Rottweilers Ate My Laptop

Rottweilers. Computers. Cameras. World Domination. Not necessarily in that order.

Rottweilers.
Computers. Cameras.
World Domination.
Not necessarily in that order.

Update: CLEAR 4G Wireless Internet

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You might have seen where I started a free trial of CLEAR’s 4G Wireless Internet service at the beginning of the Fourth of July weekend, when our Comcast cable internet had some downtime (once again, contrary to the phone support person’s opinion, the problem was not our modem).

I’m happy to report that the two-week trial period of CLEAR’s On-the-Go mobile service went very well. The software installation was quick and super easy on all of the laptops we wanted to test: two running Windows Vista, one running Windows XP, and one running Mac OS X Snow Leopard. We tested service in several locations in the city of Chicago and in a few suburban areas. I can report that signal strength and speed were good in the spots where we would most need to use the service. My husband and I both liked the service enough to keep it, so the service was upgraded to a 2 On-the-Go bundle.

During our trial period, I also took some time to check out comments online from other Chicago area CLEAR users. Most of the negative reviews seemed to be about the home service or weather-related downtime. My only experience with the home service is in the Honolulu market, where my mom has used it for almost three years. When we helped her set it up, modem position in relation to the windows and electronic equipment in the room was very important. We have not personally had those issues with the mobile modems in Chicago. We also had several stormy days during the trial period, and our connectivity did not appear to be affected.

CLEAR’s home service is not yet available at our address, so we will also be keeping Comcast cable internet unless we find a better solution. We will most likely cancel our other wireless internet service as soon as that contract expires.

I also want to mention Marcos, the sales associate I spoke to at CLEAR’s Harlem-Irving Plaza kiosk. He was friendly, professional, and very quick in getting me set up and on my way, both in my initial visit and when I went back to upgrade to the 2 On-the-Go bundle.

So far, I’m a satisfied new CLEAR customer, and also glad that Comcast has given us no problems since the outage I mentioned at the beginning of the post.

I have not received compensation for this review, and neither I nor my husband has any connection to CLEAR except as paying customers. Our CLEAR contract is at the standard rates and promotions offered in the Chicago metro area during July 2010.

(NaBloPoMo | July ’10: 21 of 31)

First impressions: CLEAR 4G Wireless Internet

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I actually did have a topic planned for today, but since our Comcast high speed internet went down as I started to write, that topic has been shelved for a bit so I can give you my first impression of CLEAR’s 4G High Speed Mobile 4G Wireless Broadband service.

CLEAR is a relatively new player in the Chicago area, and we’ve been receiving promotional mailings for some time. The most recent one mentioned some special package rates, and also a 14-day free trial period. Since the Comcast service was so thoughtful as to go down while the mall was still open, it seemed like a good time to start the free trial with CLEAR.

This is actually sort of a second look, because Mom has had CLEAR service in Honolulu for almost three years now. At the time we set it up for her, the company was still called Clearwire and the service had not yet been upgraded to 4G WiMAX (that happened in January).

I decided to test the On-the-Go mobile internet because we have another provider’s mobile service contract expiring in December. I was given a 4G Mobile USB modem that will work with both PC and Mac. I’m testing it right now on my Sony VAIO laptop running Vista. Setup was super easy, as promised. So far, so good. Speeds are listed as up to 6Mbps down/1Mbps up; I don’t think I’m getting a full 6Mbps at the moment but it’s pretty healthy. I’m watching a YouTube video in another window and I’m not getting any unwanted skipping or pausing.

Back to Comcast for a second. We’ve had a lot of very brief periods of downtime this week, and today the service was down for about five hours. Every time I call Comcast when the internet service is down, they tell me that my modem is the problem. So far, it has never ended up being the problem, and it gets really annoying to be told it’s the modem when I’m usually 99% sure it is not. Including tonight. Only once did I get a support person who acknowledged that it might actually be a problem on the network and hunted it down.

When the service is working, it’s very speedy, though.

We’ll see how this trial goes, and hopefully it will help us make a good decision on whether to keep Comcast for home and switch to CLEAR for mobile only, or switch to CLEAR for both home and mobile. If you’ve tried both Comcast and CLEAR, please leave a comment with your thoughts and experiences!

(NaBloPoMo | July ’10: 2 of 31)

Call back until you get the smart person

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Almost every time I’ve called with a connection problem to my past DSL provider (Earthlink) or current cable internet provider (Comcast), they have tried to tell me that my modem was the problem. The modem has never, not even once, turned out to be the actual problem. When I left Earthlink earlier this year, my original modem was almost 10 years old and still working.

In all cases but one, the problem was somewhere on their network, well before my house. In the other case, the problem was in the NID box (the phone company network interface device) mounted on the outside of my house.

Today I called Comcast twice as our high-speed internet connection went out this morning. The first rep I spoke to told me that they aren’t always able to see network outages on their screens and that it must be my modem anyway because she was unable to reset it from her end. I pointed out to her that the last two times I called, I had been told the same thing and both times it turned out to be something on the network. She offered to set up a service call and said the first spot available was on Monday. Since neither Dan or I would be able to be home for any Monday slot, I said I’d call back.

When I called back, I got a different rep, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to tell the whole story yet again, including the part about the modem not being a problem in the past. Much different response. He tried to reset my modem from his end and could not. But, unlike the first rep, he heard and comprehended what I said about suspecting a network problem, and actually made the effort to check to see if there was in fact a problem on the network. And there was. There was a problem in a junction box somewhere in my area, and it was affecting a few other customers as well. He said he would have a truck sent out to the junction box, and also set up a service call for me in case the junction box was not the only problem. He was able to find a Sunday slot open for us (so there was a cancellation in the 10 minutes it took for Dan and me to discuss which Tuesday time slot would work for us? Possible, I guess, but I bet the first rep never even checked weekend slots) as well.

About twenty minutes later, our connection was back up. I called to cancel the service call a couple of hours ago as it’s obviously not needed.

I just wonder why the first rep made no effort to even check for a network problem. Was her statement correct about not being able to see network outage information? If so, why not? Why was the second rep able to check and see a whole lot of information that led to a correct solution to the problem? The second rep sounded quite a bit older and infinitely techier than the first rep, but shouldn’t everyone answering calls for high-speed internet connection problems either have access to the same information, or be smart enough to pass the call to someone who does have the correct information?

My problem is solved for now, but I hate to think that I’ll always have to keep calling until the smart person answers, rather than be able to expect a smart person on the other end no matter when I call. I guess I should just be glad that they’re not outsourced.

(NaBloPoMo | August ’09: 22 of 31 | 75% Challenge: 210 of 274)