(no subject)

[thesawg.livejournal.com]

Apparently Cox Communications is keeping some amazing technology from the rest of us in the cable internet industry. They have a Motorola Surfboard modem that is powered by "the power of the cable line."

I have a new customer calling up to try to get on-line for the first time, but none of the lights on here modem was coming on. Some quick troubleshooting determined that there was no power cable plugged into the modem. I asked her if she had the power cable somewhere She kindly informed me that this modem doesn't have a power cable and never needed it before. I kindly informed her, like most electronic devices this needed a source of power. Even had her find the power plug on the back of the modem as well. Since she didn't have a power cable I referred her to our office to lease a modem (complete with power cable) or informed her she could purchase a new modem on her own, or see if she can find a suitable power adapter somewhere. At this point she got irate because the modem she had was on our supported cable modem list and it should therefore work. At this point I really don't care about making her happy anymore. I let her know it is supported and would work great if she had a power cable plugged into it. She then proceeds to call me stupid because her modem doesn't require power and it always worked without one with Cox, it got it's power "from the cable line." I tell her that is impossible and will have to get a new modem. She then gets mad because I am apparently an idiot, so she hung back.

Leaving a little bit later I hear one on the Senior Techs doing the call back and just repeating "I understand maam, but that modem does require a power cable to be functional. I am not sure how Cox had it set up, but it does require power to operate."

Comments

[spacebird.livejournal.com]

Funny, my Surfboard always needed power. I'm going to call Cox and demand one of the new ones!

[ravenshrinkery.livejournal.com]

Ganking your icon :).

[shmuffle.livejournal.com]

It's unfortunate these kind of users wouldn't keep the box/manual so you can get them to read out the part that says "Contents: ... 1 x Power Adapter" or "Step 1: Insert power cable".

I had one guy who insisted we were lying when two seperate consultants tried to explain the different between kiloBITS per sec and kiloBYTES per sec (I didn't even dare try to explain overhead from networking protocols). I ended up telling him to Google it, I just hope the first few hits of his search weren't some fool offering "free PC help".

[ohhjuliet.livejournal.com]

hahahaha...don't you wonder sometimes how these people get out of bed every day and function???

[ravenshrinkery.livejournal.com]

They should have cable internet powered by the line itself. Use the signal from all the crappy channels to run the modem. :)

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

I want a house powered by crap media. I figure I could run a tokamak on the side and still sell power back to the grid.

[jecook]

It's the next up and coming standard from the 802.11x committee. Power over Coax.. It's like Power Over Ethernet.


(FWIW, There is power on the line for DirecTV lines. they run aDV voltage up the line in order to power the LMB on the dish. That might be a source of confusion.)

[darkblade1.livejournal.com]

What a moron! It just amazes me that people just expect things to work without power.
"My modem has lights, but my router doesn't. Why isn't it working?"

Uh...where's my cluebat?

[jon787.livejournal.com]

Just from a theoretical perspective, how much power does a cable modem draw?