I used to work at a telecommunications company (different state, not comcast) and will offer my 2 cents. On 7/24/06, Chuck Cole <cncole at earthlink.net> wrote: > > These questions are almost on-topic since they deal with techie parts of > how we choose to connect sometimes... :-) > > > > 1) do cable modems have very different sensitivity or dynamic range > specs? > Yes I've seen different modems stay connected at lower ranges than other modems. Problem: My old linksys BEFCMU10 (no version number) occasionally suffers > from too low a signal and I must either wait until Charter's signal rises > some, or remove the power splitter allowing my TV and cable modem each to > get signal. The cable modem is normally attached after two two-port > splitters, and removing one is enough to get adequate signal level on "bad > days at Charter". Both spillters are pretty new and adequate. > Ok I'll give you a quick rundown on the spliiter level dropping thing. Everytime you put a splitter in the way you will drop the signal and make it more difficult for your modem to chat with comcast. So there is both an upstream and downsteam going on. Having a homerun (Comcast connection -> two way split -> (Modem, TV's) ) is the best to keep a great signal level with your modem. There is a chance that the signal hitting your house is not sufficient and that is why you keep getting dropped. In that case it's a line tech that will need to climb a pole and adjust some amps to fix your signal issue. More signal could create noise and whanot, so maybe they are truely unable to do anything about it. Or they just haven't checked lately. I'm not sure how the cable companies do it around here. Questions: > > 1a) Charter says they can read what my modem "sees" as signal level. That > would account for all path losses (if true). Can I read this somehow so I > could tell whether the Charter signal is marginal? > There ususally is a diagnostic page accessable using a stardard web browser pointed to the modem's ip. I'd search the manufacturers website or the almighty google to find that and the username password if there is any. Also keep in mind that this number is not always correct. I had to use a meter to read the signal at the modem and on some cable modem brands it would read high or low or just be plain wrong. 1b) Is this old Linksys cable modem known to have problems? > I do not know. In the area where I used to troubleshoot modems we had some brands that would work great for us, but terrible on the competitor. So it may all depend on the company and thier setup. 1c) Is the Motorola Surfboard SB5100 any better? I have one of those also, > but have never used this one. The SB5120 is current for Comcast. > I would try to find out what people are experiencing with comcast. A good source would be their better technicians that do higher level troubleshooting with cable modems. 2) Roughly how big is a "cell" for cell phones? Actually a hard question to > ask because I'm curious about the "effective size" of a cell in the midst of > a planned cell coverage, and the criteria of size is the approximate point > where the phone makes a logical switch from one cell to the next as one > signal fades but hasn't dropped out, but the next is stronger. > > > > 3) An ad for the Verizon Razr phone sez GPS, video, & music > > 3a) does it actually have storage for offline videos and music or just > keep web links for these things? Seems like too much memory is needed. > > 3b) Is it a full and independent GPS or a partial implementation (like a > Winmodem) using some unique cell network data? > > ie, if I had such a phone and took it to the Boundary Waters where there > is no signal, can I play stored videos and music and use the GPS or some or > all of that dead when out of range? > > > > Chuck > > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20060724/a7a413e0/attachment.htm