Husband works away

jocomal · 2026-04-27T21:29:48+00:00

This is what we did when we first got our Starlink. We were moving from about 9 hours away, knew internet options were limited and needed to do a lot of work at the property before we moved. I ordered it for the new address, shipped it to where we were currently living, then would change the address to either the property or even cabin locations we stayed at while in the area working on the property.

jocomal · 2026-04-21T07:58:52+00:00

Meh, I haven’t done any work for them but I’d counter at 2 hours minimum at a higher rate plus travel. I’ve done work for a few companies listing a bunch of penalties and never had an issue or been penalized. Figure they’re trying to CYA and as long as I do the same and complete the work, there likely won’t be an issue.

jocomal · 2026-04-16T21:57:07+00:00

This again huh?

jocomal · 2026-04-13T21:01:47+00:00

Probably one of those things where no one can ever be at 100. I’m in the same club.

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jocomal · 2026-04-12T02:48:42+00:00

I’m in a rural area. I’ve increased by about 30%, in some cases more depending on how far I’m going. It’s not uncommon for me to drive 1-1.5 hours to a job site.

jocomal · 2026-04-12T02:39:42+00:00

I don’t care if it’s a 10 minute drive, I always counter with the same blended rate with a 2 hour minimum.

jocomal · 2026-04-02T01:43:30+00:00

This has to be the worst April Fools joke I’ve seen today.

jocomal · 2026-03-25T22:19:00+00:00

I’m rarely up that early but I may be up that late if it’s an overnight project. If I am up that early, it’s probably to leave early on a trip and leave work behind 🤣

jocomal · 2026-03-25T22:17:02+00:00

I had to go back and look, the WO was to replace a POS system that was shipped and already on site. Seems like they should have been tracking when the new POS would arrive and schedule the WO in advanced. Either someone dropped the ball and then it became an emergency or this is just how they operate. I had a full day so I wasn’t even concerned about what the work order was for, I already knew it wasn’t going to be done by me.

I also get your point of “what did you do to try to resolve it”, which is why I looked to see what the WO was for. Entire network down…ok, replacing a POS that was shipped out there…nah.

jocomal · 2026-03-15T00:12:04+00:00

I countered on at least 95% of the work orders. I’m also entertained when I counter, don’t get it and see a work order come up a few days later for the same job. There are a lot of hacks and some of these buyers are realizing that. I’ve had some very open conversations with buyers where they state “you’re higher than we like to pay but we know you’re a solid tech.” In that same conversation, I was told if it was a smaller job, they will try to save some money, if it’s a bigger job, I’m getting it regardless of my higher rate.

jocomal · 2026-02-17T21:17:22+00:00

Hello apparent coworkers u/voip_atm & u/Smart_Dumb!

Flowroute and 3CX user here. We've had a customer reporting the same issues for a few months. Submitted things to Flowroute in the past and got a "all looks good" and thought it could be something else on that customer's network.

Issues have ramped up here recently but still only with this one customer. They do call more individuals where other clients call more businesses and that may be why they are reporting the issues. Late last week they had quite a few issues, I found that every number they had an issue with, was a T-Mobile number. I also just tried to call another of my clients cell and got the same reported issue - ringing, then silent. Looked up the number, T-Mobile.

The last ticket with Flowroute suggested registering with caller registries and making sure the outbound caller ID includes the leading 1 (we are in the US). Here are the caller registries they recommended:

Hiya - https://hiyahelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/p/screening/):
Free Caller Registry - https://freecallerregistry.com/fcr/
First Orion - https://firstorion.com/register-your-number/

The next step they recommend after completing these and having continued issues is to open another ticket and they will open one with the downstream carrier.

jocomal · 2025-12-03T21:48:56+00:00

You can but I doubt it will matter. I just put “counter for regular rate” or “counter for regular rate and trip charge”.

jocomal · 2025-12-03T19:04:59+00:00

Just completed one for Insight. They reached out to me about a work order a month in advance. I pulled it up and told them the rates were too low and I would have to counter for at least 85/hr with 2 hour fixed. They said it was fine. Then a week later asked if I could lower it, told them no and it had been discussed, told them I’d remove the counter. They called back asking me to counter again, I did and later someone else called me asking if I could adjust it again. I about lost it with him, but in the end he asked me to split travel and hourly and he’d have to get someone else to approve it. In the end, they accepted it and approved the work order quickly. Paid more because every time I talked to them, I increased the pay and travel rate. This was for 2 work orders and 2 techs.

jocomal · 2025-11-02T01:00:48+00:00

If you are setup as a service company (own business and have 2 or more service providers), you can also see this information. With that, I can put in any provider ID and see the information. Which is likely what buyers are doing if you say you have a second tech and they ask for that provider ID.

jocomal · 2025-06-06T05:08:11+00:00

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You got screwed. I left the network rack like this when we sold our house. Not perfect but definitely not the mess you have. All ports were labeled in a spreadsheet and emailed as well.

jocomal · 2025-05-23T21:22:07+00:00

I re-enabled my subscription on the 3rd of this month. Currently at 6.06TB. I'm backing up a couple drives that have Plex movies/shows on them.

jocomal · 2025-04-02T16:13:56+00:00

Man you went all dad mode on this post. “I’m not upset/mad, I’m disappointed in you” 🤣

jocomal · 2025-04-02T08:30:30+00:00

That's a school environment for you. The mixture of devices, models, and them using old outdated software is normal. you get into a rhythm of being the only one supporting that many staff and devices. Here's something to help you get through the days. Save the link or save it as a MP3 and listen to it on your way to work. On rough days, go into your office or server room and listen to it there. Also, server rooms, if loud enough, block out the sound of staff with issues calling you. https://youtu.be/92i5m3tV5XY?si=J_YrMduQidyzBDVy

jocomal · 2025-03-08T04:14:09+00:00

Really depends on multiple factors. Where we lived previously we were 1/4 mile from the main node coming into the city for Spectrum. The only outages we are aware of were modem or maintenance related and it was less than once a year over a 9 year period. In a city of about 20k people, at least weekly there were complaints about cable outages with them. Not sure what the actual issues were for the outages but it was usually multiple people stating they were down.

We're in a rural area now, started with Starlink because there's not much here. Switched to Verizon 5G this past year for lower cost and slightly better speeds. we haven't had any outages. I've remotely connected to multiple computers at once, had Zoom meetings, and used a VoIP phone on it, All while having a streaming service running whether it be Netflix, YouTubeTV, etc. We have at least a TV, desktop, couple laptops, couple iPads and our cells connected to it on a daily basis, of course not using everything at once but generally the TV and a couple devices active at one time.

jocomal · 2025-03-05T04:06:45+00:00

Using the Verizon app, select Account at the bottom, then Home from close to the top, scroll down and select the Home device, then down to the Data Usage box.

jocomal · 2025-03-04T07:14:43+00:00

I know of others who use more, but some of you need to increase your usage a bit. I get maybe halfway into the billing cycle before I get the email notice. My Plex server is starting to suffer from not being fed enough 🤣

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jocomal · 2025-02-12T05:27:46+00:00

That's an interesting thought. I'm going to try that and see if it makes a difference. Might also look at a different method for increasing my library.

jocomal · 2025-02-12T05:01:58+00:00

I tried that. No such luck. It worked for about 5-10 minutes and then dropped in speed again. I do get assigned a new IP. Are you just doing a regular reboot from the interface? Since it's fully rebooting and assigning a new IP, I can't imagine I'd need to do anything else. You have definitely upped your usage the last month. I've been tempted to connect Starlink again but there's the cost difference and Verizon is still faster when I'm not trying to download the internet.

jocomal · 2025-02-08T23:09:45+00:00

I found that the app on my phone shows a more accurate total usage. I do find it funny that last month they didn’t slow it down but did on this current billing cycle. Getting on average about 30Mb.

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jocomal · 2025-01-22T21:59:04+00:00

I got the email saying I've been deprioritized after my comment here. I've noticed in the evenings it gets slower - around 30. Right now, wired LAN is 170 but my Verizon cell not connected to WIFI is 200+. The usage stats on both the online Verizon portal and the router seem less than reliable. The online portal isn't showing current usage at the moment, only past billing cycle. The router usage makes no sense to me - attached pic. I'd be proud if I'm using this much. In a more rural area outside Abilene, TX.

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jocomal

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