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Cable wiring: Ideas?
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Ryan
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Promise Land of Trustafarians
 
2006-08-03, 11:17

Many of you know, I just moved from California to Texas, and, given the real estate markets in both areas, we obviously were able to move up in the type of house we own. That's not the point of this thread. Here's the point:

We signed up with Time Warner for both cable TV and internet. Their internet service isn't bad, but the TV service is *TERRIBLE*. The picture quality is unwatchable on all but a few channels (which, of course, are the ones we never watch).

They sent out a "technician" to install the DVR and cable modem. And that's where the problems began.

The installer arrived, an hour *after* the window TWC gave us, and got to work. This house is wired with ethernet (another long, but less painful, story) so I wanted the cable modem in the closet where all the ethernet wiring came to. He said he didn't know how to do that.

AFAIK, all he needed to do was add another cable outlet to the closet, which is also where all the cable wiring came to, and plug in the modem. There were plenty of extra electrical outlets and even a shelf where a modem and router would sit.

I ask him why and he says it's against company policy (wtf?) so I say fine, install it in the game room. I'll just plug the ethernet cable that runs to that room into the router's WAN port until I can find get a cable outlet in the closet. This room has two sets of cable outlets, on opposite sides of the room. Next to one set is an ethernet jack, the other side is phone. Obviously, I wanted him to plug it in on the ethernet side of the room.

But, for some strange reason, that cable outlet isn't working. He uses a test device he has and it's receiving power, but the modem is never able to sync up. This isn't really his fault. He tried plugging it in on the other side of the room and it worked fine, so one of my cable outlets isn't working properly.

At this point he's been here for about an hour and he's complaining under his breath about me and his job and how this is the first time he's ever been sent out to install anything.

Thanks, Time Warner, for letting me be your guinea pig with this guy.

I tell him I can plug in the DVR myself and he leaves. Since one cable outlet wasn't working, I decided I should test the rest of them. I unpluged the cable modem and carry it around the house to all the cable outlets I can find. So far, the ones that don't work are:

- My bedroom
- Guest room
- One side of the game room
- Office
- One side of the master bedroom
- Dining room (why is there a cable outlet in there anyways?)

I haven't tested my brother's room, but I'm not hoping for much. When I was done, I searched my dresser for a long CAT5e cable (my dresser holds more cables than clothes) to run across the room.

This is a two year old house, shouldn't I be able to expect that the cable wiring is good?

So, here are the solutions I've come up with:

1. Find someone who can install a cable outlet in the closet with all the wiring and call it done.
2. Switch to DSL, since there's already a phone jack in the closet. The phone company here is a small company called Consolidated Communications. Their technicians are great, but for $40/month all you get is 1.5mbps down, which is pretty slow compared to the 4.5mbps I get right now with TWC, and way too slow compared to the 5.5 I had in California. But, I wouldn't need any of the cable wiring, so I could ignore it for now.
3. Get someone out here who can fix all these outlets and install another one. I assume this would be the most expensive.
4. Move the ethernet jack in the game room to the closet (the game room closet, not the one all the wiring runs to). When we had out home theater installed, they moved all the cable outlets into the closet, because that's where we have all the equipment. If I moved the ethernet jack as well, I could leave the cable modem in there and it wouldn't be a problem. I might be able to do this myself. I know how to punch down CAT5 to a wallplate.

Finally, I was thinking of getting rid of Time Warner altogether and going with DSL and DirecTV. The phone company also offers a 3mbit tier, but for $60/month (!). My bigger concern is wether or not DirecTV service would be reliable in this weather. We've used satellite TV in California for five years and we've never had a problem, but the weather there is pretty tame. I was hoping those of you out there in AN-land who have tried satellite in areas like Texas would chime in.

So, does anyone have any ideas about this?
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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2006-08-03, 11:55

How about:

5. Make Time Warner send someone out who has a damn clue and some experience, and will do the job right. And not leave until they do...that's their job.



The older I get, the less I find myself settling for "half-assed" or "good enough".

I've had to go around the ringer with Comcast a couple of times. It was a hassle, but in the end, it was worth it (a similar situation to yours, in fact).

I'm not a jerk about it, BUT when I'm spending money for a product or service, I tend to *gasp* expect said product or service, without a lot of nonsense and bullcrap. BUT I'm also very forgiving and generous: depending on the situation, I give a good 2-3 chances before I truly get fed-up or agitated and start asking for managers, refunds, making threats, producing weapons, etc.


Last edited by psmith2.0 : 2006-08-03 at 12:01.
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Ryan
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Promise Land of Trustafarians
 
2006-08-03, 12:32

How do I get someone from Time Warner who *knows* what they're doing? Do I just play cable-installer-roullette endlessly until I get lucky, or do I somehow force my problem up the chain of command to an engineer?

I've never had to deal with customer service problems, and my parents don't know what I'm talking about so they just leave me to handle it.

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psmith2.0
Mr. Vieira
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
 
2006-08-03, 12:40

I guess try to get some higher-up in the installation/service department. I don't know. Do whatever you think it takes. But I'd certainly not just settle for "well, Time Warner didn't do it right...guess I'll investigate other options".

Call. Write a letter. Go to the offices. All sorts of things. Request - demand - an experienced, qualified installer/tech.
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atomicbartbeans
reticulating your mom
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Send a message via AIM to atomicbartbeans  
2006-08-03, 12:42

Yeah, Time Warner's installation is a hassle sometimes... when the techie came to set us up with Road Runner about 13 months ago, I intended for him to just hook up a splitter where the TV's coaxial cable plugs into the wall, and stick the modem in the cabinet under the TV, where I had set up a router ahead of time. That way everything would be out of plain sight, and the wifi signal would originate roughly in the middle of the house for optimal reception in all rooms.

I guess the technician had other plans though... he refused to hook up the modem in that room, and instead asked where the "computer room" was. I explained to him that it doesn't work that way; there's multiple computers in the house that need the internet, and I need the modem plugged into the router. Apparently they don't want you to have more than one computer using the service unless you pay for their "home networking package", and the technician was told not to facilitate or condone a customer-owned router/wifi setup.

I said I would set up the modem myself if he wasn't willing to perform the installation (which, by the way, we paid almost $60 for) where requested, but he insisted on dropping a new line from the telephone pole and installing it in a room with a computer. I take him into the back room in which there's an old Windows box, and he finally gets to work.

Once he connected the modem and powered it up, he hit the power button on the PC and pulled a CD-ROM out of his bag. I asked him what he was doing, and he said he needed to install the "Road Runner Software", which (as he read from his service manual) includes a "customized" version of MSIE and Outlook. Trying to contain the burning hatred within me, I politely told him to get the fuck out. He reluctantly obliged, but insisted on leaving the CD, along with a "Road Runner Guide to the Internet".

After he leaves, I re-connect the modem in its proper place next to the router, and I was again at peace with the world.

You ask me for a hamburger.
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Mr Beardsley
Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Colorado Springs
Send a message via AIM to Mr Beardsley  
2006-08-03, 12:48

Wow, you guys have it bad. Here in Colorado I've just used the self install package with both DSL and Cable. With cable, A guy from Adelphia came out to the house verified that I had signal coming through on of my cable jacks, and handed me a box with the cable modem and instructions. DSL was even eaiser as they just mailed a box with the DSL modem to me. In both cases I was up and running rather quickly, and no outrageous installtion fees.

"Slow vehicle speeds with frequent stops would signal traffic congestion, for instance."

uh... it could also signal that my Mom is at the wheel...
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Banana
is the next Chiquita
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
 
2006-08-03, 13:19

All the more reasons to not let anyone do any installation. It must be strictly a DIY affair, IMO...
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Ryan
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Promise Land of Trustafarians
 
2006-08-03, 13:28

I'd like to do it myself, but I don't have a clue on how to add a cable outlet. There are a ton of unterminated coaxial cables in the closet, could I just terminate one of them and plug the modem into that?

abb: Yeah, he tried to install software on my computer, too. The first computer he saw was our G4 Cube, and he couldn't find the disc drive.

Fortunately, the installation was free.
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PKIDelirium
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
 
2006-08-03, 14:52

Time Warner is a pain in the ass, and their modems keep dying. I'm on my fifth cable modem in a year.
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Robo
Formerly Roboman, still
awesome
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Portland, OR
 
2006-08-03, 15:08

The timing of this thread is interesting, because I just moved from Minnesota to Nevada, and we just had a guy from Cox come to install our cable TV and internet.

The picture quality isn't very good. Like, it has those lines that move up and down the TV, and it has faint "echos" horizontally, and it just sucks. I think I'm the only one who noticed. I hope it's our TV (because I'm getting a new TV in my room) but I suspect it's the cable - our TV worked fine in Minnesota.

Then there's the installation in my room that bothers me. I wasn't sure where I was going to put the TV, so I figured he was just going to put a cable plug in the wall. Not so - he drilled a hole through the wall, and fed like twenty feet of cable through it. I don't have a big room. He gave me way too much cable, and ironically, my TV will probably be only a few feet away from where the cable comes in. So I'm going to have a massive coil of cable underneath my TV stand.

and i guess i've known it all along / the truth is, you have to be soft to be strong
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DMBand0026
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Chicago
 
2006-08-04, 18:00

Can you get FiOS?
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ironlung
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: "Chambana", IL
 
2006-08-04, 18:18

Im in similar situation.. what do you guys prefer.. insight cable internet or at&t dsl? Im more talking in terms of customer service and not speed.. im usually at lab so dont really care what speed I have at home.
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Enki
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
 
2006-08-04, 18:44

I'd fix the whole damn mess myself, but then I have a really cool crappy old toolbelt and pine at the chance to use a hand sledge on anything. Even when it is waaayy overkill.

As for DTV in the weather, you can have issues during thunderstorms. When I was in VA we would have intermittent weather outages, maybe 5-10 min at a time when big red cells (on the wx radar) were in line-of-sight. It was mildly annoying but we accepted it and quite often had the TV off then anyway to reduce lightning damage possibilities.
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scrouds
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Orlando, FL
 
2006-08-04, 21:28

Well when we moved into the current house, we had a similar situation. We have phone, internet and cable done through Bright House Networks (Time Warner). We found a lot of completely cut coax cables. half the house needed to be rewired.

The way they set it up was cable comes in the side, gets split in 2. one goes to a powered replicator, the other gets piped into the living room for internet. The other wires comes out of the replicator on the side of the house and into each room that has cable.

The phone was just hell in wires, and took forever to get sorted out. They also refused to install a second line in the house, saying one is the limit (despite the modem having 2 lines)

The modem is a weird deal, having the phone component, ethernet out, and a built in battery to keep it all running in a power outage. They wouldn't touch my wireless setup, requiring a computer to hook the modem to. I brought them mom's iBook, and they were happy.

The only other issue we had was one day we had the cable run to my brother's room. the idiot tech just ran a wire on the ground outside all the way around the back of the house to the other side. And left it there, saying someone will come bury it. Bullshit. I called up, wanting them to deliver an HD box for me (to connect through firewire to my iMac) and to replace and bury the wire (because the lawn mower service took a chunk out of the cable. The cable still worked, but a damaged cable is a damaged cable. They came out, installed the box. They asked who was home which box didnt work. They all worked, so the person just left. The last service call actually had someone come out that knew what he was doing. He ran the wire through the attic like the rest of them and connected it up and all is well.

It really is hit or miss with these installers. Best of luck to you. I would say just call with a problem, if it doesnt get fixed, call again. If that doesn't work, raise bloody hell with someone important.
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Ryan
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Promise Land of Trustafarians
 
2006-08-04, 23:13

Quote:
Originally Posted by DMBand0026
Can you get FiOS?
Nope, I'm not in Verizon territory, so, no. The phone company here is a small telco called Consolidated Communications. Their support is great, but $40 for a megabit? Not gonna happen...

Ironlung: See if there are any CLEC providers in your area. A CLEC provides DSL over your ILEC's (in your case, AT&T) lines. I used a CLEC in California called Sonic.net over a Pacbell SBC AT&T line and the support was *incredible*. Whenever you call support, you don't have to push a half-dozen buttons just to wait on hold for forty minutes; the call just simply rings through to a customer support representative. And they actually know what they're talking about, they don't just read off a script. Check out DSLReports.com to see if there are any CLECs that service your area. I think DSL Extreme serves almost all AT&T lines, so I'd check them out. Speakeasy might be another good option.

Just use DSLReports' prequalification tool to find them.

edit: D'oh! Forgot the point of this post.

I'm going take 'Scates' (among others) advice and call Time Warner on Monday and have them send someone out to add a cable outlet into the closet and figure out how to fix these busted outlets. This weekend I'm going to try to move the ethernet jack in the game room into the equipment closet. It'll be more useful to me there then under a projection screen anyways, and I should be able to do that myself. There's a large attic above and to the side of the room.

Last edited by Ryan : 2006-08-04 at 23:19.
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Banana
is the next Chiquita
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
 
2006-08-05, 09:22

You know, it's always helpful to add some graphic images when you call them.

"I can see sparks jumping out of that busted outlet. Just yesterday, I had to put out a small fire in my wastebasket when it was alit from the spark. But don't hurry. Just take your time. I'll be fine. Oh, here it goes again. Hold on a sec."

They'll have someone over in a nanosecond.
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Ryan
Veteran Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Promise Land of Trustafarians
 
2006-08-05, 09:26

Quote:
Originally Posted by Banana
You know, it's always helpful to add some graphic images when you call them.

"I can see sparks jumping out of that busted outlet. Just yesterday, I had to put out a small fire in my wastebasket when it was alit from the spark. But don't hurry. Just take your time. I'll be fine. Oh, here it goes again. Hold on a sec."

They'll have someone over in a nanosecond.
  quote
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