I have cableVision and optimum online internet access. I have been using the service for 1 year now and have experienced few problems. However recently my intenet service broke. I called Cablevision and they very promplty (which is nice) sent out a person to check things out. My wife mentioned that she saw some guys on the pole outside our hose before the service went down.
The guy comes in fixes someting at the pole, and then disconnects my Electroline Drop amp and puts in a splitter. He says that the Amp is causing the problems. The Amp is an Electroline EDA-FT08100 drop amp. This has a zero path return path and is bi-directional.
Is the cable guy right? I have been using the Cable TV amp for over a year, and things were working fine. The Amp is not over heating or anything. What could have changed? I reconnected the AMP and did not use the splitter everything still worked. However I went back to using the splitter following the advice of the cable TV guy. Was his advice correct?
If your modem has good power levels without the amp, why would you bother ? Are you getting good power numbers on your modem RF page ?
You can always leave the modem directly connected to the splitter and use the amp on the TV-only side of your splitter to handle your TV sets if you feel the need.
Cable guys don't always know the problem. A lot of them don't even know about active return amplifiers, they are just taught that amp with a cable modem is bad and you must use a splitter before the amp for the modem (which is correct for passive return amps).
If it works with the amp then leave it on, it won't hurt anything (unless you're over amplifying the signal into the modem).
I have had cablevision since it was availble, first for tv, then for internet and just recently added the telephone service. I've had a pretty good experience with them but each time I added a service I made sure I was home to talk to the technician. For each change they checked the signal level at the pole, then where it enteres the house, then at the outputs of the splitter and at the device(tv, cable modem). In my discussions with them, they basically said that they always try the simplest hookup with one splitter, going to another only if needed to feed other rooms etc. I asked about amplifiers--they said only if needed(meaning weak signal or other performance problems). Since my signal levels are good(according to them) and I have very nice tv reception and great broadband speed(and no telephone problems), I don't have an amplifier. But everyone's hookup is different and as they told me--if I have problems, they will come back and do whatever's needed to resolve the problem.
Hmm... I've had an on going issue with Optimum on-line since Nov. of 2004! They have yet to address it. I was on the phone just last week, after I recinded payment to them again, and was promised the world. So far, all I got was several $100s poorer and no resolution.
I personally think the big differentiator between Cablevision and the other companies is that the quality of their tech staff is in many cases significantly worse than what you'll see with Time Warner or Verizon.
I've had services with all 3, and have never had as much trouble as I have had with Cablevision. In one case, I was without Internet service for about a week because someone splitting my node made a mistake that took all advanced services (e.g. video-on-demand, Optimum Online and digital phone) out for everybody in my area.
It seems as if the inside technicians are as good as anybody's, but the people maintaining their physical plant aren't really up to snuff. I am very happy currently with the service, but the interruptions I've weathered are inexcusable in this day and age. I sincerely hope one day soon they'll sell out to a company like Time Warner that knows how to run a network.
Inside technicians? Please explain. If you mean the dweebs on the phone that tell you to reboot, reboot, reboot and repeat, that isn't what I would consider quality support/service.
And this is not just linked to their internet service. In October of
2004 my wife and I were on the road for over a week following a band from gig to gig photographing them. When we returned home, we had no TV service. The old "analog" boxes were turned off. When I called, I was told that we were sent a letter informing us to turn them in and get the newer digital boxes. I had never received such a letter and, as far as I am concerned, turning off the boxes was not necessary -- just a way to coerce certain customers to upgrade to their more ex- pensive services. We have friends in another section of our town and they are still, to this day, on the old analog boxes. Anyhow, I drop- ped off the analog boxes and three days later CV shipped three of the new boxes. I installed them and the two month long comedy of errors began.
These boxes required that they send an enabling signal to the boxes to turn them on. Well, after about three days, they couldn't get my boxes to turn on. I actually had one of CV's finest tell me that I was too stupid to have hooked up these boxes correctly. FWIW, I did a post-graduate in electronic engineering. I'm fairly certain that I can install lead in and out and plug the unit into the wall outlet without requiring a Ph.D.
I was so frustrated with them that I took the boxes to their office in Lakewood and threw them in through the door.
I then requested a "technician" to come out and install these boxes. It was also requisite to have a CV technician install the box if you had a HD-TV and required the HD box. Duh... it's even more difficult to connect the lead in and the DVI cable and plug in unit in the wall.
A technician was finally dispatched -- on a Saturday, only three days after he was supposed to show. I can't fault the technician for this as he's only going where directed. The problem was that I had other plans for the day. Anyway, he installed 4 boxes but two did not work (just like the boxes I had tried to install). The problem seemed to be that CV ships their boxes with the credit card sized smart-card in the slot and the readers or the cards get damaged in shipment. Any- way, the tech. left with two boxes functional and two not. We had TV for the first time in over 3 weeks... for a whole day.
Because he did not complete the installation of 4 boxes, CV sent down codes to disable the two boxes which were installed. This happened while I was on the road the next day. My wife call me to tell me that the boxes had stopped working. I called CV and after about an hour of trying to get through to a competent, I was told that they had to turn off the boxes because the installation was not compete.
So... I took yet another set of boxes to Lakewood and threw them in through the door.
This shit went on for another month. FINALLY, we wound up with four fuctional boxes. Actually, one of the techs that came into my house saw my computer room and was amazed that CV personel would say that I was not capable of hooking these boxes up myself.
Strangely enough, CV had the audacity to BILL me for 2 month of TV! Not only did they bill for the 2 month but they doubled the bill as they somehow had my other boxes/service still listed. It took me 2 more months and a call to the state utility commission to get all of this corrected.
This experience has soured me to anyone's opinion that CV is anything but a group of completely incompetent fuckwits.
FWIW, it was in this same period that the internet service problem began (Nov. 2004). They still have not addressed the issue despite my perpetual emails and calls to their support.
When we lived on Long Island we had CV for both TV and Internet. Just before we moved. I turned in our boxes and canceled our service, but we still (2 1/2 years later) get email that is addressed to our old optonline.net addresses, even though we now connect to the 'Net via Charter. If I go to the OOL Web page I can even still log in and send mail from my OOL account.
I can't say I'm complaining about that (except that most of what goes to the OOL mailbox is Spam!, with just the occasional message from friends who don't seem to know how to change my address in their address books), but it does seem to indicate a major inefficiency or incompetence somewhere.
Other than one OOL outage of 24hrs or more, the service was mostly trouble free. I do miss OOL's 10MBps download speed; the best Charter offers is 3MBps.
One of our then neighbors did try the Optimum Telephone service (NOT VOIP) but dumped it after a short while.
I'm talking about the techs who actually come into your house and are the first people dispatched when you have a problem. Under Cablevision's policies, one of those guys has to come out anytime you report a new problem, even if you suspect the problem is a network related one that has nothing to do with wiring at your premise.
Well, I wouldn't disagree with you there. What you need to do is organize a letter-writing campaign to your town or village or whoever is your franchising authority and tell them about the problems. If enough people raise hell about their poor service, a better company that knows how to run a network might be given the franchise.
If Verizon runs this like everything else, they'll charge out the you know what to get you up and running. They DO know how to run a network, though.
I have Optimum Voice and have no problems with it whatsoever, as long as there's no problem with my connection. They've never offered anything else but Optimum Voice as far as telephone service, as far as I know. And it IS VOIP.
My understanding is that the old "Optimum Telephone" (5 or more years ago; I am sure it was not called "Optimum Voice" at that time, and I don't think one even needed OOL to have OT) was NOT VOIP.
Our neighbor's phone service went out, and he called from another neighbor's house, only to be told that the only way to get assistance with OT was to call from his own OT number. He told them what they could do with their phone service and switched back to Bell Atlantic or Verizon (or whatever it was called at the time).
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