Hey, guys. Been awhile since I posted here, but a minor, though irritating problem has cropped up and I figured, this is the place to ask. The short version is: Could my ACS be frying my cable co's eMta? Long version: I have had the cable company out twice because of noise on their fake phone line coming from the modem/gateway thing. Each time they come out, they hear the noise, isolate it to the gateway, and then replace it. The noise will be gone for a few months, then start to return. It isn't terribly objectionable, although with the last gateway it had gotten really bad. It sounds like a slight hiss on the line. The internal wiring of the house is fine, the problem is definitely in the gateway itself. I have no issues with the two OOMA devices providing DT for two other lines on the partner, or the Sipura/Linksys ATA's connected to the collectors network (C*net). All those lines are dead quiet. If I swap the noisy line for one of the others, the noise follows the line, and if I plug a 2500 set right into the gateway I hear the hiss. Sorry if this is long winded, but I wanted to be thorough. My question basically is: Could the partner be causing this? Is this an issue anyone has seen before? Also, all my lines go right from the device (eMta, ATA, OOMA, etc.) right into the partner. Nothing is bridged in between.

**EDIT: I replaced my processor finally so this is NOT the one that had the damaged board that I was using previously.

Hey Chris,

I have my doubts that this is a Partner ACS issue. The proof would be to do the line swap for an extended period of time to see if the trouble follows the port or stays with the line.

End of story. The problem is not yours. And, no, the ACS wouldn't/couldn't cause the problem.

-Hal

Dex and Hal: That's what I thought, as well. My concern is this: I want to stop paying the cable company rent for this gateway. If I buy my own eMta, I want to be sure it isn't going to have the same fate as the the past gateways. My gateway. If anyone has had any experience with this model maybe you are aware of known issues. The model I'm looking to replace just the voice portion with is this one: Arris modem. Any thoughts?

Dunno. This is Comcast? Where I am (Cablevision) the emta comes with the service. I'm not sure if I could even supply my own and even if they would let me they make changes all the time. So if the emta were mine I would be responsible for replacing it each time.

So my opinion is as long as they own it, if it craps out it's their problem. Don't make it yours.

-Hal

Sorry sir, we do not guarantee quality. You will need to figure that out for yourself.

They provided this thing, and certainly it's their problem if it craps out. That being said, it definitely isn't free with the service. They hose me with a rental fee every month for that contraption. They seem to be pretty good about coming out and "troubleshooting" when I complain. They just end up replacing the thing whenever it has an issue. I've had them out twice for the phone part of the thing, and a few other times for the data end of it.(Since it's also the modem/router/firewall/ethernet switch/wifi-ap/voice ata/kitchen sink etc.) One time the ethernet ports crapped out, another time the wifi got so weak you had to stand within 5 feet to get a signal. The list goes on and on. They, to comcast's credit, have been really good about coming out quickly and taking care of it. That *kind of* makes renting it worth the extra money, but we're talking about enough in rent to buy the stupid thing every year or so. If I could get them to give me a separate voice modem instead of the all in one box, that would be sort of alright. At least that way when it dies and they replace it, I won't have to reprogram the router with all our passwords and port forwarding stuff for c*net and assigned IP's and all that.
** Comcast charges us rent every month for each cable box, DVR, and modem they provided. Seems pretty lame you pay every month for cable service, and have to rent their equipment on top of it. They do allow you to buy your own modems and voice modems, but they have to be "Comcast Approved" and the list of approved modems is pretty thin. The fact that they charge me ten bucks a month for my set top box really burns me. It's not enough that I pay the regular charge every month to have the service, then I have to rent this box because I can't use the service without it. Crooks. Hence why I wanted to save the 10+ bucks a month on the damn modem.

Comcast has got to be the worst. At least Cablevision gives you the emta with the voice or internet service. You also get one set top box with TV service, each additional is like $6/mo. HD is included- does Comcast still charge extra for HD?

-Hal

Verizon charges extra for an HD box.

Yeah, they charge extra for HD boxes and even more for the X1 stuff. We have the X1 DVR, and the special set top boxes to access the DVR from other sets are more to rent than the regular HD boxes. We are paying close to $50 a month just in equipment rental. It's absurd. 1 X1 DVR box, 3 X1 slave boxes, the gateway, and one HD adapter- which is just a little cable box with no features. It really ticks me off, which is why I'd just as soon buy my own emta and modem/router. We really don't have any other options. Fairpoint is the LEC and they stink. They have no fiber here, which is stupid considering Manchester is the biggest city in NH. All they offer is DSL - when it decides to work. Satellite doesn't make any sense, we still have to get internet from somewhere. Comcast really has the city by the b@!!$. If FP had it together, at least fiber would be a viable option. We just can't get by with DSL speeds. It's a little bizarre, I can see the fiber overlashed to the huge copper osp out front, but they don't do anything with it. It's everywhere through the city, but from what I can tell, no subscribers are connected to it. Someone was telling me it dates to when Verizon had this area, and FP is too broke to finish it. I'm a firm believer that you need to spend money to make money. They would stand to make a lot more income utilizing all that fiber than they are ever going to make on that ancient copper. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather have a copper voice line any day, but around here providing internet and other services is where the money is at.

DVR is on Cablevision's servers. No special boxes required, access DVR from any box or the internet. Just $11/mo for DVR service. Every time I hear about Comtastic I feel better about Cablevision, if that's possible.

-Hal

Comcast is moving in that direction. As it is, the DVR doesn't work during any kind of internet outage. It would make a hell a lot more sense if they would go completely in that direction. Why have the hard drive in the house if you can't access it when there's any kind of network glitch? Now that I think about it, I think with the X1 service they include 1 or two boxes as part of the package, so I may have been wrong about the rental amount I quoted before. Still, I do know that we pay per month for the router/gateway. So if I can cut the bill a little that way, I'd still like to. Not to mention, with a separate emta, I can put the emta in the phone closet, and have the router in a location that will give the wifi decent coverage.

All I have from Cablevision is the emta- cable from the street in and 4 POTS lines out and an ethernet port. I provide my own router and wifi access point. They will provide a router/wifi piece of junk if the customer wants it though. They also supply a decent router if you order static IPs. What does Comcast provide for commercial customers? They would have no use for what they supply you.

-Hal

I am a little vague on what comcast supplies commercial customers. In two instances I know of, one being at a local pub I do some side work for, and the other at a friend's car detailing shop, they have provided what seems like the identical gateway to what I have here at home. There are some different firewall settings and the default LAN IP range is different. Besides a that and a different default login, I really don't see any difference. Same four gigabit ethernet ports, two phone lines, and two USB ports that are disabled anyway.(They do still have the +5 volts, so I guess you could charge your kindle while waiting for the service man.) I think a static IP is standard for business class, but I could be wrong. They charge way more for business internet than residential, and functionally I can't tell the difference. The only thing I do notice is that these two business choose to get the slower tier of speed since it's prohibitively expensive to get the faster tiers. My friend at the car detailing shop has maybe 3-5 Mbps down and 1 up, the bar is 25/5 I think. I told my friend at the detailing shop, he should have gone with DSL. At least he would have gotten close to 10 megs for the same price he pays for 3 now. And because he is a business, they refuse to let him have a residential package. All he uses it for is to check email and schedule appointments, he doesn't need much. But they are raping him and he doesn't have anything but the internet, no phone, no tv. At least with DSL, fairpoint would have tossed in a voice line for cheap. The bar has internet, tv and phone, but interestingly enough, the phone comes in on a separate emta instead of the all in one thing. They have the 25/5 because they have a public hot spot, and they stream most of their music. They only have a DJ a couple nights a week. Plus they use one of those hosted POS systems. I hate the POS system, but that's the way they wanted to go. I just keep the infrastructure working right. I also set up the firewalls so the public WIFI can share the internet connection with the registers and people cant get into them with their tablets and smartphones. SO STUPID that a commercial POS system would have a web based GUI that any idiot who can figure out the IP address can get into. Like I said, not my idea.

They probably had the Comcast tech set up the network so that's what happens if you don't want to pay your own guy. Of the few IT guys I know none will deal with the junk that the cable company (or Verizon) provides.

-Hal

The public Wi-Fi should be on a network that can't access any other computers or POS devices onsite.

The POS devices should have a password to keep employees from monkeying with them.

Yes, exactly. Just another example of Comcast's greed. When Cablevision provides a public access point it is connected to its own completely separate emta off a splitter on the cable drop.

I think the only way to solve your problems, Chris, is for you to move about 400 miles South to another cable system.

-Hal

I'd love to move south. It's COLD up here. Comcast didn't set up their public WIFI, I did. Every install comcast does, anywhere, comes with 2 seperate networks. One is the customer's to do with what he pleases, and the other is WIFI only, and the SSID shows up as "XFINITY-WIFI". The problem is, you have to have an account with comcast to use it because you have to log in using your account name and password. If you aren't a comcast customer, you can't use it. Talk about greed! The problem was that they were just handing out their wifi password to the same network the POS system was on, thinking they SHOULD have been password protected. What I did was put the POS system behind it's own firewall and add a separate WIFI AP, behind its own firewall. There is no access in either direction now and all the firewalls have a strong password that only the owner knows. I did know, but I've since forgotten. The public WIFI does have a password to keep the mooches off, but it's simple enough for the customers to remember. There has been no problems since I set it up that way. It's a little cumbersome, but it beats paying comcast to set it up and maintain a second modem/router. Besides, the range on the AP I installed FAR exceeds anything comcast provides. There are no other computers onsite other than the POS terminals. Usually they just connect their phone or tablet to the WIFI and plug it into the sound system and stream pandora or something like that to provide music when there's no DJ. When the DJ comes in, he uses his laptop to play the music through the sound system in the DJ booth. He's on the WIFI in case he needs to download a strange request, but his computer goes with him when he leaves. The employees have minimal access to be able to monkey with the POS system. The terminals themselves are set up to not allow anyone into their settings unless they have the owners password.(From the terminal itself) The backdoor was just going into a browser on the same network and punching in the IP of the terminal into the address bar. The firewalls took care of that.

Well, same with Cablevision except that you can register your devices to the system and they will automatically connect whenever you are within range of a wifi "hotspot". Cablevision doesn't charge to install an access point and in fact solicits businesses to allow then to install them. This is in addition to the outdoor APs they have in the business districts, etc. Matter of fact when my network goes down in my house my wireless devices connect to their wifi. Not real close and not as fast but it does work.

-Hal

Business district AP's?! That'll be the day in this neck of the woods. Maybe in a larger city, comcast might do something like that, but they definitely haven't done anything like that around here. In towns not served by comcast in NH, they have metrocast. My regular boss has them and they are great to deal with and in his office they asked him if they could install a public hot-spot. He agreed, and they installed a separate modem and AP just for that. Amazing what can happen when a company's first motivation ISN'T greed. Oh, you don't have to be a metrocast customer to use the hotspot, either.

Update:
I was given an emta with battery backup, for free, and I set out to get it activated with comcast. After spending half an hour speaking to someone who barely spoke english, they tell me it's an additional charge to bring your own modem!! Freaking CROOKS! It's 10 bucks a month to rent the one they provide, or 10 bucks a month service charge to use your own! Unbelievable. Now I have a great emta with a good battery in it, and I can't use it. Good thing it was free. I hate comcast. Before anyone says, "But, if you return theirs and use yours it evens out.....", I need to keep theirs for internet. Stupid all in one gizmo. Comcast really Tee's me off!