Suddenlink Update
It's going on towards 2 months after having switched back to Suddenlink cable TV at the beginning of the year. I certainly can't say it's anything as care free as it was when I subscribed to it for 30 years or more prior to switching to Dish Network.
You'll recall we switched to Suddenlink after Dish Network raised their monthly rate, yet again, to $60.00. The sales guy told us our first bill might be around $50ish. It ended up being $65 plus change, as did our second bill. I did some back and forth online with them. Not sure if the situation is resolved as we haven't gotten our 3rd bill.
I e-mailed the sales guy who told us to contact him over any problems. He told me if it didn't get resolved to contact him. If we get another bill for $65.00, though, I think I'll just switch back to Dish until we go to broadcast and streaming TV.
I thought the hardware problem had fixed itself. Everything was fine for the first three or so days after installation, then the remote seemed to stop working. E-mailed the sales guy but he just said to go down to their office and get another remote. Okaaaay...helpful, I suppose, and I did that.
New remote didn't work so it was obviously the box. I e-mailed him again asking who should contact the service guys for a new box, him or me. He never replied. I was getting ready to just go down and get a new box when I checked the TV one last time if only so I could accurately describe the problem- what worked and what didn't. All of the sudden everything worked fine so I didn't bother getting another box.
Worked pretty good after that until a few days ago when the remote/box problem started again. I'd have to do any changes using the buttons on the box instead of using the remote, although you can still dial in individual stations by pushing the numbers on the remote.
Connie said she had it working again last night, except I'm not sure she did. I'll have to check it out.
Not impressed, so far. Dish seemed a lot less hassle so it's back to Dish if they send us another bill for $65.00.
posted by Fred Mangels @ 8:28 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
$50 Roku box
$20/month Sling TV
$8/month Hulu or Netflix or Amazon Prime
Problem solved. All of those services offer free trials and the Roku brings them to your TV with a remote.
Yep. That's what I'm planning. First I want to see how well broadcast TV works- the old fashioned way. I've heard from a few people that say it works quite well. I'll try one of those inside antennas first. That's not too expensive.
Then Roku, but I need a wifi modem as I don't want to run cable into the other room. Don't really have the money for either right now. That's why I was hoping for a cheap, teaser deal from Suddenlink for a year or so while I sort things out.
But, if they keep charging $65 a month it's not worth it. Kinda dumb to dump Dish when they were charging $60, only to go to a service that's $5.00 more.
Your modem doesn't need to be WiFi, just your router. So keep that in mind when you shop. You don't need anything robust to make it happen.
A long Ethernet cable also works, but that would plug into your router, so I assume your core issue is not owning a router. It's also a good investment because a router's firewall is your first line of defense against nogoodniks on the Internet.
Any of the $25 to $50 wireless-G routers on Amazon would work.
Wall socket > modem > wifi router > Roku (or any other wifi device)
Suddenlink has 12 months to deploy entirely new channel bundles before it loses too many customers to streaming. The success of Sling TV will spur many alternate streaming services, all of which will suck customers away from wired cable TV.
I want to use wifi because I don't want to run cables from this room to the living room where the TV is.
I'm not exactly sure of the difference between a router and modem. Is a router one of those boxes where you can run different lines from the modem to different things? If so, I think I have one but don't use it.
I just have the modem connected to this computer now. I used to have both this machine and my laptop hooked up to the modem through this box that says "Ethernet Switch" on it. Never figured out how to be able to use both systems at once with that box so gave up on it.
Most DSL and cable modems won't do Wifi. You could ask Suddenlink whether the modem they gave you does wifi.
Your 'Ethernet switch' sounds like a very old gadget for having two devices share the same Ethernet port, one at a time. It's not a router.
A router is a box that has a lot (4 to 12) Ethernet jacks. An Ethernet jack looks sort of like a jumbo telephone jack.
Your modem connects to the wall. The router connects to the modem. Every other device you want on the Internet then connects to the router, whether it's by Ethernet cable or by wifi.
So, for example, in my home, I have a desktop PC, a laptop, two cell phones, a smart TV, a Roku box, and a game console that all use wifi, connecting to the Internet through my router.
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