All posts by Dona

Comcast again

Technology, ,

Question of the day- Is Comcast screwing with us?

A few weeks ago we switched to Comcast for telephone, cable TV and internet. So far I have to report that I’m not delighted. We’ve had at least three outages of the internet and two of the telephone. The technician who came out last week told me it was because we had “too much signal” coming into the house – it caused what I invisioned as a potential broadband heart attack. We had high-speed hypertension. Cable clogged coronary. The way to fix it was to have a “line guy” come out and reduce the incoming signal.

After that the phones and internet went out again. I called and the phone technician said the only thing he could see was too strong a signal coming into the house. While we were on the phone it fixed itself.

Earlier this afternoon I noticed that most of the lights on my modem were out. For a while I could still connect to the internet, but then even that was messed up. I called Comcast and talked to a friendly person on the phone. Again, while I was on the phone the problems cleared up.

So, while the issues may be very temporary, they are still issues. I make my living by being connected to the internet. A slight hiccup and I lose data. We never had this issue with RCN.

Maybe we should have tried Verizon Fios.

Too late now, we have a 2-year contract with Comcast. (And that’s subject for another post)

Speaking of popularity

Blogging

Ok. I know this blog is not at all popular, but another blog I manage is — a little. I set up the HTCA.net weblog for our neighborhood -as a way to get some information out to folks in Huntington Terrace. Because our usually quiet neighborhood is in a battle with a neighborhood hospital about their expansion plans, we’ve gotten some media attention.

Looking at the stats on the other weblog, I see that the hospital in question has visited us on key dates:

  • May 23 – The hospital held a meeting for area residents and unveiled its plan for expansion.
  • June 6 – the date after the neighborhood met to vote on the hospital’s plans (we voted nearly unanimously to reject the plans)
  • June 17 – the day an article came out in the Washington Post about the issue
  • June 19 – the day the Gazette published an article about it
  • June 25 – the day WJLA ran a piece about this on the 5:00 news

Other visitors have been The Washington Post, The Gazette, and WJLA.

They will find nothing though. We are not publishing anything about the issue on he weblog. It’s fun to view the stats.

Last full day

Life,

The day mom comes back has finally arrived. I was sitting up here working this morning and the R.E.M song, Don’t Go Back to Rockville came on the radio. I had to laugh. Maybe the bedroom has grown accustomed to me and wants me to stick around.

The dishwasher repairman stopped by today and for $65 did nothing but make an appointment to come back. He was a nice guy, great with Dad – even after Dad yelled at me to not pay anything until the repairman came back and finished the job. Interesting – Dad was an appliance repairman for 40 some years. He should understand.

Dad survived a hot dog. I’ve been reluctant to buy him one after his near-death experience with a hamburger. But he likes them and I grew tired of cooking big meals a number of days ago. We’ve been eating leftovers. (well, I’ve been sneaking out…)

Went to the Elgin Public House last night with my sister-in-law, Carol, and then we stopped at the Martini Room. What is it about Elgin that makes it so much more friendly than Bethesda? Not that I go to bars in Bethesda much, but I’ve never been treated so kindly in that town as I was last night.