Blazing Speeds

 

A.I. Generated

After years of pondering and taking some initial steps earlier this year, I finally cut the proverbial cord. Actually, I mostly traded cords but gained more freedom. I think.

Yesterday was the day and fiber optic cables were run up to the side of my house, inserted through a hole drilled in the foundation, and run into my office where instead of a black box, I now have a gray box. My speeds are probably 50 times faster than they were previously though sadly, my typing speed never improved. All this was done to reduce my bill by nearly 2/3rds of what it was and to get away from bundled services. It wasn't without it's problems though.

The technician cleared a hole among the many electronic devices and cables that had previously gave me internet, television and phone services, plunked down his box and hooked up the cable he had run into my house. He then declared everything good, picked up his bag and was looking for my acknowledgement so he could leave. Having watched him, I knew my mesh wifi system had not been hooked up nor my desktop computer hardwired into his box. I pointed out that I still had no internet to my computer nor a wifi signal to any of my many devices. 

I won't bore you with the details, but what ensues was a half hour of him fumbling with various cables trying them here and there and not really getting anywhere. I finally had to help him out and remove my mesh wifi router from the system because it was interfering with their built in router and evidently didn't support the high speeds of the fiber optic cable. I also took the cable from my desktop and plugged it into the appropriate spot. I removed a half dozen cables and devices that were no longer needed and my system was mostly working. My security cameras are still not on, shh, don't tell any thieves, and I need to do some more research on how to get them to communicate with all this new gear. As expected, their wifi router is puny and doesn't transmit a strong signal in every area of the house so another mesh wifi router is on order that is capable of handling the blazing speeds. Unknown is if any of this will improve my typing speed.

I gathered up all my cable television electronics and took it down to their store front and told them where to stick it. Well, they told me to put it on the counter nearby so they could scan the barcodes and verify I had returned all their gear so they could then cancel my account. I had signed up for YouTube TV a few weeks prior for a month long free test run and I think it will work to my needs. I don't have access to my favorite "local" channel which is located in the state capital and has paid professionals running things. Instead, I now have to rely on my true local stations which apparently rotate a bunch of newly minted graduates through their station on a monthly basis. The quality of the news and weather just isn't there but I can bookmark other sources online to supplement my needs.

As previously noted, I already dealt with the phone issue.

So now everything is basically run through my internet which has Gigabyte speeds, had unlimited data and did I mention about 2/3rds less costly than the previous monopoly I was forced to utilize for the last decade. I cut the cord and inserted a faster cord with another company. We'll see how things go. The technician was going to cut my coaxial cable that my previous service provider utilized and run his cable through the existing hole. I declined and had them drill a new hole. This way, it may give me options in the future.