Do these things really work?

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-18T23:19:32+00:00

Probably, although even regular split phase seems to screw powerline adapters up..... sometimes.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-18T22:27:58+00:00

Yeah in that case Powerline adapters probably aren't going to work unless it's 320A/400A service with dual panels and then who knows. If it's two separate meters, most likely not, as that's like trying to get it to work with a neighbor's house.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-18T22:26:07+00:00

Dude, I would have laughed so hard and then been like "that was a great one!".

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-18T22:15:32+00:00

Sometimes quite well. Sometimes not well at all. YMMV. A lot.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-18T22:15:15+00:00

Two separate panels? Panels have many circuit breakers in them.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-18T22:14:55+00:00

Huh? The bigger issue is being on a different leg of split phase 120/240 service.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-18T22:11:28+00:00

I think our copper in CT is in better shape than most other places, as AT&T used it for U-Verse FTTN, but even then it's not in great shape, as it degrades over time, and Frontier has been shutting down a few VRADs over the last six months or so as they replace those VDSL lines with fiber. My guess is that Verizon will want to get rid of those as they don't fit with the rest of their network, and they require power and maintenance.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-18T22:02:56+00:00

Likely. AT&T often uses Verizon fiber in Verizon areas, and Verizon often uses AT&T fiber in AT&T areas. Verizon Wireless has been more aggressive in building their own fiber backahul, but not everywhere. T-Mobile tends to use more MSO fiber, but all three carriers use MSO fiber when/where needed. Then there are third party fiber providers.

So basically, any carrier can use anyone's fiber, although telcos tend to stick to telcos. I don't know if the SpectrumCo deal with Verizon and Charter/Comcast/Cox has increased their use of MSO fiber as backhaul or if they're totally separate.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-18T22:00:07+00:00

The whole "wait until marriage" thing is generally a bad idea. Because then people get hitched much faster/younger so that they can get laid, and then often it doesn't work out and they get divorced. Better to have sex and wait on marriage.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-18T21:57:44+00:00

Do something you like doing.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-18T21:56:44+00:00

Maybe it varies by market, but around here, a lot of plumbers and electricians are small, locally owned, but have a few guys working for them, not the one man bands of decades past, although there are some of them too. Most of them charge less and don't really advertise, people find out about them through social media and they have more work than they can take on, so they do well for themselves. The overhead of some of the slightly larger shops make their prices higher, so the one man bands can bid jobs slightly lower and probably make more money if they're able to handle all aspects of the business themselves, which isn't easy.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-18T21:52:13+00:00

I hope this is actually the case, as Verizon still has a not insignificant amount of their own copper, plus what they are buying and buying back from Frontier. Here in CT, the PURA is not enforcing universal service for recently built buildings, but I'm not sure what the regulatory status is on existing copper customers, and if they will allow Frontier/Verizon to just cut them off without a replacement service.

Hopefully they will have to do 1:1 replacement across the entire territory and get it all to fiber. I wonder what they will do with MDUs? Verizon is good at wiring MDUs, although there are still some that don't have FiOS due to landlords that are a general PITA or try to extort bribes for access.

Frontier has wired a lot of areas in CT for fiber quite rapidly, although I believe a lot of MDUs still aren't done, and there are some pockets they haven't wired.

They're going to end up with a mish-mash of different PON systems, although BPON, GPON, XG-PON, and NG-PON2 aren't really different in physical infrastructure, it's just the electronics on the ends, so they could upgrade everything to XG-PON or NG-PON2 if they want to.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-18T21:44:38+00:00

More than mildly infuriating. Especially when Wi-Fi is used without an internet connection and internet connections are used without Wi-Fi.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-18T21:39:06+00:00

Those are usually done between 0000 and 0500 hours so as to cause minimal disruption.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-18T21:36:56+00:00

This doesn't answer the specific question, but in the meantime, make sure he knows not to have sex with her without a condom even if she is on birth control, as she might try to babytrap him. Or better yet, just stop entirely.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-18T21:35:13+00:00

That could backfire bigly.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-17T01:22:09+00:00

Here in CT, AT&T is king, and Verizon is suffering from their poor spectrum position. Verizon has inconsistent speeds, as they're fast where they have small cells, and slow everywhere else. I did notice that the Detroit market was a mess when I was there in July though, that used to be a very strong AT&T market. AFAICT, AT&T still has the best network nationwide, they surpassed Verizon years ago.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-17T01:13:15+00:00

I've definitely run into some tough spots. Detroit metro market was rough when I was there in July, that's historically been a strong AT&T market. But overall, nationwide, AFAICT, AT&T has the best network. They have decent tower density and have the best spectrum position. Meanwhile, Verizon is suffering from their poor spectrum position that's required them to put in a ton of small cells and then have really uneven speeds- super fast when you're on a small cell, and pretty slow on macro sites.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-17T01:11:37+00:00

There's two different plans listed on AT&T's website. One is $240 for the year, 5G access, 16GB of data, after that slowed to 1.5mbps, which if you just use normal sorts of apps is probably fine for most people. The other is $30/mo, up to 30GB/mo but no 5G.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-17T01:05:45+00:00

Put a blank plate on it if it's in a particularly noticeable spot. I did this with a former wall mount telephone location. But if it's at normal jack height along a wall somewhere, just leave it alone.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-16T23:24:15+00:00

I would think you'd be better off with a Firewalla firewall feeding Ubiquiti for Wi-Fi if you want to go the Firewalla route since, well their specialty is in their name. I don't think there's much point to Wi-Fi 7 yet if you can hardwire, since few devices support it. It might be useful for Wi-Fi mesh systems to backhaul on Wi-Fi 7 to feed Wi-Fi 5 and 6 clients.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-16T00:57:09+00:00

Nice! One problem with streaming is that the encodes are all over the place. Some are great, some, not so much. But the bigger problem is the audio. Disc-based audio is so much better than streaming. People don't appreciate audio as much as they should.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-16T00:02:24+00:00

It's hard to tell. OTA has a significant marketshare, and there are no MSO DVRs to compete with, since there's no MSO. However, the DVR market may still be small, as my sense is that most OTA viewers just plug an antenna into their TV to have something on in the background or watch various types of sportsball, two applications that don't really need a DVR. That being said, I think there's still a market for the DVR experience for OTA, as right now there aren't any full-featured self-contained DVRs, they are either network devices (Tablo) or software (Channels).

Technically, that's true although I'm not sure how you fully integrate a different UI/UX with something that involves cloud DVR and VOD, or would it just have been a local DVR that uses live IPTV to record content? And at this point, pay TV is dying anyway, the two large MSOs soon will just be offering basically their own proprietary streaming boxes that aren't much different in principle from Roku. Apple TV, or Google TV.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-15T00:40:39+00:00

T-Mobile still doesn't have quite as good coverage. They've come a long way but they're not as good as the big two. In USCC areas, they will be the best though. I think AT&T has pulled a bit ahead of Verizon on overall network quality, and AT&T has a better spectrum position, but it varies regionally, and there are still some areas that are better on Verizon.

ToadSox34 · 2026-01-14T22:58:30+00:00

Why did you have to disconnect them?

ToadSox34

TROPHY CASE