long record of phone calls over the past year with service complaints, it's still gratifying - and somewhat surprising - that they agreed to give her such a large credit. The morals of this story are: If Comcast says they've tested your equipment and it's fine, don't believe them unless they can come up with something else that's happening at your house. (This has happened to us when a Linksys box decided to stop working one night.) If your service is weather dependent, and if you have Cable service, suspect the cable -- & complain, loudly, especially if you have choices of service. FIOS seems to be a real threat to Comcast where it's newly installed. If you can use this a club, use it freely. Mical Wilmoth Carton [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************** See AOL's top rated recipes (http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004) ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************
