AT&T project Lightspeed

Gary and John.
You guys must have missed the AT&T training on how not to be cordial, but rather grumpy and have no sense of humor! My wife had to call in the AT&T tech yesterday with U Verse problems. He was there for over 4 hours and was still there when I got home. I walked in the door and he immediately hit me for the reed switch and end of line resistor I installed on the NIB cover for my burg phone line tamper. I think the biggest problem was he couldn’t figure out what it was and had to have a homeowner explain it to him so that affected his attitude.

Getting back to the problem - the TV was always freezing. I must say that he sure did a good job checking everything and finally found the problem. It was the original AT&T install of the coax in the wall behind the TV. Wanting to avoid the inevitable hole drilled through the carpet and floor into the crawl, I had prepped the area by drilling into the wall cavity from the crawl, installing the wall plate base and even leaving my fish in the wall for the installer. Well, he had some extra coax and instead of cutting it and putting a new connector on it he jammed all of it into the wall. One of the bends back onto itself was so severe and tight that it must have damaged the coax!! To give you a idea of how much he jammed back there, the installer actually used longer screws to get the wall plate sucked back to the wall!!

off subject but, the bastards (Time Warner) ran the fcn cable to my front bedroom. They went across my front sidewalk and nicely ran the cable in the crack....now i have to keep a throw rug on my front walk so no one will trip on the cable...another "just shook my head"

Tech from Algonquin??? He has his own problems.Been going on 3 days straight of snow plows damaging our splice cans. 900 on Wednesday,that was easy it was a well known location,didnt take long to find it under the snow bank.Can destroyed, 5 feet of snow sitting on top of modules.But the 100 pr took almost 2 days to find and fix. All crossed but 1 pr,2 3ways under the pavement! 2 places where it looks like pavement had been cut out before.Cable put in in '77 when infamous echo gel used.Did some measurements putting me about 5 feet from 1st pavement cut,my partner trys thumping, no luck at all. Decided to view job from front seat of truck.Getting ready to call boss to let him know we need to dig and the water company guys show up saying,you guys digging here again? What do you mean? That was dug up a couple of years ago. So I ask what about up here where this other spot was cut out? We all walk up there to look and what do I see sticking out about an inch out of the snow bank? A 6" can with the top off and the mods all corroded,there's our trouble. 2 of us the day before had parked right next to it. Not on any map,I had checked every other snow bank down the street but this one.If it wasn't for the snow melt in one day,we would have dug in the wrong spot for nothing.
Back to the original subject tho Pete,I didn't push for the u verse training, seemed like too much of a headache for what it was worth.Boss agreed, didn't want to send me to training if I'm not staying long. And since I can't get u verse,I don't really care if yours doesn't work I get 2,5 ,7 and 9 just fine and on a really good day 11.

I'll bet 2 weeks ago the village plow driver hit a can,the snow melted, water got in a mod,crossed his line with a spare,lengthed his loop and thats all she wrote.In the mean time I have just watched the same Family Guy for the 9000th time because there is nothing else on.

its been 3 years already Pete, maybe they forgot? lol, I think the problem is that they sub contract installers for a flat fee.

second guy sounds a little better to me. 1st guy just blowing smoke like I said. Hope it works for a while for you but if the 'nick' was indeed in the drop you are only fixed temp.

john

It's been raining and guess what....... Damn copper!!!!!

same old story...cold weather and rain=extra money for guys like me and Gary.
when it rains and the cable get wet inside you will get a light "cross" between pairs and that lenghtens your loop...which knocks down your service. Sun comes out and drys the cable..bam..you're back on. Now this..light or hi-resistance trouble..is a tough one to clear. But there are ways. Gary..remember using your 'hot-shot' on a hi-res pair to try and blow it open or weld it to a short. No more hot-shots in the field anymore. To much expensive equipment in the loop to be letting crazy guys loose in the cable with a 600 volt burner.
Pete; this thread has been going on for awhile. I just went back and reread all the fun. Has the service been working good? There is the chance that new drop has weathered a bit by now or the possibility that there has been cable work in your area. You might need to call and have the guys start all over again. That is: stress test each section of your loop, measure the distance, check for bridge tap or multiples (these two would change if there was a cut in your area)...who knows..could be any number of things.
Keep us updated ok?

john

jbear wrote: Gary..remember using your 'hot-shot' on a hi-res pair to try and blow it open or weld it to a short. No more hot-shots in the field anymore. To much expensive equipment in the loop to be letting crazy guys loose in the cable with a 600 volt burner. john

Still using them up here John,not much if at all lead in my area.Rockford to the west of us has a lot and no uverse so they still use them. Best use of one I ever saw was when someone got mad at the pop machine always taking their money,so they hooked it up. No ot up here at all,been raining all week,we leave the garage with 20-30 cases.Only ot was in St Louis,2 guys from our garage went down for 4 days.Hardly worth the drive.

Well?

john

Gary S wrote: Wireless uverse is the latest rumor

goodbye copper guys...

I feel like the guys who used to deliver milk or eggs or bread door to door in the 50's. Worse is I can remember those guys coming down our street.

Man...what a great run tho...


john

Well like I have said there are 2 techs involved.The outside tech,a guy like me does not go inside the house no matter what.The uverse tech is responsible from the terminal to the set top box.I don't believe the uverse techs start at 8.I think you were called so that you know someone might be in your yard and your service would be interupted. Some people get mad when you call, the next guy is mad that you didn't. I had a guy this winter insist that I pull in his driveway when I arrived. Then was mad when I did. "I didn't know you had such a big truck!" I gave him my managers card,so he called.My manager said you did tell him drive in. For once a boss stood up for one of us!

John,
I was never able to confirm how much of my drop was actually replaced. The "rats nest" clean up I noticed after the drop was "repaired". I do not know if that's where they stopped (It's hard to tell from the ground) or continued over 4 more poles to the BIG aerial junction where the drop went originally. So far so good but, it hasn't rained in a couple days ether!! If I have problems again, I'll have to make a call using that phone number Gary gave me!!

im a simple young man Windstream wireless internet and phone , direct tv HD, and my good ol at@t iphone 4 simple and greatly effective

If the tech is coming for a visit, then it sounds like it's gone.