>>>> "Brains" == Brains <fmoody-ug-wlug(a)moodman.org> writes:

> Hi, > > Anyone on here using Charter Telephone VOIP service? I've currently > got Verizon, but the wife hates it because our phone lines get flaky > all the time, esp when it rains. > > So I'm thinking to save money and combine all my stuff onto Charter. > I've already got High Speed internet and regular old cable. Not wild > about Digital Cable since I'm happy with Tivo and I don't want yet > another set top box to have to deal with... > > So, any horror stories about Charter Phone VOIP quality and service? > > Thanks, > John

> So I'm thinking to save money and combine all my stuff onto Charter. > I've already got High Speed internet and regular old cable. Not wild > about Digital Cable since I'm happy with Tivo and I don't want yet > another set top box to have to deal with...

On 9/5/07, John Stoffel <john(a)stoffel.org> wrote: I know nothing about Charter's VoIP because I use VoicePulse VoIP and highly recommend it. Half the price of charter for the plan I use ($15/mo) and I'm very happy especially with their service department. If you have any problems you'll talk to and hear back from intelligent service people who call and/or email you to discuss the issue. -BR http://www.voicepulse.com/ _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

I have Vonage and have been using them for a few years no. No problems at all running over a Verizon DSL connection.

> Hi, > > Anyone on here using Charter Telephone VOIP service? I've currently > got Verizon, but the wife hates it because our phone lines get flaky > all the time, esp when it rains.

Before we had a splitter in the analog cable, with one feed going to the TV directly, the other going to the TiVo. This way we could watch live TV (commercials and all!) when the TiVo was recording something we wanted, but didn't want to watch at the moment. Now that we have digital cable, I don't think I'm going to be able to do this anymore. Dammit. This is an oversight/gotcha that I didn't realize. I'll see how much extra it will cost to get another digital set top box, which I'll dedicate to my TiVo's use I think. :] I dunno... maybe there's a way to do this. Anyone know for sure if the Scientific Atlanta set top box has analog output of *all* channels, so I can just tune up and down using the TV tunner? Even if I don't get over channel 99 on there, I'd be ok with that. I suspect (strongly) that it doesn't work that way and that I'm screwed, sorta. Not terrible actually, but annoying.

We upgraded to the digital/phone/Internet package and installed only one digital box wit the rest of the house on analog. While I can only speak definitively about Shrewsbury Cable, I can't see how this wouldn't work anywhere... Depending on the equipment the cable provider uses, one or more splitters with the appropriate notch filters on each output, may be necessary to separate out the unwanted packets and phone signals for each device. In Shrewsbury's case, the gear they now use doesn't require the filters, so I split the incoming cable using the town's original 1:3 splitter, connected one output to an amplified splitter (Radio Shack) to provide analog to the rest of the house (via additional splitters - everything is configured as what's called a "home-run" to the basement), and connected each of the other two outputs to the digital box and phone/cable modem respectively. The tech from Shrewsbury had no problem with this configuration because if you want independent digital signals, you need two or more digital tuners. If you want to see what this looks like, I'll send a link to pics on picassaweb. Since I have finished the basement as something of a Pub, I have a little TV mounted in a corner above the bar. I am about to split the signal from the digital box's output, in the same way as described above for the whole house, so that both the larger TV and the "bar TV" can be driven by the one digital tuner - the digital box output to the TV is analog. There is one very important issue to remember when playing "cable guy": Avoid putting an amplified splitter, or even a cheap splitter, in-line between your digital (or phone) gear and the outside world! These digital devices are bi-directional and the amplifier is essentially a capacitor that will block all but 60Hz(+/-) and will typically not allow return signals to pass. Sometimes, a cheap splitter's internal configuration is such that the return signal is degraded so much that it too is essentially blocked. (Anyone who has had trouble using BSRs to control lights or other appliances working on some outlets in the home, but not others, is fighting a similar issue with the circuit panel being the culprit). You can buy cable amps that will accommodate digital devices, but a good splitter was less expensive the last time I checked. And one last tidbit... As of July (?) of this year, cable providers are now required to allow you to purchase the digital box if you don't want to pay a monthly rental fee. I'm not sure if you can be restricted to the one being provided by the cable provider, or if they are required to support any digital tuner the customer may have... This could be a savings if you have several TVs because the typical monthly fee for a digital box is ~$8/month, or ~ 100/yr. Later, Steve On 9/15/07, Frank Sweetser <fs(a)wpi.edu> wrote: the you for the that Mencken -- Stephen C. Daukas Engineer, Geoscientist, Environmental Analyst ________________________________________________ - Please, before printing, think about the environment - _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

John> Thanks to Frank and Stephen for their suggestion to try out the John> Analog side anyway, maybe I'll still have basic analog on there. And I do! Cackle cackle cackle! Of course, I won't be surprised if sometime down the line, Analog cable get shut off when they convert everywhere to pure digital feeds... :] Thanks again guys, life is pretty good now. John _______________________________________________ Wlug mailing list Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug

Analog broadcasts (OTA, Cable, satellite) end Feb 17, 2009 as far as I know. If you have other info, please point to it. Thanks. http://www.dtv.gov/consumercorner.html#whatisdate Clint

Is anyone in the group using gtkpod (iPod GUI) on Ubuntu 6.06 or 7.04?

I installed the gtkpod package yesterday on Ubuntu 6.06 and hooked up my son Dan's iPod Nano using its USB cable. The iPod icon appeared on desktop automatically. I checked, using mount command, to see if /media/ipod was mounted read-write, and it appeared to be. I started gtkpod and was able to completely read the contents of the iPod, all

songs. So far, so good. But, when I tried, as an experiment, to create

new playlist using gtkpod, and write that change onto the iPod, I got several error messages about write failures due to a read-only

Anyone had a similar experience? Any fix or workaround out there?

I'm considering either finding another open source iPod utility, something other than gtkpod, or upgrading to Ubuntu 7.04.

My ultimate goal is to 1) Transfer all the songs from the iPod to the Ubuntu laptop,

2) Reformat the iPod for use with iTunes running under Vista,

3) Transfer all the songs from Ubuntu back to the iPod. I think I can do steps 1 and 2, but so far, step 3 is a problem. And until I'm

confident that I can write all Dan's songs *back* onto his iPod, I won't try reformatting it.

Why, you might ask, don't you just use the Apple eBook that originally wrote (via iTunes) to Dan's iPod? 'Cause that device now sits in my daughter Abby's dorm room 400 miles West of here (R.I.T.).

They are required to *try*. Also, my neighborhood is all underground lines, so I only need to worry about the other umpteen miles of wires in the air going down.