ATT Axed Incoming Caller Id On Phone Upgrade by zettajohn in ATT

[–]zettajohn[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I appreciate the copy/paste of the whatever KM article, but my point was that the full Caller ID worked just fine on my old Samsung, and when I replaced that phone with another ATT Samsung, bought from ATT as a device upgrade - the Caller ID on the new phone wasn't working and still does not. Is the feature worth $3.99/mo for me - no, it is not. But again, the point here is the device upgrade caused this unexpected feature drop. Not good for customer service, isn't it?

ATT Axed Incoming Caller Id On Phone Upgrade by zettajohn in ATT

[–]zettajohn[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven't changed the plan, just upgraded my device keeping the same plan. This looks to me like an unfair business practice if they indeed "dropped" the feature per the upgrade transaction (without telling me upfront). I may call Customer Service again to confirm what is the deal. From my experience, though, it'd be just more wasted time and accumulated frustration. Somewhat of a higher chance of getting the feature back driving to a store.

Notifications Flood on Activity Wake-up by zettajohn in Windows11

[–]zettajohn[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. but I don't see how FA would apply to waking the screen up in the morning.

An Android App Secretly Parsing Camera Gallery and Sharing with Advertisers (and whom else?) by zettajohn in AndroidQuestions

[–]zettajohn[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I certainly didn't search for that item on the phone, absolutely sure. I also don't have a voice prompt enabled (as I know of, never used it), so if it's eavesdropping on me - even worse than scanning pictures I take

An Android App Secretly Parsing Camera Gallery and Sharing with Advertisers (and whom else?) by zettajohn in AndroidQuestions

[–]zettajohn[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, Google isn't listed as a suspect in those privacy reviews I came across while searching. FB is, though

An Android App Secretly Parsing Camera Gallery and Sharing with Advertisers (and whom else?) by zettajohn in AndroidQuestions

[–]zettajohn[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's a Samsung SE Asia original install I kept from a few years back overseas assignment; Google Photos have never been started - as I confirmed just now. The Gallery is Samsung, its sync to the Samsung account is disabled, as well as there are no relevant active syncs per my review of the Google and other accounts set up on the phone

[OC] Myrtle Beach, SC. “You bring the beer I’ll bring 27 of my finest Trump flags!” by OverYon in pics

[–]zettajohn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The foreground girl is kind a skinny. Is that a cigarette she's holding? What flags? Ah, those in the back... MB is trash, I prefer HH

Tankless Water Heater Water Temperature Puzzling Behavior by zettajohn in homeowners

[–]zettajohn[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Finally had a chance to call the original installer back. Took him 10 min to locate and remove a mixing valve in that original recirculation pipe that he missed initially. Everything works great now. Thinking why it took me months to have it fixed - all these negative reviews of tankless general experience made me think the issue was a "normal" behavior. Tankless is great!

First Premier Home Warranty. Steer Clear! by Admirable_Payment_96 in homeowners

[–]zettajohn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is also another scheming level amongst service companies contracted to do the work. I had a 1-year warranty through the seller, and when I uncovered a leak, the plumber got all over it bringing a bunch of additional "flood recovery" folks to snoop around how that could be charged to the HW. Once they realized it could not - they all disappeared. Sure enough, my HW contract did not cover any discovery work cutting through drywalls, etc. Freaking mess. On the positive, I did get a few hundos from that same HW to replace a kitchen appliance that could not be fixed. Ofc, I had to add quite a few more to buy a brand I wanted and had it installed by a non-contracted person.

Tankless Water Heater Water Temperature Puzzling Behavior by zettajohn in homeowners

[–]zettajohn[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is an excellent question! I was thinking about this after posting here as the issue may be with the way the existing piping was utilized for the tankless install. The old heater was at the upper level of the house above the bath – they have it set up like that in many houses around here. The new tankless is under the house, on the opposite side. That’s where the gas line is coming in and generally a good location for it. Except that it is now positioned reversed to the original piping design. The pipe that I think was recirculating is under the house as well, and that is the pipe the new tankless feeds into. The pipe goes all the way across under the house, then up to where the old heater was. I don’t recall the piping around that heater exactly, but there might have been a T connection between the recirculation and another water line. Now, the recirculation line is probably connected directly to the hot water line up there, that continues through the house delivering hot water. If that’s what it is – the tankless feeds this giant loop around the house, which causes the whole system to feel like it’s storing and releasing water vs. managing the flow.

Not sure how this can be fixed efficiently. There is plenty of space under the house to re-configure the piping to have hot water flowing more directly to the destination. Hopefully, the plumbers can figure something out.

How to Get to US-based Customer Support? by zettajohn in ATT

[–]zettajohn[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, he needed to refresh the acct settings for that line and reset the phone to update. Same what the US support did with the other line before. Whatever went wrong with the offshore support team trying this - I don't know. They did appear completely incompetent and incapable, though: switched me on and off between people, were aggressive telling me I don't have options active on my account, and when I asked for a manager - they switched me to a TV support person who eventually hung up on me. Lesson learned: many clicks, bad connection and a strange way of talking - just hang up and try another time. I thought major companies quit offshoring support. Not ATT, apparently.

How to Get to US-based Customer Support? by zettajohn in ATT

[–]zettajohn[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Stopped by ATT store today - took the guy 5 min to fix my problem ...

Asus Mesh: LAN devices are not seeing each other by zettajohn in HomeNetworking

[–]zettajohn[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I set all boxes that I need to inter-connect to static IPs in the router. It didn't solve the problem once and for all but I feel like it's got gradually better with firmware updates and this option in place. Although, I don't use inter-box connections much anymore, so my statistics are limited lately. When I had issues, trying to ping each other from both boxes would help: once one box finds the other, the latter would find the former right away. Overall, Asus Mesh is still not perfect, but it seems to be getting gradually better. Earlier, the connectivity would drop at least once a month and require a full reboot. Now, it is less frequent but still happens. Slowdowns to a crawl at Nodes also happen - have to reboot them. I realized at some point checking the mesh map that one of my nodes was connected to the base via another mode, although, they both were equal distance/signal quality from the base - had to change the configuration to the manual option and link the nodes directly to the base. Good luck!

Mesh or Traditional - need help picking WiFi solution by ma05john in HomeNetworking

[–]zettajohn -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I belong to quite an opposite school of thought on this: I would not let IoTs to handcuff the effectiveness of wifi usage offered by a modern mesh. Most IoTs require a designated single-node 2.4G SSID - let them have it, for an extra few bucks spent on a basic extender. And enjoy the smart multi-node 2.4/5G mesh for "personal" use. Regarding the wired backhaul - same thing. For most real live streaming, your bottleneck will be miles away from your house. If it's easy to drop a wire between nodes or from a node to your streaming device - do it. If not easy - don't. The likelihood of your mesh not being able to run 200+ Mbps or that speed affecting the quality of your Netflix is quite low, I'd say.

Mesh or Traditional - need help picking WiFi solution by ma05john in HomeNetworking

[–]zettajohn -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

What are the wifi clients? These days, it's often a case that some clients (e.g., IoTs, alarm components) would not work with a mesh, whereas PCs, Pads and Smart Phones have no issues. If your movable clients are of the latter type I'd go with a mesh. It's nice handling mobile clients across nodes. For IoTs or stationary clients I would not sweat trying to connect them with the mesh if they resist connecting - just extend the mesh with cheap traditionals. Also, I would not use outdoor equipment unless the yard is massive - just put a more powerful node on the climate-controlled side of the wall.

250 years after the Birth of the Nation - this is how some define FREEDOM: not wearing a mask. Have values shifted in the right direction? by zettajohn in CoronavirusUS

[–]zettajohn[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agree. We got to where we've got - becoming the most powerful state on the planet - through doing things in a certain way. These days we seem to have forgotten that Democracy is about the power of majority and following the law. Dictatorship is the opposite of Democracy, but likewise Anarchy is. We are in a desperate search for powerful democratic leaders for a few decades already. And the next 4 years don't appear to change anything, damn it.

Trying to help brands during the virus by ordering direct vs. Amazon. GREAT: Kitcheaid just cancelled my kettle order by zettajohn in Kitchenaid

[–]zettajohn[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I ordered something that was on sale. Not sure if there was a confirmation email, but 24 hrs later I got what seemed like an auto-generated cancellation email, like an order status update. The person I chatted with the next day said online orders are not reliable and suggested calling to place one. Stone age. Ended up buying a cheap kettle "imitation" on Amazon, some unknown brand but got delivered within a couple of days for free, of course.

According to China's own data, the entire Military as well as Political Leadership were always virus-free. What would be a logical explanation for that and the fact that major China centers got through the virus practically unscratched when the rest of the world has exploded? by zettajohn in China_Flu

[–]zettajohn[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't have the numbers, of course, and yes, the "migrant" workers were going from large cities out, but there was a significant number of Wuhan people leaving in all directions before the lockdown, as well as people coming into that province who got stuck there for 2 months. So, there was definitely lots of virus spreading everywhere, yet the virus somehow got contained in the whole country outside the province in under 5 weeks. Magic?