Time Warner Cable has rolled out a new service here locally in Charlotte, NC.  It’s called Signature Home.  I am one of the fortunate ones to live in an area it is available.  I’ve used it since July 2010 and I can honestly say I am “extremely” happy with the performance and “service” I am receiving from Time Warner Cable.  The internet speed is 50mbit down and 5mbit up.  This blows away the previous offering by Time Warner Cable which maxed out at 10-15mbit down and 0.5mbit up.

The phone service is good high quality.  However, if your used to Vonage VOIP, be prepared to pay extra for an unlisted phone number.  Why?  Well, the telemarketers and politicians started calling me within 3 days!!  They have my name and my phone number.  It should be against the LAW for personal information to be so freely available!  Because I use it with a google voice number any calls that come directly into that line I just ignore.  Sad.  So be prepared to pay extra for an unlisted phone number.

The actual cable service is AMAZING!  The new dual tuner dvr they provide is the Cisco Explorer 8642HDC.  They give you “2″ of them.  There are a number of nice features I am happy to enjoy!

1. You have a total of 4 channels you can record at the same time.
2. If you record something in the living room, you can watch it from the bedroom.
3. The parental controls are “outstanding”.  Not only can you block channels by rating, but you can also block the “titles” of those said programs in the menu.  So your kids don’t even “know” what they are missing.
4. You can set it to limit when the tv can be watched.  Example, I turn the kids tv off at 8pm on school nights.  Won’t come back on till late morning, but they are in school at that time anyway.
5. I purchased an addon box for the kids room (no dvr) that cost an extra $10/month.  It was worth it for the parental controls alone.  The nice thing about the extra box, they can watch shows recorded from the dvrs in the living room and master bedroom.  Yes, you guessed it, if the parental controls don’t allow watching a recorded show from the living room or bedroom, it won’t even show up on their menu!
6. The channel line up is very impressive.  Because I have nothing else to compare it to, it’s like dishnet 250 and more plus all the HD channels and locals and more. (not that I watch all those channels, but it’s nice to have them all bundled in)

Over all, I am very happy with the Signature Home service.   The total service that I have runs 179/month.  With the addon box for the kids it’s almost exactly 200.00 after local tax.

The customer service is outstanding.  When you have the signature home plan you get direct access to a “human”.  No waiting in line.  You get priority support for anything you call in on.  That sure beats the service I have received from other providers!

Bottom line, if you live in Charlotte, NC and you are in an area that supports this service and you are paying more than 179/month for your 3 services, phone, cable, internet than this service is well worth the money.

Running some speed test, below are some of the results.
On speakeasy.net: http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

On Time Warner Cable speed test:
http://speedtest.southeast.rr.com/ (you have to have time warner to use)

Ever notice how HOT your router gets?  (Especially if has wireless built into it.)   Linksys routers “look” like they can be stacked, but the heat build up is so much it will just ruin your router.  How does it ruin it?  Well, heat is the enemy!  You’ll notice you have to go over and reset your router more frequently by unplugging it and replugging it back in.  (these are just the first signs of a router going bad, you can get by for years doing that if you need to but it’s a pain!)

Solution:  Simply go get a small netbook cooling pad and set your router on top of that.  I use the powered USB type and simply plug it into my desktop.  The heat on the bottom of the router is cut WAY down.  It’s not even hot to the touch.

If your wondering where I got this from, I purchased it from: Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0026QT2NW/ref=oss_product

$10.00 to save a $180.00 router.  Well worth the money and the frustration of returning it!

James

Some pictures…

If your like me, maybe you have multiple email accounts that you pop regularly into your outlook 2007?  You also have a laptop?  Did you “flirt” with Exchange?  I have.  The problem with exchange is it was designed for folks that have “one” email account.  If you only have “one” email account, then maybe exchange is the way to go for you?  But what about those folks that have “multiple” mail accounts going into outlook 2007?  Yes, what about that?  Doesn’t work so nicely if your trying to sync with a laptop.  You start getting duplicate emails and all sorts of issues because Exchange was apparently NOT designed for people like you and me with multiple mail accounts.

So you have other ways of syncing your data?  You may have already discovered that Google can sync your calendar quite nicely.  It does.  Then you wanted to sync your contacts?  Not so easy.  How about your sent folder?  Wouldn’t it be nice if you sent an email on your laptop that same “sent” email appeared in the sent folder on your desktop?  How about a sent email on your desktop showing up in the sent folder on your laptop so you have all your data all the time?  Well, I discovered some software that does just that.

Here’s the link:
http://www.syncing.net/

You can download a 30 day trial and check it out.

You can even sync folders on your desktop with a folder on your laptop.  Drag and drop that spreadsheet into that folder and it appears on your laptop.  Make changes on your laptop and it’s now on your desktop perfectly synced.  The url above is not a “referral” url.  I don’t get anything for this.  I’m just so happy to have found a solution I’m willing to spill the beans!

This software is syncing all I need it to sync.  Very happy with it.  Don’t need it to sync my Inbox, just all the “other” stuff.

Got a blackberry?  I gave up on Google calendar and Contact’s sync.  I sync my blackberry with my desktop or laptop now.  I can sync with either computer now that both desktop and laptop are synced.  YES, it would be nice to have some software that would sync my calendar and contacts on my blackberry but I have yet to find anything that will do that yet.  This is where Exchange does great.  Either way, the money saved is worth the extra 2 minutes it takes me to manually sync my blackberry.    If you have an iPhone, I believe there is a syncing.net app that works good for you.

James

Spammers send out their email harvestor bots all the time.  If you put your email address on your website as a link in clear text, you will begin to get “spam”.  Given enough time, a LOT of it.   Email encoding can help a lot.  Ultimately, not putting your email address on your website is the best solution and stick with feed back forms that incorporate captcha images or math captcha.  A simple script by Craig Dansie, author of the Dansie Shopping Cart, can be found here: http://www.dansie.net/mail.html

It’s free.  Nice huh?  If you would like Craig Dansie to install it, he can do so for a very modest fee of 35.00 USD.

If you wish to put your email addresses on your site, here are a few helpful links to help you do it “securely”:

http://www.addressmunger.com/
http://www.stevedawson.com/emailencode.php
http://script-smart.com/resources/email-encoder/index.php

Be spam free before you have to pay a fee to be free!

James

Using wsftp (my favorite and recommended ftp client software) I simply right click on the file or folder I wish to chmod.  This brings up a menu.  I go down to properties…

I can then choose to chmod it… 

755

666

777