Time Warner Cable Internet Morons!

[MaxxxRacer]

I have been helping a friend of mine set up her cable internet and she just got another computer so she needs to hook both comps up to her cable modem. Well her cable modem doesnt have a built in router like alot do, so we called them up and they are like we do not support multiple computers. Telling her that she had to pay 21.95 a month to get another cable line. Stupid eh? When in actualaity, they do support it, as I have the same service and they installed my wireless/wired router when the hooked up the service.

Now this story gets better. To get the wireless router (they dont cary non wireless routers for some inane reason) you have to have a service call and have them come out to your house. You cant just go to their field office and trade your old modem out for it (which is what they told us we could do over the phone). To make maters worse, they charge a monthly fee of 4.95 to have this router. I suppose this is their conession for those not willing to pay the extra 22 dollars a month for each extra modem. But wait, it gets better. They also want a 20 dollar service fee for even coming out to install the box when all i need them to do is hand me the stupid thing and leave me alone.

If your still reading, and have not gotten board by now, you now get to hear the gem of the story. It seems there is a loophole in the 4.95 a month service fee for the router (that you have to have if u have more than one comp on the modem). Apparently if you have a mac, the technicians CANNOT install the wireless service onto the mac and cannot set up the internet connection to it. As a conession, they then waive the 4.95 a month fee becuase they are too dumb to be able to work on a mac. It isnt that the mac isnt compatible, becuase i have two macs in my house (my moms not mine), and both of them hook up just fine throug their airport cards.

this loophole i found, came upon me by accidnet actually. When they came to install the cable service at my house and they saw we had a mac, they immediatly wavied the monthly fee as part of thier policy.. its astounding how dumb that is. you have a mac they dont charge you. pc, they charge you 5 bucks a month. Dumb eh??

so now I have to lug a big old imac over to my friends house so when the tech comes by he sees she has an imac and then she gets the 4.95 mothly fee taken off of her bill. Smart eh?

Well anyway, thats my story of how stupid the broadband providers are around here.

Oh, btw, I know i could have boughten a router myself and hooked up the computers to that, but those things are expensive and time warner gives these things out for free. Why pay for it when someone you are already paying 50 bucks a month has it and will give it to you.

[DudeMiester]

Just use a router without telling them. Been doing it for years.

[eshbach]

a $60 trip to circuit city would have saved a lot of time and effort... worth it in my opinion.

[MaxxxRacer]

well she didnt want ot pay for a router....

[Disposibleteen]

lol, another case of someone sitting on their wallet!

[MaxxxRacer]

hey if you dont ahve to pay for it why?? you know what i mean?

[sllywhtboy]

hey if you dont ahve to pay for it why?? you know what i mean?i agree. why buy the cow when you can rent it for $4.95/mo? :p: helpful too when it fails because it's on them. too bad there's so much red tape invovled.

--slly

[MaxxxRacer]

yah. well im bringing a imac over to her house so it wont be an issue. no 5 dollar charge per month. and yes that is the other thing that time warner said. if it dies its on us...

but i have never seen a router die in all of my years of computing and those of my family (family of comp geeks)

[sllywhtboy]

but i have never seen a router die in all of my years of computing and those of my family (family of comp geeks)ok, i must make up for your good luck :banana:

--slly

[MaxxxRacer]

ROFL. how many have you killed.

time warner says to not put them on a power strip and to plug them into the wall. But no one EVER does this, including the time warner technicians. So as far as i know its a load of bull.

BTW, if you want decent priced networking gear that is really good, go with netgear. Dont get lynkssys. My cousin is the lead firmware engineer for Cisco Systems (their parent company) and he hates linksys with a passion. His own company and he wont touch the garbage. Now that tells you something.

[sllywhtboy]

i've had netgear mr814's, mr814v2's, fvs318's. all lockup or reset with tons of wan traffic. been through RMA hell. finally got the last RMA'd units back and ebay'd em.

seems the fowarding tables can't hold enough or the switch fabric can't keep up.

linksys wrt54g has held up extremely well, stock and aftermarket firmwares. so has a microsoft mn500. i'm done w/ netgear.

--slly

[WesM63]

We don't even allow our field techs to install modem's let alone a router. I don't blame them. We outsource all of our installs, which just happens to be for the same company I work. We don't let you rent a router, you have to buy it and we charge you to install it. Easier and nothing on us if it breaks. But even then Linksys products have 1yr warranties.

Honestly, Tell her to fork up the cash and quit wasting the time farking around.

BTW, I've had multiple routers die on me, the home ones just can't handle the throughput.

FWIW, They are actually pretty smart. The only thing I see problems in is where they are giving/renting routers and installing them. For the Help Desk Techs thats just adds one more problem to the equation. Its better to say "We support up to the modem begin online and working." The rest is your problem (in a sense).

[Crankster]

Seems petty to me, a router is super cheap in the us .

[Jeff]

Installed ~15 to 20 routers in the past year or so and none have died. :shrug: And they have mostly been the $25-$35 NewEgg.com specials. ;) Here's one that I've installed 4 or 5 times...
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=33-156-001&depa=0

BTW, I'd recommend spending the $30 just for the sake of a basic hardware firewall. While there are still some security holes... most are closed right up.

[mcnbns]

Yeah, I like the idea of using a router for the firewall. My Dad, my brother and I (and whoever else comes over with a comp) have shared internet through a Dlink router and the firewall is awesome. (As in, no more having to crap up your comp with ZoneAlarm. :banana: )

[eshbach]

i had a linksys that needed reset every time the power went out...

now cisco 1700 series :) no problems with that one.

[lalPOOO]

I have had a router that died. However after talking with my dad about it because we both found it pretty hard to believe, he suggested that its probably the cheap wallwart powersupplies for the things dying and taking out the routers with them.

[MaxxxRacer]

esbach, you mean you bought cisco hardware for home use??? I bet that router costs more than your computer :p:

sllywhtboy: you have some serioulsy bad luck.

Its odd how all of you have such bad luck. I suppose im just really lucky. My dad adn I ahve been running a dsl router for 8-10 years and recently got a cable setup and have been running that for a year or two without isssue. It runs constantly and I generally like to run it at full speed for days at a time. Never even had it reset on us. and to make matters even more wierd, its a garbage RCA box.

lapoo: thats kinda of what i was thinking. But the thing is that I only run good power strips. In fact I really want to get a good APC UPS when i can afford it. I have like 5 square feet of space not being used under my desk that i could use to put it.

Wes, you have some interesting insight into this. Do you mind me asking who it is that you work for.

[Disposibleteen]

ive had the linksys wrt54g now for about 6 months and i love it, i dont have to toush it and i set it up to allocate bandwidth between the comps, so my mom gets 35% and i get 65% because all she does is web browse and email and i do alot of downloading so she doesnt need that much bandwidth.

Moral of the story is that linksys routers are very versitile and have held up great for me!

[eshbach]

esbach, you mean you bought cisco hardware for home use??? I bet that router costs more than your computer :p:



it was being retired by a friend of mine in IT, i didn't pay the $1k for it, heh.

[sllywhtboy]

sllywhtboy: you have some serioulsy bad luck.the mr814 was replaced w/ a v2 and again by a v3. they must have found room for improvement. i gave up after v2. my parents reboot their v2 every week or so when the "internet" acts up.

same with the fvs318. v1, v2, v3. v3 has more memory and a faster CPU. both of mine (both vpn end-points) were v2 units. one functioned fine on a 144/144 IDSL line. once it got moved to comcast's 3000/256k plan, it started with the reboots every hour or so, like its twin brother @ my place.

the best router i've had yet is a linux box w/ iptables.. but those tend to be more power hungry. so i got the next best thing, a wrt54g.

6 mos, no problems. for me, that's an eternity with no problems :p:

--slly

[WesM63]

Maxx,
I work for Data Eclipse Inc here in NW Ohio, a large (by most people opinions) computer store. We do everything you can imagine. But, I am contracted out to the City of Bryan who provides cable modem internet to the entire city of bryan and multiple businesses within 20miles. Offical Title for the City: Network Admin, offical title for Data Eclipse: Network Engineer.

I'm behind enemy lines per se;)

EDIT: Cisco 1700 router? Very nice piece. I've installed a few 1711's for local businesses for the city. BTW, I do alot of cisco work for them, in process of studying for my CCNA.

[MaxxxRacer]

Wes, you know all the software on the cisco hardware. All written by my cousin :p: Well actually he used to write it, now he just yells at some chump who did what he told him and how he screwed it up and tells him how to fix it. lol.

Sounds like an intersting job you got. Personaly Ive never been a fan of networks. They serioulsy piss me off. Though Ive gotten alot more knowledgeable in recent years, the stuff is still rather annoying. I swear the biggest problems that ever happen with computers are netowork or internet related. That is for non overclockers. For us, our biggest problem is ourselves.

[lalPOOO]

lapoo: thats kinda of what i was thinking. But the thing is that I only run good power strips. In fact I really want to get a good APC UPS when i can afford it. I have like 5 square feet of space not being used under my desk that i could use to put it.


Actually I have a pretty beefy ups, and the router died while being powered from that, but its not the ac power source thats the problem. I think its those cheap little AC->DC convertors they come with. Some of them are probably either poorly made or defective, and they just fry the router.

[MaxxxRacer]

ahh ic. well then. That sucks pretty hard. Astonish's me they have such low quality parts for an item that is so curtial.

Apparently these routers are designed so that if there is a back current going ito then (power surge) that they fail on purpose and shut off the power to the LAN lines so as ot not fry the hardware. Not sure on this. It could be done with a cap that blows if overvolted or overamped. Not sure if that is in the box itself or the wall wart.

[jjcom]

Yeah, MediCom...I had to install my friends internet because the techs there...didn't know how. Thats something right there...the techs dont know what there doing.

So here I am...I was 13 at the time...I just come in...my friends computer was kinda messed up..the Internet Explorer icon was gone from every where...so the techs didn't know what to do so they left. I just walk over start of Windows Explorer amd type in a web address and what'd ya know it asks me to call them to activate the service...Medicom gets called and they've got internet.

jjcom

[MaxxxRacer]

genius.. absolute genius... The best is when ppl are working on trying to get a piece of electronics to work and they hand it to me and i turn it on and it works. I hand it back to them and it just works from then on... freekin wierd if u ask me.. my comp is the only machine that doesnt like me touching it. every other piece of electronics is nice to me and just works for me. but not my machine.

[jjcom]

I know what you mean...my mom's computer would freeze when I looked at it...I'm serious..that thing could not stand me looking at it. Probly since I had taken it apart so many times. lol But how could an HP (yes a pr-pre-prebuilt lol) know when I look at it...ha ha ha its laying on the floor now and unused lol

jjcom

[Crankster]

Does US connections provide only one IP-adress? :confused:

[jjcom]

normally unless you pay more. So then you just use some type of internet connection sharing software.

jjcom

[MaxxxRacer]

yep one IP addy. IF you want two its an extra 21.95 a month for a second internet modem. But with that 22 bucks u get twice the speed. two independent connections.

[Crankster]

That sucks bad... My parents only get one, they are on ADSL though.
I've got five static in my flat, perfect when you want to kick some ass in CS with your friends.

[MaxxxRacer]

that is really cool.. well i can play as many ppl as my connection will allow from my one IP. Atleast as far as i know.