[kwlug-disc] Cable internet price increase

Sat Jan 23 20:22:43 EST 2016

I keep a brand new ADSL2+ modem as a spare modem and a second router
as a spare router to test whenever we have any DSL issues. The modem
hasn't been used except when diagnosing DSL issues. It's had maybe 10
minutes use, period. I also have several Cat 3 cables (new and old)
for testing.

We've had at least 5 DSL outages over the past year. This is really
something considering over the 4 years before we might have had a
total of 4 over those years (and I think it was less). Starting with
the first outage we were told by Teksavvy that it was a known Bell
outage and Bell was working on the problem. This was the same kind of
odd outage we had previous years.

The second outage was due to an equipment failure at the box across
from front of our apartment complex. The bix block with our wires had
to be replaced and they had to temporarily rewire us. This meant
waiting another day because the technician who rewired the box in
front of our complex didn't have access to the central office where
they also needed to do some rewiring. Bell had it done by the next
day. We were out 3 days.

When the third outage occurred I was coming back from a grocery run.
I'd been using our DSL the hour before. I saw a Bell truck an
technician at the box across from our building and I got this sinking
feeling that I needed to check our DSL connection. Sure enough it was
out. I approached the technician about having pulled wires but because
I was a TS customer he said I needed to call them. I confirmed with
our son (who'd stayed home) that the connection had just gone out.
This actually managed to get solved within 2 days and the Bell
technician who fixed the problem confirmed our wires had been pulled
out of the box.

Last week our DSL went out again. I happened to be home on Saturday
(3:30pm-ish) but gave it about an hour before calling TS simply
because I had other things to do. I actually didn't end up getting
through until closer to 5ish (it was more than a half hour wait). For
some strange reason unlike most TS calls I've made this one didn't
offer callback (maybe it was too late and transferred overseas). At
this point I was pretty mad. Fourth outage in a year. I told the
technician I'd call them back about sending a Bell technician out. I
actually spent quite a bit of time surfing on my tiny phone looking at
Start.ca/VMedia/Rogers/Execulink and a few others before deciding it
was probably going to cost way too much to switch and probably
wouldn't solve the problem. I also checked outages and Rogers actually
seemed to have worse outages than Bell at that time. So I bit the
bullet and called TS back and asked them to call Bell.

Bell called back about 20 some hours later. They had every technician
slot open during the week except the one I could actually make without
taking time off work (Monday 5-9pm). Every other slot was apparently
open. Left me thinking how a billion dollar company can be free all
week except the small time slot I needed? Our son is in school
basically the same time I'm at work so I couldn't rely on him to be
home (it's nice actually having the same schedule). So I booked the
appointment for Saturday (today).

As it turns out I didn't need to wait. Our DSL light came on around
8am on Monday for 1 minute before going out (and our son confirmed the
Internet was working for that minute). I ran down to check to see if
there was a technician outside the building at the box (because of the
previous experience of having our wires pulled I knew to look). No
technician there and no Bell trucks around. Because we'd had that Bell
hardware outage I knew about the central office so I updated my TS
ticket to indicate the brief minute outage and hinted that it might be
the central office.

By Tuesday evening we had DSL again, but extremely slow (1Mb/s down
according to DSL reports). After updating the ticket the speed was
bumped (5Mb/s down - we're on the 6Mb/s plan with MLPPP/Static IP). We
updated the ticket once again so TS knew we had normal service again.
(3 days)

This morning I was on bright and early (5:30am) but ended up going
back to sleep for a couple of hours. Around 8:30am I went to play
something on our KODI box and the stream failed. I checked the modem,
sure enough DSL light was out.  I went downstairs and checked (at
8:30am) to see if there was a Bell truck in front of the building or
anywhere near the box across the street, none. Process of elimination:
the wires got pulled at the central office again. I called TS and went
through the process all over again of booking a Bell technician. I had
a bunch of other things to do and by the time I got home (2pm-ish) the
problem was solved - though DSLreports is reporting a slower speed
than earlier (4.xMb/s down). I called TS to update the ticket.

Needless to sat it's been a frustrating couple of weeks.

On Sat, Jan 23, 2016 at 2:49 PM, Daniel Villarreal
<youcanlinux at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On 01/23/16 14:39, Bob Jonkman wrote:
>>
>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>> Hash: SHA1
>
> [...]
>>
>> I recently helped someone move from Bell phone to VoIP.ms, and as a
>> result Teksavvy's DSL needed to be switched to a dry loop. I thought
>> this would have been done as an administrative switch too, since the
>> incoming wires weren't changing, but Teksavvy insisted on sending a
>> technician.
>>
>> Turns out they actually provided dry loop on a different pair than the
>> Bell phone, so a tech had to switch the wires at the central office
>> location. When he came in to ensure that the new pair was properly
>> connected he discovered that the almost-60-year-old wire from the
>> demarcation box to the disconnect inside the house was bad (all of 5
>> feet of wire), and replaced that. Together we discovered that the
>> internal house wiring was awful (bare wire splices, some original
>> 60-year-old three-conductor wire, unterminated wires going nowhere).
>>
>> Internal wiring isn't covered by the tech's visit, but he "forgot" a
>> few metres of three-pair cable, and I ended up bypassing most of the
>> internal wiring by connecting the DSL modem directly to the disconnect
>> inside the house.  As a result, the modem we thought was flakey has
>> been working flawlessly ever since, and download speeds have improved
>> remarkably.
>>
>> Moral of the story: Never refuse a technician's visit, especially if
>> there's no charge as part of some other service.
>
>
> Having worked the ISP end, always verify what you're entitled to on a new
> install, i.e. how many outlets max. are included? Always see what is
> involved in a pro install. Always ask about the equipment. Ask about
> specials, you have to ask.
>
> I recall having issues with Bell and they volunteered to send one kind of
> wireless setup, and they ended up sending a more advanced unit.
>
> Also, verify your appointment information very, very carefully, to avoid
> spelling mistakes and thus potentially missing your appointment... Make the
> cx service agent repeat your instructions/contact info, preferably having
> the agent phonetically spell back your name and other important details. Do
> you have a gate code? Pets? Make sure to coordinate with the ISP what the
> expectations are.
>
>
>> - --Bob
>
>
>
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-- 
Charles McColm, Author: Instant XBMC,
Columnist: Full Circle Magazine,
Project Manager: The Working Centre Computer Recycling Project
Web: http://www.theworkingcentre.org/cr/
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Twitter/Identica/Google+: @chaslinux