Our Innertubes punctured at 11 a.m. Friday, a flat that that didn’t get fixed until 8 p.m. So that was … fun.
Actually, it was hardly an annoyance at all, barring the dealing with CenturyLink “customer service,” a maze of domestic bots and overseas humans whose basic American is much better than my Hindi but still something of a guessing game, tech-support-wise.
Herself wrangled the bots with her iPhone while I dealt with the Subcontinent on mine, and as per usual she brought home the bacon. So I got to tell my guy, “James,” that yes, there was an outage in our area and it would not be resolved until 11 p.m. Ever the newsman, even in retirement. I should’ve sent him a bill.
Anyway, even when it works, we have shit Innertubes in our little corner of The Duck! City (“Gateway to Los Lunas”).
We pay top dollar for bottom-of-the-barrel DSL, same price as in Bibleburg for half the speed, and it inches ever higher from month to month because of course it does.
Our Actiontec C1000A modem-router dates to 2012, making it two years older than the MacBook Pro I’m using to write this. It is of course “retired” — the Actiontec, not my Mac — and I don’t see any point in replacing either device because El Rancho Pendejo apparently isn’t wired for the zoom-zoom all you fiber-optic types take for granted.
When the place was built in 1970 the telephone pedestal box was installed at the east end of the property, as far from the house itself as it is possible to get without actually being in the arroyo. The wiring to said box may have been upgraded over the past five decades; the wiring to the house has not.
Thus we limp along with download speeds ranging from 6 to 12 mbps, and uploads under 1 mbps.
So, when we lose our DSL, well — ain’t no thang. Because our iPhones — with maybe two bars from Verizon down here at the bottom of the cul-de-sac — turn into personal hotspots that work just as well as our DSL router-modem. When it works.
So, winning? I guess. In a losing sort of way.
Mad Blog Media 
When we lived in Los Alamos, our service was a little better than two soup cans and a string. Xfinity in the People’s Republic is a lot better, but I think we are paying through the nose for it.
Watched Downfall last night on the computer (so the war noise wouldn’t wake the dead) and it streamed just fine. That’s as hard as I push the system.
I will say one thing for this middlin’ setup of ours: It’s robust. Slow, but it gets there. At any given time we’re piggybacking on it with two iPhones and at least three computers (two Macs, one PC). When the router-modem has a spaz and drops its connection, we unplug it, wait a minute, plug it back in, and hey presto! Back to the Flash-like speed of 6 mbps.
Careful what you wish for. We live in a Cox Communication monopoly zone, and have for decades. Sure, we get half a gig down and 20-12 Mbs up, but it costs $140 a month. Just internet, no cable tv, no phone, no home security, just internet for $140. It is very reliable, so there’s that. A new gunslinger, Allo fiber, is in town now and laying a fiber optic cable backbone all over the place. They say gigabit fiber optic residential is coming soon, and I will check them out.
I need to consult with some folks in the ’hood, see what they’re using. For sure three of us in the cul-de-sac are CenturyLinkers, because we all went SOL at the same time, bing bang boom.
starlink
Hey, Miles. If Elon wants my money he’s gonna have to steal it from Social Security, Medicare, or the IRS when he’s not busy bringing “efficiency” to Big Gummint, launching missiles to Mars, or just being a screeching dickhead.
If anyone can accelerate the population of low earth orbit garbage to the point of the Kessler Syndrome, felon can. Did I spell his name right?
Might look into Verizon’s internet since you are using them for phones. We switched two years ago and it works good enough to stream movies whilst someone else is streaming hi res music. You might have to get a cellular booster for their signal. We pay $154\mo for unlimited everything for both phones and internet. Includes international calls too which being so close to Canada is useful at times. Son in law gets even better deal from T-Mobile. Ya gotta get the right customer service person however since some will give you better deals by finding discounts for you. We are still on the Netflix tit however at 24 bucks/mo so that has to be added.
Alas, Herb old high-speed streamer, Verizon’s home internets are not available at our address for some unknown reason. Or so the CenturyLink internets tell me, anyway.
I’m tempted to try canceling our CenturyLink and using our Verizon iPhones as personal hotspots alla damn time. But since Herself works from home a couple days per week we don’t want to risk rupturing the money pipeline.
I’m not a verizon user but it seems unusual to me that you can’t get the same service in your area that Herb mentions. I would think that the Alby-Q area is large enough to justify the necessary towers.
I’ve been a cable internet customer for many years. I don’t pay for the tv, just the internet and voip phone ($111 for both). I’m in a semi-rural area and the service is reasonably good. Fiber optic is supplied up to the node box somewhere in my area and then several hundred feet of old cable line supplies the house. Per SpeakEasy, I’m getting about 260 mbps which is ok for me. Apparently I’d get faster if I installed the new modem that the cable company supplied me but I’ve been lazy about installing it. I believe the cable company is irritated with me because the old modem is probably running old tech that they have to support. As for reliability, I don’t see problems very often. Normally about once a month late at night there will be an outage when they are doing some re-work. I don’t mind as long as I can obtain a clear message from the company via phone that the service is out.
New Mexico is a strange place, and Albuquerque doubles down on that. Cell service is poor, though it’s slowly been improving as the various providers add towers. Lots of streets with no sidewalks, sidewalks that aren’t ADA-compliant at intersections, stroads with no safe places to cross for anyone who isn’t swaddled in a GMC Tank, above-ground power/phone lines, and so on and so forth.
Occasionally I’m surprised that we aren’t communicating via carrier pigeon, smoke signal, or log drum. But the New Administration hasn’t taken charge yet, so maybe all those advancements and efficiencies come after Jan. 20. Move fast, break things, etc.
Hey POG I’d still call Verizon CS direct. On line I was told “no dice” for their internet service but when I called them and they did their ping test they said essentially “Hell Herb give it a try” since if it doesn’t fly you just send their router back to them. The CS told me NOT to dump our old internet provider until we were sure we were good with Verizon. Which turned out ok even though our cell bars never go above 3 and in some of the house lurk around 2 bars. Also, in our area we are lucky to have dudes that install over the air broadcast antennas which gave us totally free network reception. They also said that IF our Verizon wasn’t strong enough for streaming they could put in a booster which we didn’t need,
I might give ’em a ring, Herb old cellmate. My iPhone 13 Mini shows two bars ever’where in the rancheroo save for the master bedroom and bath. When I was still on AT&T I had to use one of their master blasters to get even one bar down here at the bottom of the cul-de-sac.
The previous owner got her TV via dish, and possibly her internets too. The neighbors to one side are on a dish for TV; not sure what the folks on the other side are rocking for video, but their internets are mos def CenturyLink.
Folks on the corner have some oddball class of antenna on their roof. Mebbe it’s one of Elon’s gizmos. Could be a death ray for all I know.
No one in your neighborhood has cable TV or internet? How is that possible in a city the size of Albuquerque that has a university, national laboratory, and an Air Force Base? Century Link, they provide our landline phone, are heading for the business exit. I might be forced, wait for it, to get a fucking cell phone. Are we doomed to having elon service our accounts?
I dunno. I gotta ask around. We’re in an older suburb — though the one my folks moved into in 1967 was even older and cable TV became available there while I was in high school. But that was Bibleburg, and this … this is The Duck! City. We spend our money on electric buses and related infrastructure and other cool stuff that never quite comes to fruition.
We do have statues of two fictional crime lords, for what that’s worth.
Geez; I have Frontier DSL here in CT and I just tested my upload/download speeds are find they’re comparable to yours and I don’t find them slow at all.
You sure it’s not worth replacing your modem? CenturyLink didn’t offer to replace yours? Are all router brands compatible with all service providers? If they are, I’ve got a brand new ARRIS DSL modem I’d be glad to send you for free. The geniuses at Frontier sent it to me when I was having issues even after I tried to tell them the fault was outside my condo.