Re: [MBZ] OT: DSL Modems

[Scott Ritchey via Mercedes]

I bought a refurb APC Smart UPS 1000VA from these guys:
http://excessups.com/ about a year ago.  Shipping was pricey; it's heavy.
The thing is a tank but it has been 100% so far.  My small consumer-grade
UPS were OK but they wouldn't recharge on my generator which tended to run
outside the 57-63 Hz UPS threshold for OK power.  I still use these small
UPS but the important stuff (like NAS, switches, routers) is on the Smart
UPS.  I don't (yet) know for sure how the Smart UPS will run on the
generator.

> -Original Message-
> From: Mercedes [mailto:mercedes-boun...@okiebenz.com] On Behalf Of Jim
> Cathey via Mercedes
> Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2015 9:40 AM
> To: Mercedes Discussion List 
> Cc: Jim Cathey ; Max Dillon
> 
> Subject: Re: [MBZ] OT: DSL Modems
> 
> > Need to get a UPS.
> 
> These can be a royal pain.  At work, we used to call them _I_PS's, because
> when the battery went bad and there was a power flicker, down would go the
> server when the unprotected systems didn't even notice.  A better class of
> UPS is in order, I've had (so far) very good luck with a surplus APC2000
that I
> put a 75AH battery bank on.  Only downside with it is that it won't power
your
> loads unless it has a functioning battery on it.  OTOH, I was able to
replace
> one (of four) battery that went bad, while it was live.  Carefully!  48V
75AH is
> no joke to be playing with.
> 
> I'm not surprised a VOIP installation doesn't come with a battery.
Batteries
> are, by FAR, the least reliable part of such a system.
> 
> I checked my records.  The APC's four batteries were installed in 2006,
with
> one replacement in 2010, and it's still going strong.  That's $395 for 11
years
> of backup computer power.
> (I think the surplus UPS itself was about $35.)  That's got to be some
kind of
> record...
> 
> -- Jim
> 
> 
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[MBZ] WWII gliders

[Curly McLain via Mercedes]

I found the name of the glider pilot I heard interviewed years ago. 
Sylvan Runkel.


This book has a short history of his military experience, and his 
brief stint as a invasion glider pilot.He flew a Horsa.


https://books.google.com/books?id=BMuu4_MEQWgC&pg=PA134&lpg=PA134&dq=sylvan+runkel+glider&source=bl&ots=VxYLwiCdjd&sig=XtLxCLq2yDLKVhXdk0RAVsRohaU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CEsQ6AEwBGoVChMI45XHzbGvyAIVQxgeCh0w_A3z#v=onepage&q=sylvan%20runkel%20glider&f=false

This is the archive of his papers:

http://www.add.lib.iastate.edu/spcl/manuscripts/MS619.html

A history of his life after glider piloting:

http://www.inhf.org/pdfs/learn/EcologyCollege-Sylvan-Runkle-Summer-2011.pdf

I still have not found the recording of his interview.  Someday, I 
will find it.


This photo shows his glider (#8) and the tow plane (#8)  The mission 
group was called Keokuk, after the Sac/Fox Chief Keokuk.




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Re: [MBZ] Another good thing about old MB diesels

[Curly McLain via Mercedes]

I read something like that in the Tips column of a motorcycle magazine in the
1970s.
Wrap it in foam, bounce it on the concrete a few times, rinse it out, repeat
until nothing more rinses out of it, refill with fresh electrolyte.
Did that with a dead 22NF Interstate from my Honda Civic, got 
another couple of

years out of use out of it.

Mitch.


There still are a few places that sell "rebuilt" batteries.  My guess 
is that is the procedure used to "rebuild" the batteries.


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Re: [MBZ] Another good thing about old MB diesels

[Mitch Haley via Mercedes]

> On October 6, 2015 at 8:01 PM clay via Mercedes  wrote:
> 
> 
> I had understood that there was a caveman approach to correcting some
> sulfating in auto batteries.  I could be mistaken, but I have heard
> anecdotally that if you remove the battery to a safe location ( a grassy area)
> and invert the thing (after topping off with de ionized h2o) and smack it upon
> the bottom with a deadfall mallet a few times over each cell, that a goodly
> bit of the sulfites will dislodge themselves from the plates.  Sort of breaks
> the short circuit between plates.  With the debris now able to fall off the
> plates, the battery will once more take a charge.
> 

I read something like that in the Tips column of a motorcycle magazine in the
1970s. 
Wrap it in foam, bounce it on the concrete a few times, rinse it out, repeat
until nothing more rinses out of it, refill with fresh electrolyte. 
Did that with a dead 22NF Interstate from my Honda Civic, got another couple of
years out of use out of it. 

Mitch.

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Re: [MBZ] OT: DSL Modems

[Jim Cathey via Mercedes]

advertised speed is also  the maximum I can get, 3Mbps. (Also the
maximum I can get under the fiber service mentioned above, for some
reason I don't understand.)


Throttling.  It's a big part of network gear, making sure you
don't get _more_ than you pay for.

-- Jim


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Re: [MBZ] Another good thing about old MB diesels

[Max Dillon via Mercedes]

Load tested this afternoon, 592 CCA of the original 640 are still available.  
This is SWMBO's Infiniti battery, not a group 49.  I'll keep it.

While waiting in line at FLAPS, couple came in with an original MB group 49 
from a '07 gasser.  I remarked that eight years was a pretty good service life, 
fellow told me that MB was finally replacing a defective engine balancer shaft, 
about $6 grand to do the job, gratis to him because MB lost a class action 
lawsuit thirty days ago.
-- 
Max Dillon
Charleston SC
'87 300TD
'95 E300
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Re: [MBZ] Another good thing about old MB diesels

[clay via Mercedes]

I had understood that there was a caveman approach to correcting some sulfating 
in auto batteries.  I could be mistaken, but I have heard anecdotally that if 
you remove the battery to a safe location ( a grassy area) and invert the thing 
(after topping off with de ionized h2o) and smack it upon the bottom with a 
deadfall mallet a few times over each cell, that a goodly bit of the sulfites 
will dislodge themselves from the plates.  Sort of breaks the short circuit 
between plates.  With the debris now able to fall off the plates, the battery 
will once more take a charge.

clay


On Oct 6, 2015, at 6:49 AM, Jim Cathey via Mercedes wrote:

>> IIRC, they claim that the high current pulses knock the sulfate off the
>> plates, which wouldn't be ideal, you want to get the sulfur back into the
>> solution.
> 
> From my reading it's the shape of the waveform that is significant.
> You need to use the internal inductance of the battery construction
> in order to get peak voltages _on the sulfated spots_ in order to
> reverse the reaction.  The problem is that a cell is a large parallel
> area, and the non-sulfated spots will soak up the voltage.  Using
> square waves, or even a resonant circuit, helps get the voltage to
> where it's needed.  You still lose a lot of current to the already
> good normal-voltage spots, and have to keep an eye on the electrolyte.
> 
> It sounds tricky, and I've had very limited results with the
> experiments I conducted way back when.  One such experiment cost
> me my best 'scope, which I'd left on for days to keep an eye on
> the waveform.  It didn't like that, turns out.
> 
> -- Jim
> 
> 
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Re: [MBZ] OT: DSL Modems

[clay via Mercedes]

Mother dearest had enough of the Crumcast customer service debacles and went 
with the local FIOS operator.  I am still on Crumcast modem.  Speeds at both 
homes suffers greatly when there are multiple users on the line.  Cable 
service, even when they "upgraded" to fiber to the pole sucks when there are 
users.  After the kids get home from schools, the speeds dip.  Dinner time they 
recover a bit, then hit the crapper for the evening until people go to bed.  
Too much streaming and online games.

FIOS is little better, as it is fiber to the building, one expects better 
speeds.  The house side hardware sort of throttles speeds unless you are paying 
excessively to get speed.  I found it to be the same as cable for the basic 
tier service.  I suspect there is a dedicated "speedy" line and a standard tier 
fiber on the pole.  The line may be all of a 10-15 fiber bundle, of which only 
three or four are being used.



clay 

2002 s430 - Victor, a Stately & well tailored chap
1974 450sl -  Frosch - Two tone green
1976 300D - Blei Vanst - it looks silvery
1972 220D - Gump - She was green, simple and ran
1995 E300D - Gave her life to save me against a Dame in a SUV
POS 1987 SDL - Beware Nigerian Scammers








On Oct 5, 2015, at 7:44 PM, Max Dillon via Mercedes wrote:

> Very satisfied, BellSouth (now AT&T) has pretty good customer service and 
> I've never had an outage due to their side.  Every problem has been either 
> the modem  dying or me getting the settings wrong.
> 
> I'm not in the game for speed, we only use email and web surfing, no video 
> streaming other than YouTube.  I think their slowest / cheapest is 25Mb/s, 
> one can pay more for faster service.
> 
> I read a bunch of reviews before trying DSL, saw lots of bad experiences, 
> we've had none of them in over ten years of service.  It just works.  Modems 
> tend to die after two years or more, and I think the new type will cost about 
> $100 to replace if I want another AT&T brand.
> -- 
> Max Dillon
> Charleston SC
> '87 300TD
> '95 E300
> 
> On October 5, 2015 9:33:50 PM EDT, Scott Ritchey via Mercedes 
>  wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Can anyone comment on satisfaction with DSL vs cable modems.  We have
>> Century Link DSL available here but I've only used Time Warner for the
>> last
>> 10 years.  Time Warner recently "upgraded" and I saw 30+ MBps (with the
>> specified new modem) right after the upgrade but now it's back to 15-18
>> MBps.  I routinely had 15-16 MBps before the "upgrade" so it's no
>> improvement as far as I can see.  Century Link claims "up to 10 MBps
>> but I
>> don't know what to expect with them.  Anyone with experience both ways?
>> 
>> 
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Re: [MBZ] OT: DSL Modems

[clay via Mercedes]

Crumcast screwed by aged mother over by insisting that she had to pay $50 for 
their battery.  Triple play bundle and her phone was worthless in a power 
failure.  I visited the customer service center and read them the riot act 
about how it was a federal offense that they did not provide the back up, as 
being a telco, they were obligated to have 99.999% up time as a regulated 
utility.  Dude at the counter was firm that the thing had to be charged to her 
account.  To which I replied that unless he gave me the battery right then, I 
would have the AG, State utility regulators and a federal prosecutor on site 
within the hour to enforce the regulation.  Idjit decided his crap job was not 
worth the hassle of arguing

clay

On Oct 5, 2015, at 6:25 PM, Max Dillon via Mercedes wrote:

> Hmm, won't hurt to ask about a battery.  Rather irritating that one has to be 
> informed enough to ask, should be part of the standard deal.
> -- 
> Max Dillon
> Charleston SC
> '87 300TD
> '95 E300
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Re: [MBZ] OT: DSL Modems

[Greg Fiorentino via Mercedes]

I used to have DSL with a local ISP called dslnorthwest. Their service was
excellent, but they used the local telco, US West (now Qwest)which was not
so good. This was a while back, so user friendliness was not as good as now.
I had to muck around the modem to get things working, but the phone lines
never were good enough for good bandwidth.

Finally I caved and went to Comcast. Except for the few truly awful
experiences having to go to their store, and the terrible outdated and
totally incorrect FAQs on their website, my experience with them has been
good. Once I had reception problems and a tech came out and determined that
a critter had chewed on an outside cable. He repaired it...no charge. After
a while I got tired of paying the rent on the modem, so I bought a better
one (DOCSIS 3) from Amazon and saved the money back in less than a year.
Comcast provided good telephone support to get that up and running.

Throughput and reliability have been much better with cable.

Greg

-Original Message-
From: Mercedes [mailto:mercedes-boun...@okiebenz.com] On Behalf Of Scott
Ritchey via Mercedes
Sent: Monday, October 05, 2015 6:34 PM
To: 'Mercedes Discussion List'
Cc: Scott Ritchey
Subject: Re: [MBZ] OT: DSL Modems



Can anyone comment on satisfaction with DSL vs cable modems.  We have
Century Link DSL available here but I've only used Time Warner for the last
10 years.  Time Warner recently "upgraded" and I saw 30+ MBps (with the
specified new modem) right after the upgrade but now it's back to 15-18
MBps.  I routinely had 15-16 MBps before the "upgrade" so it's no
improvement as far as I can see.  Century Link claims "up to 10 MBps but I
don't know what to expect with them.  Anyone with experience both ways?


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Re: [MBZ] Bob - Forget the Diesel!

[Mitch Haley via Mercedes]

Who needs hydraulics?
We be slammin', yo!

> http://www.benzworld.org/forums/sale-wanted-trade-giveaway/2476089-amg-s55-parting-whole-w-good.html#post13067785
> 

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Re: [MBZ] S. C. flood is 6th 1,000-year rain since 2010

[WILTON via Mercedes]

I noticed that, too.  Poor fella had da go.

Wilton

- Original Message - 
From: "Rich Thomas via Mercedes" 

To: 
Cc: "Rich Thomas" 
Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2015 5:24 PM
Subject: Re: [MBZ] S. C. flood is 6th 1,000-year rain since 2010


I'll see your 240D and raise you an E55.  And an owner taking a leak in 
the water it is stranded in.  On camera.


https://www.facebook.com/gary.l.messenger/videos/10153509728233463/

--R

On 10/6/15 4:41 PM, Karl Wittnebel via Mercedes wrote:

Poor flooded 240 photo:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2015/10/05/south-carolina-flooding-climate-change/73385778/
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Re: [MBZ] OT: DSL Modems

[Rich Thomas via Mercedes]

There are various web sites you can test your connectivity speed to, I 
see mine when I watch Amazon Prime stuff, the app on the DVD player 
shows the streaming rate when it is first connecting to some particular 
show.  usually it pegs at 13 or 14+.  Can also go into the modems 
control panel and it will show the connection speed though I'm not sure 
I would trust that.  When the ATT guy came a coupla weeks ago we pulled 
up some site on my computer and it showed the speed.


--R


On 10/6/15 5:18 PM, Max Dillon via Mercedes wrote:

I must have the 5Mbs service, not the 25.  Never tested it, it's more than 
enough for our needs.  Do you guys use Ookla speed test on your pc to test that?



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Re: [MBZ] S. C. flood is 6th 1,000-year rain since 2010

[Rich Thomas via Mercedes]

I'll see your 240D and raise you an E55.  And an owner taking a leak in 
the water it is stranded in.  On camera.


https://www.facebook.com/gary.l.messenger/videos/10153509728233463/

--R

On 10/6/15 4:41 PM, Karl Wittnebel via Mercedes wrote:

Poor flooded 240 photo:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2015/10/05/south-carolina-flooding-climate-change/73385778/
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Re: [MBZ] OT: DSL Modems

[Max Dillon via Mercedes]

I must have the 5Mbs service, not the 25.  Never tested it, it's more than 
enough for our needs.  Do you guys use Ookla speed test on your pc to test that?
-- 
Max Dillon
Charleston SC
'87 300TD
'95 E300

On October 6, 2015 2:11:25 PM EDT, Rich Thomas via Mercedes 
 wrote:
>My uverse service gives me a pretty solid 15Mbps, I think it is the 
>mid-tier service.  Unlimited voice and net costs about $65 a month, 
>their deal when I got it put in was free modem and free install. 
>Apparently the "initial offer" expired and they bumped the monthly up
>to 
>$99 then tacked on $7 for the rental of the replacement modem that
>fried 
>due to their lack of isolation of the device from surges on their
>lines, 
>so not like I spilled water on it or something.  I got all that sorted 
>out, back to the "initial offer" price, which is a bit more than I was 
>paying for 5Mbps DSL service and some minutes cap on LD.  Interestingly
>
>Verizon's latest plan I got has unlimited voice and a shared data cap 
>for 4 users.  So I guess we can talk and talk now to anyone for "free."
>
>--R
>
>
>
>On 10/6/15 11:50 AM, Tim Crone via Mercedes wrote:
>> On Mon, Oct 5, 2015 at 10:44 PM, Max Dillon via Mercedes
>>  wrote:
>>
>> A lot of the DSL reliability issues seem to break down into phone
>line
>> isolation and wiring.  Make sure your filters are used on all the
>> voice lines, and that your wiring is good everywhere. (Hard to do in
>a
>> rental!)
>>
>>> Very satisfied, BellSouth (now AT&T) has pretty good customer
>service and I've never had an outage due to their side.  Every problem
>has been either the modem  dying or me getting the settings wrong.
>> My experience is different, since AT&T now supports fiber in my area
>> they are trying hard to get me to switch from DSL.  Same price*, same
>> speed, possibly more reliable?  Oh, except "same price"* does not
>> include mandatory modem rental and multi-year contract.
>>
>> When anything works, I've been 100% reliable on advertised speed,
>both
>> here (Chapel Hill NC) and at my old house (Durham NC).  Note that
>> advertised speed is also  the maximum I can get, 3Mbps. (Also the
>> maximum I can get under the fiber service mentioned above, for some
>> reason I don't understand.)
>>
>> When it stops working, which seems to be happening once every quarter
>> over the past year that fiber (U-verse) has been available, I get no
>> customer service - the reps just say it is confirmed not working on
>> their end and they might have an ETA in 72 hours.  To their credit
>> it's only once been out longer than 24 hours, so I suppose that's
>> something.
>>
>> (That said it is still a thousand times better than any service I got
>> with Time Warner; they'd have had me on hold for two hours, then sent
>> an "engineer" three to five days later who would not be able to fix
>or
>> isolate the problem.  So... YMMV.)
>>
>>> I'm not in the game for speed, we only use email and web surfing, no
>video streaming other than YouTube.  I think their slowest / cheapest
>is 25Mb/s, one can pay more for faster service.
>> Here the slowest is 0.5Mb, fastest if you are close to the office is
>> 6Mbps.  We are getting Google Fiber, though, so I'm sure that's part
>> of the push to move people into a contract while U-verse is still
>> competitive.
>>
>>> I read a bunch of reviews before trying DSL, saw lots of bad
>experiences, we've had none of them in over ten years of service.  It
>just works.  Modems tend to die after two years or more, and I think
>the new type will cost about $100 to replace if I want another AT&T
>brand.
>> For U-verse I'm pretty sure you are required to rent their modem.
>>
>> For true DSL, modems are cheap, buy a spare at the thrift store.  If
>> it's carrier-branded it's easier to set up.  I've seen a fair few of
>> the Westell/Netgear with and without integrated wireless here, they
>> work pretty reliably.
>>
>> Best,
>> Tim
>>
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>>
>
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[MBZ] S. C. flood is 6th 1,000-year rain since 2010

[Karl Wittnebel via Mercedes]

Poor flooded 240 photo:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2015/10/05/south-carolina-flooding-climate-change/73385778/
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Re: [MBZ] OT: DSL Modems

[Rich Thomas via Mercedes]

My uverse service gives me a pretty solid 15Mbps, I think it is the 
mid-tier service.  Unlimited voice and net costs about $65 a month, 
their deal when I got it put in was free modem and free install. 
Apparently the "initial offer" expired and they bumped the monthly up to 
$99 then tacked on $7 for the rental of the replacement modem that fried 
due to their lack of isolation of the device from surges on their lines, 
so not like I spilled water on it or something.  I got all that sorted 
out, back to the "initial offer" price, which is a bit more than I was 
paying for 5Mbps DSL service and some minutes cap on LD.  Interestingly 
Verizon's latest plan I got has unlimited voice and a shared data cap 
for 4 users.  So I guess we can talk and talk now to anyone for "free."


--R



On 10/6/15 11:50 AM, Tim Crone via Mercedes wrote:

On Mon, Oct 5, 2015 at 10:44 PM, Max Dillon via Mercedes
 wrote:

A lot of the DSL reliability issues seem to break down into phone line
isolation and wiring.  Make sure your filters are used on all the
voice lines, and that your wiring is good everywhere. (Hard to do in a
rental!)


Very satisfied, BellSouth (now AT&T) has pretty good customer service and I've 
never had an outage due to their side.  Every problem has been either the modem  
dying or me getting the settings wrong.

My experience is different, since AT&T now supports fiber in my area
they are trying hard to get me to switch from DSL.  Same price*, same
speed, possibly more reliable?  Oh, except "same price"* does not
include mandatory modem rental and multi-year contract.

When anything works, I've been 100% reliable on advertised speed, both
here (Chapel Hill NC) and at my old house (Durham NC).  Note that
advertised speed is also  the maximum I can get, 3Mbps. (Also the
maximum I can get under the fiber service mentioned above, for some
reason I don't understand.)

When it stops working, which seems to be happening once every quarter
over the past year that fiber (U-verse) has been available, I get no
customer service - the reps just say it is confirmed not working on
their end and they might have an ETA in 72 hours.  To their credit
it's only once been out longer than 24 hours, so I suppose that's
something.

(That said it is still a thousand times better than any service I got
with Time Warner; they'd have had me on hold for two hours, then sent
an "engineer" three to five days later who would not be able to fix or
isolate the problem.  So... YMMV.)


I'm not in the game for speed, we only use email and web surfing, no video 
streaming other than YouTube.  I think their slowest / cheapest is 25Mb/s, one 
can pay more for faster service.

Here the slowest is 0.5Mb, fastest if you are close to the office is
6Mbps.  We are getting Google Fiber, though, so I'm sure that's part
of the push to move people into a contract while U-verse is still
competitive.


I read a bunch of reviews before trying DSL, saw lots of bad experiences, we've had 
none of them in over ten years of service.  It just works.  Modems tend to die 
after two years or more, and I think the new type will cost about $100 to replace 
if I want another AT&T brand.

For U-verse I'm pretty sure you are required to rent their modem.

For true DSL, modems are cheap, buy a spare at the thrift store.  If
it's carrier-branded it's easier to set up.  I've seen a fair few of
the Westell/Netgear with and without integrated wireless here, they
work pretty reliably.

Best,
Tim

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[MBZ] Bob - Forget the Diesel!

[Dan Penoff via Mercedes]

Ge this instead:

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/sale-wanted-trade-giveaway/2476089-amg-s55-parting-whole-w-good.html#post13067785
 


Dan
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Re: [MBZ] OT: DSL Modems

[Tim Crone via Mercedes]

On Mon, Oct 5, 2015 at 4:51 PM, Craig via Mercedes
 wrote:
> Is there something better than the typical consumer DSL modems? Or are
> they now good enough? (Maybe I ought to resurrect our Cisco PIX-501
> firewall.)

I have a Cisco router with the DSL line card.  It was nice but I had
no performance benefit over the consumer DSL modem, and it frustrated
the customer service folks to no end.  I ended up putting a
Netgear/Westell 7550 in switching mode and it works just fine; it has
been up for several years straight now.  In Durham we were right on
the end of a long line, and I did not see any noise benefit with the
Cisco versus the Netgear.

Given that I got two 7550s for less than the price of the line card at
a thrift store, and the power utilization is much lower, I would
recommend them (or the 7500, which is the same but with no wireless -
and BTW you should turn off the wireless because it's awful).

To be honest I'd not be too worried about the performance of any
legacy DSL modem, they might differ at the distance boundaries but I'm
not sure your telco will sell you that speed anyway.  VDSL/ADSL2+ are
different but AT&T won't let you bring your modem, so I haven't really
looked into it.

Best,
Tim

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Re: [MBZ] OT: DSL Modems

[Tim Crone via Mercedes]

On Mon, Oct 5, 2015 at 10:44 PM, Max Dillon via Mercedes
 wrote:

A lot of the DSL reliability issues seem to break down into phone line
isolation and wiring.  Make sure your filters are used on all the
voice lines, and that your wiring is good everywhere. (Hard to do in a
rental!)

> Very satisfied, BellSouth (now AT&T) has pretty good customer service and 
> I've never had an outage due to their side.  Every problem has been either 
> the modem  dying or me getting the settings wrong.

My experience is different, since AT&T now supports fiber in my area
they are trying hard to get me to switch from DSL.  Same price*, same
speed, possibly more reliable?  Oh, except "same price"* does not
include mandatory modem rental and multi-year contract.

When anything works, I've been 100% reliable on advertised speed, both
here (Chapel Hill NC) and at my old house (Durham NC).  Note that
advertised speed is also  the maximum I can get, 3Mbps. (Also the
maximum I can get under the fiber service mentioned above, for some
reason I don't understand.)

When it stops working, which seems to be happening once every quarter
over the past year that fiber (U-verse) has been available, I get no
customer service - the reps just say it is confirmed not working on
their end and they might have an ETA in 72 hours.  To their credit
it's only once been out longer than 24 hours, so I suppose that's
something.

(That said it is still a thousand times better than any service I got
with Time Warner; they'd have had me on hold for two hours, then sent
an "engineer" three to five days later who would not be able to fix or
isolate the problem.  So... YMMV.)

> I'm not in the game for speed, we only use email and web surfing, no video 
> streaming other than YouTube.  I think their slowest / cheapest is 25Mb/s, 
> one can pay more for faster service.

Here the slowest is 0.5Mb, fastest if you are close to the office is
6Mbps.  We are getting Google Fiber, though, so I'm sure that's part
of the push to move people into a contract while U-verse is still
competitive.

> I read a bunch of reviews before trying DSL, saw lots of bad experiences, 
> we've had none of them in over ten years of service.  It just works.  Modems 
> tend to die after two years or more, and I think the new type will cost about 
> $100 to replace if I want another AT&T brand.

For U-verse I'm pretty sure you are required to rent their modem.

For true DSL, modems are cheap, buy a spare at the thrift store.  If
it's carrier-branded it's easier to set up.  I've seen a fair few of
the Westell/Netgear with and without integrated wireless here, they
work pretty reliably.

Best,
Tim

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Re: [MBZ] R class

[Randy Bennell via Mercedes]

On 05/10/2015 5:55 PM, Kaleb C. Striplin via Mercedes wrote:
So I am looking at a very cheap R class CDI for the wife.  They have 
looked like mini vans to me.  Has anybody here messed with them? We 
wanted to find a GL but cant seem to find one at a reasonable price 
and this R is cheap.


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"beware of cheap Mercedes"

RB

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Re: [MBZ] Another good thing about old MB diesels

[Jim Cathey via Mercedes]

IIRC, they claim that the high current pulses knock the sulfate off the
plates, which wouldn't be ideal, you want to get the sulfur back into 
the

solution.


From my reading it's the shape of the waveform that is significant.
You need to use the internal inductance of the battery construction
in order to get peak voltages _on the sulfated spots_ in order to
reverse the reaction.  The problem is that a cell is a large parallel
area, and the non-sulfated spots will soak up the voltage.  Using
square waves, or even a resonant circuit, helps get the voltage to
where it's needed.  You still lose a lot of current to the already
good normal-voltage spots, and have to keep an eye on the electrolyte.

It sounds tricky, and I've had very limited results with the
experiments I conducted way back when.  One such experiment cost
me my best 'scope, which I'd left on for days to keep an eye on
the waveform.  It didn't like that, turns out.

-- Jim


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Re: [MBZ] Another good thing about old MB diesels

[Jim Cathey via Mercedes]

the battery had dropped to 12.72 volts, so perhaps it still has some 
life.


Perhaps, but that is barely evidence.  Measuring the resting voltage
is like counting the tires on your car.  Necessary, but hardly
sufficient preparation for a road trip.


Load testing at FLAPS is a good idea,


Now you're talking!

-- Jim


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Re: [MBZ] [IsolatedM] Help!

[archer75--- via Mercedes]

Ed is the editor of a monthly newsletter called the "Little Green Rag". this is 
his first issue as editor. He has an Apple computer and can't upload the issue 
into Yahoogroups. Can someone offer suggestion(s) about his problem?
Thanks,
Gerry

Ed wrote:
> I can't figure out how to upload the latest issue(s) of the LGR into the file 
> archives on this Yahoo groups site.
>  When I press "upload," nothing happens.  Is there some command or 
> instructive that isn't intuitive enough that I need to follow, or is this 
> just another case of Yahoo not working when you don't have Microsoft?
>  Ed

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Re: [MBZ] OT: DSL Modems

[Jim Cathey via Mercedes]

Need to get a UPS.


These can be a royal pain.  At work, we used to call them
_I_PS's, because when the battery went bad and there was
a power flicker, down would go the server when the
unprotected systems didn't even notice.  A better class
of UPS is in order, I've had (so far) very good luck with
a surplus APC2000 that I put a 75AH battery bank on.  Only
downside with it is that it won't power your loads unless
it has a functioning battery on it.  OTOH, I was able to
replace one (of four) battery that went bad, while it was
live.  Carefully!  48V 75AH is no joke to be playing with.

I'm not surprised a VOIP installation doesn't come with
a battery.  Batteries are, by FAR, the least reliable part
of such a system.

I checked my records.  The APC's four batteries were installed
in 2006, with one replacement in 2010, and it's still going
strong.  That's $395 for 11 years of backup computer power.
(I think the surplus UPS itself was about $35.)  That's got
to be some kind of record...

-- Jim


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Re: [MBZ] W140 rear door panel removal

[Dan Penoff via Mercedes]

A lot of people forego the rivets and use screws or nuts and bolts, so I hear. 
It's fairly easy to do, but removing and replacing the rivets is a simple task 
when necessary.

Mercedes must have gotten into the habit of doing this, as there are rivets 
holding bits of the doors together in my W220 as well. When I recently replaced 
the closing assist actuator in my driver's door I had to drill out and replace 
a couple of rivets that held a window channel support.

Dan

Sent from my iPad

On Oct 5, 2015, at 6:23 PM, Curly McLain via Mercedes  
wrote:

>> Did you remove ALL of the screws behind the wood trim?
>> 
>> Good luck replacing the rivets.  If you use rivets, you better have a BIG 
>> rivet tool, as they are near impossible to get the shanks to break off with 
>> a little hand pop rivet too.  I bought a big honking one fro under $20 at HF 
>> and it deals with the larger rivets like buttah.
>> 
>> Dan BTDT
> 
> Different chassis type, but I used solid steel rivets, and "riveted" them 
> with the air chisel with a blunt chisel that was originally round and sharp.  
> It is still holding.  I didn't have enough hands to hold everything in place 
> and then rivet with a hammer and a heavy backstop.   the air chisel  blunted 
> them enough to stay in.
> 
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