I hate hornets - hate 'em

[animgirl]

Hello,

Okay, so I was supposed to get cable today. I've been longing for this day for what feels like forever and it finally came.

It was all set up - today was the day.
So I get something in my mail today - tells me my username and pass. They had obviosuly messed up both when they were told them on the phone. I was supposed to be pixeldiva, and they had tixeldiva. Call em on the cell phone and was almost done and *wham* my phone cuts them off. So they call back and it gets straightened.

Later today the installation guy came out. He gets out his ladder and gets ready to hook up and he just stands there. He moves the ladder to the other side of the cable and just looks and looks. He goes again to the other side and looks some more. I'm thinking, O God, they can't do it, it's not their cable.

So my dad goes out and they guy says there's a huge hornet's nest in the box and he's allergic to them.

So there, I mean that's understandable but :(

Then the guy's van has a flat tire. That gets fixed.

Then he says they might be able to squeeze us in tomorrow, because earlier that day they're gonna have another guy come out and spray the huge nest.

So there.
Good things come to those who wait I guess.
animgirl

[Dynasty]

I haven't seen a hornet in at least 12 years...And the last time I saw some they stung me alot...And it was quite painful. So I guess not seeing them is a good thing. :P

[Coreyp_1]

Bah...

Scorpions... Now that's what's bad. One got me the other day as I was getting dressed for church. And they wondered why I didn't smile very much that morning!

Been stung and bit by a lot of things, but a scorpion was by far the worst.

Just out of curiosity, what options does a guy like me have for an internet connection?

I live 1 mile from the city limits sign, and the cable company won't run a line out here, so cable's out. Pizza Hut won't even deliver out here, and it's only 5 minutes away!

DSL? Well, Texas's lines are the worst in the nation (according to a SW Bell tech), and there's NO chance of getting it out here in the next 10 years.

What other options are there, and are they cost effective? (Currently I'm paying $17.50/mo. for dialup + $20.00/mo. for the extra phone line.)

On a side note, my uncle works for a cable company in a small town in Oklahoma. One of the perks is that he gets everything free, including internet access. I was up there visiting (and fixing the computer :rolleyes: ), and experienced a cable modem for the first time. COOL! As it turns out, they are THE ONLY ONES in the entire area with cable access. Life is just not fair!

...Going back to the world of the glowing box.

[animgirl]

What about satellite? I don't think it's as good as calbe or DSL but it's a bit faster than 56k methinks...

animgirl

[animgirl]

Okay,

So today we were going to get cable, the hornet's nest had been sprayed this morning.

It storms out really bad today - tornado warnings here and there and relentless hail... later after the storm has cleared we see the installation guy's van go back and forth in front of our house 3 times. Thought he couldn't find our house or some dumb thing - it was a different guy.

So we call and they say that the storm knocked out all their areas. We don't know when they can get to us now. The guy in the van was repairing the lines, or going to.

*deep sigh* heh.
animgirl

[dreuby]

Are you sure you're not posting your latest screenplay? I'm sure I've seen a trailer for it on cable TV :D

Speed isn't everything ... but I have to say that, here in the UK we only just starting to think about broadband! :eek:

[themadpoet]

I've got NTL broadband - 1Mb in the UK and would hate to go back to bog standard dial up again.

[animgirl]

LOL okay.

The installation guy came out today!
And he did a nice job and we're all hooked up.

So he left and we configure our modem and blah blah and can't get online.

So I convince dad to call tech, before we spend 8 hours on it and the problem might not even be on our end.

So he calls and they say there's probably something wrong down the road on the line. On our modem the lights are blinking and if were really connecting they would be solid.

So tommorrow a technician is coming out to FIX IT.

The saga continues...

animgirl

[animgirl]

Well, that would be my dad hating the blinking lights. See, he has the modem by his comp, and I'm in a totally separate room.

:D
animgirl

[animgirl]

Well,

Today the tech guy came and it all comes around to the fact that too much signal is coming to us. Imagine that, too much!

So this other guy has to come out in "oh, well probably a couple days or next week" to work on that. Life has been on hold for I can't remember how long now because of them.

I'm seriously beginning to wonder if this wasn't meant to be. Feels like I'm living a 20/20 story. lol

How many guys does it take install cable in your home?
It would take half as many blondes...

animgirl

[tmmoose]

The Blondes Maybe Why The Cable Guy Keeps Coming Back..:D :D

[animgirl]

Speaking of blondes and bubble baths, if the cable guys weren't too busy DREAMING of such things, then they could smell the roses, (or in this case, candles) and get something fixed.

[tmmoose]

http://www3.sympatico.ca/terry.mckee/cableguy.gif
Think I Found Your Problem...

[animgirl]

ROFLMBO!!
thaz funny tmmoose

animgirl

[kathpave]

animgirl, I can sympathize with you.

I got AOL broadband about 1 year and a half ago. FYI ... AOL broadband is Roadrunner with an AOL front end. It took me about 3 months to get my issues resolved. The first problem I had was I didn't have enough signal. They had to put in two boosters. Then, the "Cable Guy" installed the wrong drivers for the modem. The second problem caused a lot of back and forth between me and the cable company and AOL. I think they made me reinstall windows and aol about 3 times! Finally, I got a technician that figured out the issue.

About 6-8 months ago, I upgraded my AOL and then had problems again. This time, it was just a matter of uninstalling all versions of AOL and then installing a fresh copy.

I installed Norton Firewall and it now periodically causes my monitor to freeze. I'm thinking that it is being caused by a bad cable signal. It seems to happen when the "blinking lights" are not acting right and it didn't seem to happen before when I was using BlackIce Firewall. I think I have to call the cable company and see if they need to put in another signal booster. My digital cable tv screen sometimes flakes out, so that's another reason why I think it's related to the signal.

Even with all the problems and the cost ... the speed is still worth it!

Although there is nothing in this message that will help with your particular issues ... sometimes it is comforting to know that there are others experiencing problems too!

[animgirl]

Wow!
Sounds like you've had a lot of fun with it too ;)

Even with all the problems and the cost ... the speed is still worth it!Good to know LOL :D

Thanks for sharing,
animgirl

[Kevinnaia]

You can't count the number of times comcast has given me problems! in the last year it has been about 50. 1 week i had to call them 2 times a day all week! I couldn't get online for 2 days, then when i did get on, it was running slower then a 56K (imagine that :p )for a whole day, then they said the technician would have to come out and replace all the wires because of all the signal interference (probably all the electronic devices in my room) and we would have to pay because i set it up myself. Otherwise we could have gotten a cable protection policy for $0.30 per month, but we didnt because it got running faster then ever (around 4 Mbits/second) for a day, then slowed to about 2.5 Mbits/second.

CABLE IS FAST, BUT IT IS TOO MUCH TROUBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kevin Naia

[Kevinnaia]

No, i meant totally since we got the modem, which is about 3 years, but i had much more problems then.

Kevin Naia

[animgirl]

<sarcastic>gee, thanks for the clarification</sarcastic>

animgirl

[animgirl]

After the techie guy came out a couple times today and dad tweaked with the modem and router it works!

Oh, and I do think it was worth it ;)

animgirl

[Coreyp_1]

....LIKE SALT IN AN OPEN WOUND!!!!

:( :( :( :( :( :(

Congrats, animgirl. Just remember those of us roughing it with lowly dial-up connections, as you whiz from site to site, wreaking havok and unholy discombobulation on the various and sundry reaches of the Internet.

;o)

[themadpoet]

Well here on the shores of the UK I use NTL and I have never had any major problems... apart from reinstalling Windows XP and not knowing where my installation CD was but I cant blame them for that.

Speed always seems good and I think after a year I have only had the system fail on me about half a dozen times and rebooting my cable box fixed that. (That's like 365 days at around 7 hours a day = 2,555 hours and only 6 failures....... not bad.)

[animgirl]

....LIKE SALT IN AN OPEN WOUND!!!!Oh, I'm so sorry :o ;)Congrats, animgirl. Just remember those of us roughing it with lowly dial-up connections, as you whiz from site to site, wreaking havok and unholy discombobulation on the various and sundry reaches of the Internet.ROFLMBO you sound like DC. :D of COURSE I won't forget you guys! ;)

animgirl