The Intratubes Be Very, Very Strange

The campground here has Wi-Fi with 4 antennas in various locations. Because we are using the Wi-Fi for our internet, it seems the Wi-Fi doesn't have a definite location. When I sign into my blog and look at the little globe thingee, it says Farmington, MO. When we are watching shows on Hulu it will have a station logo for an Atlanta station down in one corner. When we are at home it will have a local station logo when we are watching an ABC show.

It's possible that because this is a state park the internet hookup is statewide and therefore doesn't have a location. Maybe the various things are using info stored in my laptop to come up with locations. It's still weird that here we are in Missouri and the intratubes are acting like we are in GA.

Bad News

Had bad news this morning when we got up. NO INTERNET!! Had a bad thunderstorm this morning and the modem got fried. Called tech support, couldn't fix it over the phone, brought the modem in to tech support at the phone company and they checked it out, it was shot. Got another modem, brought it home, plugged it in and still no intratubes. Called tech support again and explained the modem was working but not thru the router. Finally after rebooting modem, router and resetting modem got the system back up and running. Otherwise wouldn't be using my laptop to post this.


Usually something gets posted on a blog and then the blogger puts it on facebook.  I put this on facebook and then did a copy and paste job to my blog.

Over Logging
Get More: SOUTH
PARKmore...

"40 seconds a day, how am I going to watch internet porn that way???"

A friend on facebook gave me the link to this video.

The Protection Was The Problem

For almost a year now we have been watching TV via the intratubes after the antenna blew down. Since we got back from Tejas last month we have been having problems with streaming TV shows and movies on Hulu and Netflix.  The other week I called tech support for our internet service and explained how the video would freeze and buffer several times during a video of a TV show.  He upped the speed a little and it worked a little better but not like it did when we started watching online last year.  At times the speed was a little over 4000kbps when it was working good.

Last weekend it became almost impossible to watch anything online. Ran a speed test on Friday nite and on Saturday evening.  The screen shot above is the result after over the 15 minutes it took to run the test which should only take seconds. It would stop for minutes at a time with no activity.  On my laptop that I use to hook-up to the TV, there is an icon for Wi-Fi and at times if I put the cursor on it, it would say no internet service.  The test confirmed to me that the internet connection wasn't there all the time.  For awhile I thought maybe the modem was faulty and after being on for some time would shut down because it seemed like we had the most problems later in the evening when the modem had been on for many hours.

Above is another screen shot of a test I ran last weekend. (I think with dial-up the speed would be faster!!) Then Monday morning we had NADA, no internet whatsoever.  Called tech support again, and first was told to unplug the filter as I had both the modem and a phone plugged into the phone jack.  Then I mentioned I had the line going thru a surge protector on a power strip.  When I unplugged from the surge protector and ran the phone line straight to the modem the lights started blinking and we had an internet connection again.  Was told that they don't recommend using a surge protector because they cause problems. What I thought would protect things was what was causing the problem!!

This is a screen shot of a test I ran last night.  I didn't know that speed was possible with the service we have.  It is 3-4 times as fast as what we are supposed to have.

Saturday night I was frustrated trying to watch the NASCAR All-Star race.  Yesterday I found out it was just as well I didn't see all of it as Jimmie Johnson won it.(My favorite drivers are anybody that puts Jimmie Johnson or Jeff Gordon out of the race or finish out of the running.)

The Antenna Blowing Down Probably Was The Best Thing That Happened to My TV Viewing

 This photo shows the antenna as it looked summer of 2010.  I was only able to get two channels(5 AND 13) that totaled to 5 because channel 5 had two, CW and ABC and channel 13 had 3 PBS.  Those were my choices ever since the switch to digital in 2009.  First I was able to get channel 13 and a couple of months later channel 5 was there.

Last June the antenna blew down one morning.  I didn't think to get a picture of it, was too busy taking it apart so it wouldn't cause damage to the house like breaking the window.

As we were planning living here permanently we had the landline and intratubes hooked up already.  At that time we still had cable in Hot-Lanta so I was able to watch TV shows online thru the cable website and we had Netflix.  I also had checked out Hulu(Hulu has shows from ABC, NBC, and Fox, but not CBS.  I get CBS shows from their website.) when I heard about it about a year before.  So I had many more options after the antenna blew down than I did with the antenna.  The only thing I missed was some of the live stuff like NFL football and NASCAR.( Altho, with only those channels available, I wouldn't have been able to watch NFL football or NASCAR  anyway, other than a couple races later in the year on ABC.)   Then last Fall heard about a site that does sports and was able to watch some football and NBC would live-stream their Sunday Night Football, including the Super Bowl.

Also missed watching the local news on TV.  Then again, I haven't been able to get local news since the switch to digital.  The station I used to watch for news hasn't come in since the switch and the one that I was able to get had shitty local news.

Then there was this on iGoogle.  When I clicked on it I was able to find many shows that were being streamed by people and put on the intratubes.  Some of them would have chat sessions along side of the show that was streaming and occasionally someone would put up a URL for another link for watching that type of show.  There's something called JustinTV that has a half dozen categories with dozens and dozens of choices.  Some involve someone using their web camera or iPhone to broadcast, but a lot are from various networks.

The biggest trouble with using these sites to watch NASCAR is that they would get shut down by the network and I would have to find another link.  Usually there is another link readily available, but some times I have to wait awhile before I can find another one.  Lately I've found an European site(last Fall I found one for football[ESPN America] that was from Europe) to watch NASCAR and it seemed better than the ones I've used before.  Yesterday I only had to change links a couple of times to watch the race.

Internut TV Update

Had several comments on my last post.  Here I'll answer them.  It wasn't so much of a powerful wind that blew down the antenna, but the combined effects of six months or more of high winds.  According to those that were here during the time I was gone, they had a lot of windy days, more than normal.  With the mast swaying back and forth, it was a case of metal fatigue that broke the pipe at one of the threads, that being the weakest part of the pipe.

Squatlo commented on the good old days pre-remote.  I guess I'm back to that as there is no remote for the confuser and when a program ends, I have to get up and go to the confuser to chose something else to watch.  Altho, my HDMI cable to connect the confuser to the TV is long(12ft) enough that I could have the confuser close enough to reach from my chair.  I have a wireless router so can use the confuser anywhere in the house.

This shows the setup for the TV, confuser and DVD player(under the confuser).  Also shows that there is still construction going on , it never ends!!

As for having the internut in the boondocks, I think it's great.  I remember 10-15yrs ago when all we had was dial-up and stuff would take forever to load.  (Turned watching porn into a chore!!)