I do not have cable TV. I have cable Internet service. My ex-wife, Darlene, lives down stairs and she has cable Internet service, cable phone service and cable TV. We both get our service from Charter.
Now I give her $100.00 a month to help her with those service since she is disabled and living on a very limited income. We were going to share Internet service via WiFi but you know me I want all the band width I can get so I have my own Internet service.
OK here is the deal…I am as poor as a church mouse also. I miss not having cable TV. It has been sort of boring around here and I would like to watch a few shows on cable TV.
I never had TiVo service in the past but I was a fan of the service when it first started up. I think it is a great idea.
I understand that TiVo now works with WiFi. What I am wondering is if I get a TiVo unit with WiFi and hook it up to her cable TV system… Are you following me? Then I could be upstairs and tell the system to record the shows that I want to see and it would not effect her viewing downstairs and then when I wanted to view the programs I could just watch them via WiFi on my computer monitor?
They have a Charter WiFi cable modem but I could just use my WiFi system correct? I have seen a TiVo device that you hook a WiFi device to it.
I think people are doing this now… but it is room to room in their home. The only difference would be it would be from apartment to apartment in this case.
If you are wondering I did ask Charter if they could run the cable from downstairs to this apartment. They said no and I can understand that because that would cut into their business big time. In this case we are all family but everyone else in apartments would be saying the same thing.
Well I guess an ex-wife is not family but my grown son also lives down stairs.
Any idea on this? Charter will supply a TiVo unit for x amount of money? Will those units do WiFi? If not I could buy one that will do WiFi for about $200.00 and the WiFi device for it is about $35.00 and there maybe other units. I have not done a search on all of this yet.
I am not sure what is going on with Charter Communications. This is the third day that we been losing the service.
I get Internet service from them. I use Skype for my phone service so when I lose the Internet I lose phone service.
My ex-wife also has Charter and she has TV, Internet and phone service so when she does not have service with Charter she does not have anything.
I hope they get their problems taken care of… I always hope when we lose service that they are improving service.
I got home from the doctor’s office. I had good news. My glucose (sugar) level was only 109. High but OK. I drink to much Coke and I will try and cut down or cut it out.
The doctor said my cholesterol was very good. I think he said the good cholesterol was 103. Or he might have said 113. I know he said it was very good.
On the way home I got my mail and there was a bill from Charter Communications. I only have Internet service from them. We have the Plus service and that is 10 M down. They have increased the speed to 16 Mbps down at no increase in price.
The Express went from 5 M down to 8 M down.
The Max service went from 20 M down to 25 and the increased the upload speed from 2 M to 3 Mbps.
I just used www.speedtest.com and I got 13.38M down and 2 M up.
I paid for a theme for my Word Press site awhile back and I have using it. Well when I got home I got an email from them that version 1.7 is now out.
So today is going to be a good day.
Now tomorrow I got to have some dental work done. Tomorrow may not be a good day. I had better enjoy today.
I have reported here on my problems with getting Charter Communications to install service. I have also reported on their service and the Internet speed that I am getting.
I think the full story of all this is posted on HNB: Fort Worth TX.
So I will not go over the details of the installation problems. Just let me say that I got a letter form Charter Communications saying I could have TV, high speed Internet and telephone service all for $59.97 a month. I would get free install and I could even try it free for 30 days. It was in a letter from them and I have received two more of those letters since I took their service.
Well I called up and said come on and install the service I will take it. I asked if they would install outlets in the living room and my bedroom and they said yes. Now on the phone it turned out I would have to pay $80.00 … I will not go in to the details but I said OK. So the guy got here and said.. Oh.. No you only ordered high speed Internet service. I said OK.. install it then and forget the phone and TV. He said.. also that he could not install any outlets or run any cable because this is an apartment. I said Ok just turn on the Internet for this outlet that is already here. He still wanted $80.00 and I gave it to him and he left.
Again I will not go into detail.. but I had high speed Internet service and it cost me $57.40 a month.
The Charter bill is here – gives details of the first charter billing.
I called Charter Communications on December 14th see A credit with Charter of $2784.00!
OK this is where I get stupid. I called Charter Communications a couple of times to pay my bill. Each time I am calling and using Skype to call them. When I connect right away I tell the voice mail system I want to pay my bill. It never ask for my user ID or anything…I know I know.. I should have been thinking… I say I want to pay my bill. It does not ask any questions and tells me that my balance is zero. But do I want to go ahead and pay and I say yes and I make the payment.
Today I got a written bill from Charter Communications and it is for $108.99 and of that $57.40 is “past due.”
So I called the Charter Communications system to pay my bill. I know I am not past due…Hell I want to make sure I have Internet service and I am paying as soon as I can pay the bill. I call the system and it does not ask any questions I hit the keys to make a payment and it says you do not have any due payments do you still want to make a payment and I say NO this time and get someone live on line.
Well the woman says what is your phone number and I give it to her and she says we do not have an account with that phone number. I give her my account number and she says.. Oh yes..you are past due.
I tell her I have made payment online with a credit card using this phone number and she says they have no account with that number and show no payment from me. The only payment they show is that payment I made when they came out here to install the service on December 2nd and I gave the guy $80.00 in cash.
Well I did not have the details of the payment(s) I made via credit card in front of me so I paid $90.00 right then to the woman to make sure I do not lose Internet service. I will have to dig up the credit card information and call them back and see if they can find my money and credit my account.
So a word to the wise.. Do not make a payment on the telephone to voice mail system UNLESS the system some how tells you who you are AND tells you that you do have a balance with them that you need to pay and make sure the amount it tells you jogs with the information that you know.
OK I admit to being super stupid to make the payment over the telephone with it said my bill was zero.
I guess I was stupid to pay tonight.. But I want to make sure that I do not lose Internet service.
That $90.00 I paid tonight was food money.. So Russ and I may go hungry this month but at least we will have Internet service. Smile
It is 26 degrees at 0900 hours here in Fort Worth. The sun is out and it is bright and looks like it will be a good day but a bit cold.
My son said the other day that he was going to move back to CA but he has changed his mind. I am glad that he is staying here. I want what is best for him but one of the reasons that I moved here was that I wanted to be with him and help him.
He is 33 years old.
My ex-wife got cable service on Saturday from Charter Communications. She now has cable TV, telephone service and Internet service (5 M down) from them. She loves TV and watches TV all the time but now she has something to watch.
I got Internet service from Charter Communications back about 2 months ago. I have 10 M down.
My grandson lives with me. He is doing his college, since we moved from Miami, online. He has two more classes to take and he will have his two year degree. He is very smart. I can say that because he did not get his IQ from me.
He needs a job. He has been looking online here in Fort Worth but has not found anything.
If someone has an opening and needs a smart hard working young man (he is 21) contact me: hnbbs@usa.net
He does not have a car so it would be great it the job was near us. We are in the 76116 ZIP code. We are in west Fort Worth. A job on the #26 Ridgmar Mall/Normandale bus route would be good.
Such a nice looking day I am tempted to move my computer desk over to the window so I can look out.
This is our living room. We have nothing in the room except for the cable modem and a wireless router. I am not sure when we will have something in the room. My wireless USB network card is working ok on my computer but I am wondering why in the heck I just do not buy a network cable and hook it up and run it across the floor to my room. My guess it would have to be faster than wireless.
I have Charter Communications for cable Internet service and I am paying for 10 Mb/s down service. I get like 3.8 Mb/s most of the time. I am going to call them Monday and ask them to check and make sure everything is working correct.
I use www.speedtest.net to check my Internet speed. I was looking at their site and they have a list of download speeds; Europe 7.23, North America 6.59, Australasia 5.10, Asia 4.87, South America 2.13 and Africa 1.28. Well Thank God I am doing better than South America and Africa is all I can say.
The top countries by download speed are Korea 23.59, Japan 16.81, Latvia 15.58 and on and on it goes and in case you are wondering the United States is number 29 on the list with 7.33 Mb/s.
The top of up load speed countries are Lithuania 9.25, Japan 7.95, Latvia 6.16, Bulgaria 6.07 and at number 30 the United States with 1.69 Mb/s.
I just did the speedtest again and I got 3.11 down and 1.98 up.
It seems like the United States should not be number 29 and 30 on the list of Internet speeds.
OK OK.. sure I do not want to live in any of those other nations because they have faster Internet speed. But I am sort of tired of waiting for high speed broadband Internet speed. I do not think 3.11 Mb/s is it. Keep in mind when I started people connected to my bulletin board system at 300 baud. I paid hundreds of dollars so that people could connect at 1200 baud. I have seen and been part of the start of all of this… I just think it is time to move ahead to high speed Internet for the United States. We should not be at the bottom of the list.
A lot of very smart and skilled people read Howard’s Notebook. Do you think the above “high speed Internet” is worth $55.00 a month? (Truth is I get it for $45.00 a month for 24 months. When you do see above a nice connection it is a connection to Fort Worth. I am in Fort Worth and am getting my Internet from Charter in Fort Worth.
About 0030 hours we lost our Internet connection. We have Charter Communication. I do not have their cable TV service so I could not check to see if we would have lost TV. I also use Skype (VOIP) so I lost my ability to call them.
I do have a cell phone but it is pay as you go and I try and not use it.
Now about losing the cable service we did have some limited connection to Google and to the Charter web site. That, I think , is very odd… That nothing else works but we could connect to Google.
I woke up at 0530 and called Charter on my cell phone. I got a recorded message saying that service was down for my area “for maintance” for my area and that service would be back at “after 7.”
It is 0730 hours and still no Internet service. We have been without Internet service for about 7 hours!
It is 0800 and I called the Charter telephone number – 888-438-2727
The message has changed. It now says they are aware of the problem with “high-speed Internet connection problems” in my area and they are working on the problem.
It is now 1030 hours and still no Internet except I can go to Google and Charter.
I called again and burned a few of my cell phone minutes. Their message has changed and it says they are working on the problem and it should be fixed in a “few hours.” They have the option of calling you when the problem is fixed so I told the machine to do that…So I should get a call on my cell phone with the problem is corrected.
I wonder if they have a vast area out how many phone numbers can their system dial at a time?
The Internet came back online for us at 1110 hours.
I called Charter Communications using Skype (VOIP) and before their system even asked for my account number the machine told me that my last payment, in December, was $63.00 and that I had a CREDIT with them of $2784.00
Don’t you just love computers? Smile
I got a live person on the telephone and she said they had received the $80.00 and I told her about the $5.00 fee for the modem and she said she would take it off. I told her about the $10.00 off on the first month of the high speed service and she said she would give me a $10.00 credit next month.
She said I would need to return the modem to them. I guess I can find their office here in Fort Worth. I am not sure where they are located but it will cost me $3.00 for the bus and often a trip like that can be an all day trip. It would have been nice if they picked it but I did not even ask them to do it.
I told her about the statement when I connected saying I had a credit with them of $2784.00 and told her she might find it funny and something to discuss with employees around the coffee pot in the break room. She did not laugh and did not even comment on it. Smile
I been waiting for the Charter Communications first bill to get here. I got it and here is what I find about it.
I am not upset or crazy about the bill. That was my fear before I got the bill. I had ordered the “Charter Bundle” and that would have been with “Free Installation” for Charter Cable TV (9.99), Charter High-Speed (29.99) and Charter Telephone (19.99) a month and been $59.97 a month.
Notice the “30-day Risk-Free Trial!”
When the install guy came he said they only had an order to install Internet plus he told me that they could not install any outlets or run any cable or do any sort of install. All he could do is turn on an outlet that was already in the living room.
So I could not have an outlet for Internet or TV in my room which is what I wanted.
Plus he was to collect $79.99 for “installing” and the first month fee.
I paid him and he turned on the internet service using their modem. He left.
I called the Charter office.
They said all it showed is I had ordered was Internet service. I said OK that is all I want since you can not install anything. The guy on the phone checked and said … yes they can not do any installing of anything in apartments in Fort Worth. I said OK.
I said what about 10M down instead of the 5M down in speed. He said it was $10.00 more and that he could do it right now on the phone and he would give me the first month free. I said great. So he attempted to set it up and their modem would not support it. I said I got a modem and I went and got it and removed their modem and he set it up on my modem.
Now I get their bill. They have not given me credit yet for the $80.00 I paid the “install” guy. I am sure it will turn up on their computer system soon. I am not worried about that. I do object to the $49.99 “install” fee but I understand that the install was free if you ordered the bundle service which I did but they showed up and only did the Internet. But I could live with the “install fee” if in fact they did some sort of install. I do not think they should charge apartment people any install fee, in Fort Worth, if all they do is flip a switch. But I am not going to fight over that with them.
The other thing is the $10.00 fee for the higher speed that the guy on the phone said I would not have to pay for the first month. I will call them about that and see if they will give it to me. If not, even thou I am as poor a church mouse, I will not fight over that.
The other thing is we are using my own modem now so they need to take off the $5.00 for the “Internet Modem Lease” and I am sure they will correct that. I am not sure how I get their modem back to them.
What I will end up with is an Internet cost of $40.00 (plus taxes) for 24 months. I can live with it.
I am paying for 10M down in Internet speed.
One thing I will have to deal with soon is Charter and their billing. I suspect that they are not going to get things correct. We will see if they get it right.
I ordered television, telephone and Internet service. They only came to do the Internet service. Plus they can not, I guess by law in Fort Worth, install jacks or run cable or do much of anything in an apartment…So I do not want the TV now…The telephone I could go with and have a cord less phone…
What I wonder about is am I going to get the special price for the “package” service? I also wonder about the free upgrade, for 30 days, to the 10 M service…Will I get the free upgrade for 30 days?
I paid $80.00 for the install of service and I wonder if the $50.00 is going to go show as me being prepaid for two months. I got a feeling we are not going to see eye to eye on the billing.
I am surprised to be saying this but the Charter 10M Internet service is excellent. I have not had any problems with it. So far I am happy with the service.
About six years ago when I moved to Miami (FL) I had Charter Internet service. When the guy was installing it he had to try about six modems before he could get one to work. Then after that I had nothing but problems with the service. I would just lose Internet service sometimes two times a day. I would have to unplug the modem.
That went on for a long time. Calls to their service number would get me someone that would tell me unplug the modem and wait a little bit etc.
There was a sale or deal or something and a different company took over for them.
After we moved from that condo to a different place I ended up with Comcast and they gave excellent service.
Then before I moved to Fort Worth I checked to see who did the Internet for this area and I found it was Charter. I looked on line and found a lot of bad comments and sites about Charter. So I was not feeling good about the move and getting Charter back.
I will see how this works out. I hope it goes well.
So far there have been a few problems and I have some questions about billing but I have not got the bill yet.
But so far as the Internet service…It is excellent. I am very happy with it.
I will keep this short for right now… Charter Cable did show up on time today. But the guy only had a work order for Internet service. He knew nothing of tv or phone service.
He still wanted and got $80.00 from me.
So much for “Free installation” and also the “30-Day Risk-Free Trial!” they never heard of it. I guess you can forget “promo code 505458” ….
But that is not the entire store.. Yes there is more…
There adv, that they sent me, says “Connect multiple TVs in your home at no additional cost” … WELL.. this is Fort Worth and they are not allowed to install anything in an apartment.. There was a cable jack in the living room. He turned it on… took him about 10 minutes or less…
So that left me with a choice.. I can run 25 foot of cable all over my new apartment and I am not going to do that.. Or I can move my new desk out of the bedroom to the living room…
Or I can go WiFi which I was trying not to do… So I had to bring up the WiFi router from Dar’s place… That puts me sharing Internet with Russell which I was trying to get away from because I seem to come last in bandwidth when he is watching movies/tv and playing online games with his computer and Xbox 360.
So we bring up the WiFi router…
I talk to Charter on the telephone.. I tell them forget the tv and the cable…
Since I was not getting them why was I charged $80.00?
I will not go into all of that..
Also.. remember I was told I was getting a land line phone so I switched my cell phone from $50.00 a month unlimited to pay as you go.. so talking to Charter cost me $4.00 just for that one call.
Anyway.. Since I had the guy on phone.. I said upgrade me to 10M down for $10.00 more a month .. He said I could try it for free for one month (we will see how that goes)..
Well.. he attempted on the phone to upgrade the Charter modem. It was a Scientific Atlanta modem. Never heard of them. He could not get it to upgrade to 10M. So I had him on the phone and I went to my junk box and pulled a old cable modem and hooked it up and he upgraded it to 10M.
I am going to come back to this subject again and again.. I am sure..
I just did a speed test and I got 2.31 M down. That is the slowest Internet speed I have had in years.
But I have an old and fucked up WiFi card but I can not blame Charter for that… But I was not planning on using WiFi.
Well I am going to see if I can get an old different USB WiFi card to work… I do not have money to buy a new WiFi card right now.. Charter has all my money for the month.
I THINK Russ be getting high speed Internet service right now… But..
I do not have time to check.
I need to fix this problem…
I will try and get an old USB WiFi card working.. It has never wanted to work.. Maybe it will take pity on me.
I may see about installing Linux again and see if the old card will work with Linux.
Before I left Miami I checked to see who the cable service company was for Fort Worth. I was not happy to hear that it was Charter. We had their service when we first moved to Miami until they sold out or did something and we got a different company.
I was not happy with Charter Internet service.
They do not get good reviews…I checked on the Internet before I moved here.
My ex-wife and son, that live here in Fort Worth, have DSL service from AT&T. So I told my ex-wife that I would give her $100.00 a month and that Russell and I would use their service via WiFi. I had them upgrade to 5 M down. Now $100.00 is more than it cost them for Internet and phone service. I made it more to help them out.
Well Russ and I been using their service via WiFi. Russ is playing games online and watching TV via his XBox 360 and I do not know what all he is doing.. My son is down stairs playing online games sometimes.
My ex-wife does some eBay stuff online to try and make a few dollars.
I use almost no band width.. What I do posting to the blog and reading my email….that is about it.. The Internet service that I am getting sucks …
Are you ready for this?
Charter sent out their special offer: Basic Limited cable TV $9.99 for 12 months, High Speed Internet $29.99 for 12 months and telephone service $19.99 for 12 months. Their “high speed” Internet service is 5 M down. For $10.00 more a month I can get 10 M down or for $25.00 more a month I could get 20 M down.
The total is $59.97 a month. I called and signed up for the service. I do not own a phone and I do not own a TV set. All I care about, right now, is the Internet service.
They did lock in the Internet service price for 24 months. I can upgrade the speed anytime I want and I might just do that one day.
I will keep paying Darlene $100.00 a month to help her out and Russ is going to keep on using their WiFi connection. He is sleeping and does not know that I have ordered cable service. But I need dependable Internet service so he can keep using their WiFi service and I will be the only one using the cable Internet service.
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