Don’t Split Yer Coax!

YESTERDAY:

We have been having Internet problems at home for the past couple of weeks. Most of the time it worked pretty well, but then we’d have times of limited or no connectivity. To make matters worse, our phone is through Vonage now, so while on phone calls the signal would go in and out. Frustrating.

Marjorie had enough today and called the ISP. They sent someone out, but meanwhile, we noticed their trucks at a few intersections a couple of blocks from our house. Suspicious, huh?

The man came, ran his tests, went outside to trace the cable and was gone for a while. Finally he came back in and I asked him if there were problems in the neighborhood. He confirmed it, but said we didn’t have any problems except multiple splices on the line. You see, when we moved her five years ago we noticed that the previous owner had run cable coax to all the bedrooms. We don’t have TVs in every room, so we forgot they were there. Then we changed over to DISH and never gave it another thought.

But the friendly cable Internet man said the splices were degrading the signal. Made sense to me. Later I got online and was shocked at how fast everything was loading.

UPDATE TODAY:I spent most of the day in Edmond at the OK District Board of Directors meeting. Marjorie said the phone was cutting in and out again today, so the problem may not be solved. But the ‘net is still snappy…when it is working. Sigh.

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