Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Improving the DSL and Almost a Full Moon

When we are in Tucson, we cut our Verizon data plan back to the bare minimum, and suspend the Jetpack.  4G in South Tucson is abysmal.  The RV park power pedestals have phone jacks, thus we can get DSL. In order to get the promotional rate last November, we had to sign up for a one year period; however, we were also allowed to suspend service for 6 months when we left for the summer.  Originally they told us we'd have to pay $10/month while suspended, but I called back, got a different person on the phone who gave it to me for $1/month during the summer.  We get DSL through Century Link.  What we have learned is that if you don't like the first number they give you, keep calling until you get a number you do like.  The absolute miracle of this was that I plugged in the modem yesterday and it worked.  I would not have predicted that.
Anyway, our 40 Mbps was feeling very sluggish.   A speed test showed it running at 25 Mbps.  I called technical support and they confirmed my diagnosis.  It's interesting that they know we're not getting 40, but they don't act on that information.  Anyway, they dispatched a tech guy who was supposed to arrive between 9 am and 1 pm today.  He was here at 8:45.  How often does that happen?  We had two problems.  Our phone line from the power pedestal to the bus is old, and it needed to be replaced.  The second issue was this box.  The one wire from the outside comes in and is split to the various phone jacks in the bus.  He had us unplug 3 of the 4 wires.  Apparently, to get the 40 Mbps the signal needs a straight shot to the modem.  So, in the unlikely event that your DSL is running slowly, these are two trouble shooting tips for you. And so ends my technical discussion for today.
After the tech left, I called customer loyalty and got a new, better price for the DSL while we're here.


The full moon tonight was spectacular.  As the moon rose higher than the dust layer in the air we could see the seas of the moon.


Last night the wind direction changed to a southerly and it was much warmer than yesterday.  We got the lights up on the palm tree and around the concrete pad.  Then there was a run to Target and a massive grocery shopping.  It's still feeling a little surreal to be here and not in Utah.  Tomorrow will either be bike or hike depending on wind speed.

1 comment:

  1. Tee hee -- I would have thought I'd died and gone to heaven with 25 Mbps! We had DSL at our summer rental in Walla Walla, and it was supposed to be 1.5 Mbps (yes you read that right!), but we were only getting .5 (yes, that's POINT five) Mbps download. The owner wouldn't do anything about it as he didn't want to pay more. It was one of the only things we didn't like about our summer in Washington. 25 Mbps would be a dream come true! Even here in Mexico we have over 5 Mbps download -- tenfold better than in WW. Amazing!

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