On 27 September 2012 18:51, E Johnson <iris.gates@gmail.com> wrote:

Jeff, thanks for the input on the SB6121.

John, sorry to hear of the demise of your router. I have one of the newer Netgear routers here, running TomatoUSB. Very nice. It took 4 hands to do the magical reset after installing the software. but it's been solid after that.

Generally, service & line issues (Charter in town here):
I immediately notice line issues (when they happen) because I use an internet telephone quite often. That's one reason I like to see the modem logs. T3 and T4 timeouts might not be noticed if one is surfing the web. People streaming video might see a momentary glitch, maybe. Gamers definitely notice issues in their lines. It's not the available upload/download speeds that make the difference, it's the ping times & momentary glitches that cause packts to arrive or leave out of order, or requests & replies having to be resubmitted. Those were problems I had to address with the Charter techs at two different addresses. Line issues at the last place took me 4 years to resolve. Charter was good to me (rebates when I could prove their end caused the problems), and the techs that came out were generally okay, but didn't always know what they were doing. A lot of them pretty much just know how to measure an incoming signal, and if necessary, put a ladder up the pole & measure there...
and how to plug in a modem & call the office for registration & provisioning. Other, more experienced techs would sometimes look at printouts of traceroutes, and recognize where the glitch in the system is. I think these guys are being phased out. But the internet service is generally very good.

I checked again with Charter. The 3 techs who told me I'm not "allowed" to own my own modem were wrong, or misinformed, or whatever. Totally Wrong. Charter's NEW customers are required to use only Charter equipment, but customers with established accounts (before July 2012) are allowed to own their own equipment. They of course warn us that we're expected to do our own maintanence. There is a risk in this -- if the firmware (worked out between Charter and Motorola) is buggy, we'd have to prove (again) that it's Them Not Us.

I have struggled with the burden-of-proof issue off & on for 12 years now.

So don't go on vacation, then open a new account at the new place where you recently moved. Just migrate your account to the new location. What a Catch-22, but until we have an alternative provider in town, it is what it is.

FYI on the SB6120: the price has dropped. There is free shipping on this at the moment at newegg. Mine is on order. The SB6120 (previous model) actually costs more now, where it's still available.

Thanks again, guys. Hope some of this helps someone else.
Liz