Back again…

New things around here. We changed from CenturyLink/Qwest (CLQ) to Comcast for Internet and TV. Last week, CLQ had some equipment problems, resulting in web pages loading very slowly (if at all). Since both Pam and I use the Interwebs a lot (in the evenings, we site side-by-side in our respective recliners, each with our own laptop, as we both surf the web and watch TV). Pam does a lot of scrapbook (and other) shopping on the Webs, and I do my web site programming and maintenance. So a disruption in the Interwebs is not appreciated around here.

I did the support call to CLQ, after doing all of the usual things to ensure it wasn’t my home network. I told the support person all of the things I did, but (as usual), they have a script they must go through, and they don’t know how to deviate from it. After at least 30 minutes, they said that there must be a problem in their servers (!?) that would get fixed in a few days.

The next day, the Interwebs are still slow. And we both are not happy campers. The next day, no change. We were able to grab onto the neighbors’ wireless (with their permission  — they were rewarded with giant chocolate chip cookies), but by Saturday (3 days later), still no improvement.

It was then that we decided that CLQ has failed, so we started the process to change over to Comcast. That got done today (one week after ordering), with the Comcast guy taking about 90 minutes to set up everything – cable from the street (right now on top of the grass, the cable-burying team is coming next weekend), the full HD channel package, three cable boxes, HD-DVR (watchable from any room). Although we’ve been DirecTV customers for years, there are some advantages to Comcast. We’re getting more channels, and saving about $40/month.

So, today was the cable installation day, and the cable guy got everything working quickly. Then some rearrangement of the wireless routers (and the wireless repeaters) got our internal network going. There are some new channel numbers to get used to, and setting up the collections of programs to record, but it’s mostly been just fine. TV looks great, and Internet speed (according to the tests at www.dslreports.com ) are much faster, even on my laptop.

I do need to get some network wiring finished off so that not all of the systems around here are on wireless. The house has CAT5 wiring on all of the phone wiring, so that’s good – no digging into walls. But that can wait a bit.

In the meantime, I am keeping busy in the evenings with the new web sites I am working on. There are three of them (at the moment), with one in very final testing, the second in ‘almost-final’ testing, and the third in the design phase. Nothing ready to announce yet, but the work does keep me entertained.

So, that’s the way it is. For now.