What are the chances, cell phone and internet was dead at the same time

[peakbagger]

I was wondering this morning if the CCP was sending a reminder that they have hacked into major systems in the US. Around 7 AM the cable internet went out, along with what I was streaming on TV. My cell service allows tethering, so I was going to try it out. No cell phone service. That was odd, right around noon I drove into town and saw that I had cell service. I am in rural area so my cell signal is from one tower on top of a local mountain. So I called the Spectrum the only current choice for internet, and got the message that this region has a service outage awaiting a fiber optic cable repair. I went back home and the cell dropped out and as of 5 PM no cable internet but my cell phone is working. So I am now tethering my phone so I can run the internet. I used to have to pay for tethering with my Verizon phone but its free with the new service. Seems to be pretty quick.

So much for redundancy

Our town is getting Fidium Fiber, the contractor have been out all winter running the backbone in and it goes right past the house. Supposedly they will run it to the house for free even if I do not sign up for it. Once I get that option I will probably dump Spectrum for 12 months and use Fidium and then qualify for the cheap internet teaser rate that Spectrum offers to new customer only for a year, (then doubles the rate).

While disconnected I got a lot of work done on some plans and got my plotter running again. It is surprising how often when working off line I go to the internet to look up something quick, I actually had to drag out a reference book today.

 

[Northern NH Mike]

I think we are "neighbors" as I was trying to conduct online business with folks in the Coos County seat and it was pretty frustrating yesterday. Let me know how your Fidium experience goes. I just had Spectrum installed since the fiber was finally run up my road. We;ve gone dial up, satelite and Netafy in the last 18 years so any fiber is better than what we were stuck with. All that being said I think more about how to power and communicate old style more and more these days.

 

[peakbagger]

I have no compliants about Spectum quality. I used to have it for the home office and the business techs were dispatched out of Southern Maine so any repair was usually a day or two out, once I switched to personal service (a major PITA) the techs are more local.

I do have complaints about the bait and switch pricing of Spectrum. They offer a low ball deal for a year and then at the end of the year crank it up double or triple and it usually goes up $5 a year. They also charge a monthly fee for a WIFI box. They do allow third party WIFI boxes that get paid off in about 3months compared to leasing, but they do not publish any standards on what their internet modem is sending out for a signal. I had someone who literally was involved with writing modem standards set up mine and after several hours I had to buy a new one in order for him to get it to work. BTW, they closed the Berlin NH office a few years ago so any hardware issues means a trip to North Conway (make sure you reserve a time before you go or you will be waiting for hours)

My guess is Consolidated who owns Fidium will be abandoning the copper landlines soon as they are running fiber to every house in town. They have not invested a dime in it and many of the lines are really old and are grounding out. I had multiple incidents of a bad line and finally a tech spent the time to find another pair that was in better shape. When they rolled out DSL internet, they tested every pair and reserved the best ones for DSL service. He said he might have to go throuigh 5 or 10 pairs before he finds one that is any good.

 

[woodgeek]

So, time for Starlink?

 

[peakbagger]

So, time for Starlink?

Nope, front end cost is steep and $120 a month is steep for my type of use. When working from home I did on occasion need to pull or push large tasks over a VPN so speed was important. Post retirement I dont need sizzling speed. I think using Spectrum cable versus Fidium fiber will allow me to negotiate. Heck give it a few years and Jeff Bezos will have his constellation up and there will be competition for satellite internet.

 

[ABMax24]

Starlink is the Cats Pyjamas. I've got 6 of the Roam units at work for our various field sites, managing them is stupid simple through the app on my phone, can even change the wifi name and password remotely on the fly through the app. Can see current up/download speeds, up time, latency, daily and monthly data usage, and if the dish see disruptions due to objects in its field of view.

We used to use 4G hubs for internet, Starlink is so much more reliable, faster, and cheaper when considering the amount of data we use.

Our field sites now have twice the internet speed I get at the home office through cable. Was worth every penny.

 

[semipro]

I actually had to drag out a reference book today.

Off-topic but I'm cleaning out my office at work and have been debating whether to keep my technical books, including college texts, or recycle them. About the only reason I can see to keep them is for contingencies for situations like the one you relate here.
At the same time we're trying hard to go paperless at home; digitizing documents, photos, and such.
I now regret getting rid of my vinyl music albums in favor of digital media. I'm trying not to make that same sort of mistake again.

 

[stoveliker]

Keep the books.

 

[peakbagger]

I have purged a lot of textbooks and on occasion review what is left. If I know if its readily available on the internet it tends to get pitched. On the other hand something like a copy of Architectural Graphic Standards just would not work for me on line. Same with the Machinist Handbook, Cameron Hydraulic Data and Crane Flow of Fluids book. Much as I used it for years, the Goulds Pump Manual is probably kept for sentimental reasons rather than practical reasons as I do not expect I will be buying industrial pumps anytime soon. My guess is if I added up the HP of industrial centrifugal pumps I have bought or specified over my career it would exceed 10,000 HP. I do seem to pitch a lot of CDs that were given to me over the years a lot easier.

The RS Means estimating manuals are soon to go. I expect the day I elect not to renew my PE license will be another opportunity for a big purge.

I guess the plot line in Lucifers Hammer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer's_Hammer, a classic end of the world as we know it book, where a major character saves the day by putting his paper library of reference manuals in ziplock bags and drops them in septic tank to be retrieved post apocalypse is not going to be in my future. Definitely a great read even though another author stole some plot points and regurgitated a book called the Postman which Kevin Costner further destroyed with the movie The Postman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Postman_(film) winner of multiple awards for the best of the worse movies.

 

[woodgeek]

I guess the plot line in Lucifers Hammer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucifer's_Hammer, a classic end of the world as we know it book, where a major character saves the day by putting his paper library of reference manuals in ziplock bags and drops them in septic tank to be retrieved post apocalypse is not going to be in my future. Definitely a great read even though another author stole some plot points and regurgitated a book called the Postman which Kevin Costner further destroyed with the movie The Postman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Postman_(film) winner of multiple awards for the best of the worse movies.

Don't forget 'A Canticle for Liebowitz' with the monks in a new Dark Age copying all those books for future use.

 

[semipro]

Machinist Handbook

Definitetly one of my keepers.

 

[Northern NH Mike]

Books require no electricity. Keep them.

 

[peakbagger]

I got Fidium fiber installed earlier this week. Pretty painless, I had installed a black plastic pipe long ago in the same trench as my household power. It had been used for my home phone wire but they used the phone wire to pull the fiber in. One PITA is unlike cable and phone my house was not prewired for fiber so I will need to pull the fiber from where it comes in from the wall to the location where I want the fiber modem.

It was interesting when I dropped off my cable modem at Spectrum, the folks there are always trying to upsell but no upsell of even attempt to ask why I was getting rid of it. I commented that I might be back in year and one of them commented that Spectrum has changed their policy for the definition of new customers. It used to be 12 months, now its 60 days. So it makes my strategy of switching between the two services for introductory rates even more viable.

The other comment is the install method of installing a terminal box on the utility pole with coil of the spare fiber neatly coiled underneath. Very prone to vandalism. I might end up pulling the surplus back towards the house and cleaning up the wiring at the street.

It is amazing the resources being used to put in a new fiber network in an area that did not have one. There has been an army of trucks in the area. They are using the old telephone cables run between poles on the street to support the new fiber by using a specialized rig that wraps a coil of wire around the new fiber and the old phone cable. The home install techs do not have the capability of making custom cables, they work with standard lengths.