OT: Fax machines on broadband problem?

If possible, send PDF files by email. A lot more reliable than any number of marginally compliant FAX modems that mostly sort-of manage to talk to one another over crackly copper lines.

Jon

Electronic fax service $10/mo. Send and receive faxes via email.

... Ok, to send hard documents you will need a page feed scanner ...

My EFAX service handles all the standard document formats. I even use it from my cell phone for testing customer fax machines when I am doing phone system work.

Good catch! I'd better check with the alarm company.

Gunner Asch on Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:11:08 -0800 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

Well, maybe this time it might.

It didn't the last time he did. You know what they say about insanity, and doing the same thing over & over while hoping for different results when you should make a change you can beleive in.

INSANITY!!!

My parents had VOIP through Brighthouse, and had nothing but trouble. If the local node has too many users, there are dead times. Movies on demand get priority, then the broadband users most of what's left. They kept increasing the Broadband bandwidth, without upgrading the equipment. My internet radio drops WSM for minutes at a time, and I have to log back into Giganews fairly often, but they insist the problems are all on my end. Their analog TV channels are all screwed up, as well.

Having to remove the display to change a 20 cent coin cell is just plain sloppy design work. They should put it in the large Memory & wireless compartment. That's like having to pull the engine, just to change a side marker light. Their older laptops were easier to work on, without having to pry apart brittle plastic panels. That's probably the reason it was donated, no one was willing to try to fix it for a reasonable price.

Never had a problem faxing over Vonage.

Is this really true?

The steps needed to replace the headlight bulb are as follows:

1. Open the hood and remove the plastic cover above the radiator (14 screws). 2. Jack up the car and remove the wheel (five lug nuts). 3. Remove the wheel-well liner (15 screws and pop-rivets). ED: Inner fender? 4. This exposes two bolts that hold the bumper in place; remove these bolts and slide off the end of the bumper. 5. Now, you can reach the three bolts that hold in the headlight assembly; remove the headlight assembly and replace the bulb. 6. Replace everything (29 screws, nuts, bolts, and pop-rivets).

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

It wouldn't surprise me. The UAW is famous for assembly methods that take extra labor, to create more union jobs. In the '70s a Delco engineer told me they had a new car radio design that went in through the front of the dash, and could be connected & installed in under two minutes. The UAW raised so much hell, GM continued to use the existing design that took closer to 15 minutes. Ford built some station wagons that required you to drop the steering wheel, and remove most of the dash to service the radio. It took over four hours, just to remove the damn radio. Most of them were made by Philco, which were hard to get parts for so that meant another wasted day to reinstall the radio. We blacklisted several models & years of Fords, even though the dealership threatened to find another shop to do the actual service work.

For a proper CYA move, you have one Analog POTS line for the alarm dialer, and set up a radio system as the alternate - there are several solutions out there, either a dedicated "trunked radio" style system like AlarmNet, or a GSM or LTE Data solution from several different Cellco carriers. And it will make your insurance company a LOT happier that there's a second system backup.

An alarm system triggering off is really a series of SMS messages - you need maybe two dozen bytes per "call" to the Central Station - the three to six digit Account Number, a two or three digit code for each zone and one digit to represent tripped or reset.

This is why the original data formats for old alarm receivers are around 110-Baud yet still plenty fast enough - at those speeds they are rock solid reliable, rarely needs a re-send... And that phone line can be shared as a fax line, the Alarm will seize the line if it wants to call out. Unless the Alarm Company wants the ability to dial into the panel for remote programming access - but they can do that over the Internet too, and far easier.

-->--

"Bruce L. Bergman (munged human readable)" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

If we lose phones it is typically a total power failure and having phones without computers (or lights) doesn't do a lot for us. For emergencies we would use cell phones so paying for a POTS line (and having a separate account with another vendor) is not justified in our case.

Having made the switch from Verizon to Comcast, our experience has been much better in terms of reliability. Now god knows that I would never defend Comcast as they have demonstrated time and again how much they truly value customers (as in not at all) but in this case I think that the fact that Verizon was not willing to invest into updating infrastructure from what appears to be a 1970s vintage installation and Comcast had to run new cable to get to the facility is the difference in our case. As a said in my first message, it appears to be a crap shoot and neither is a sure thing. (jeez, the Vegas analogies just keep rolling, where is Steve when you need him) it just happened that in our specific situation it worked out for us.

My emergency backup is Virgin Mobile's prepaid Broadband2Go, which is as reliable as Sprint cell service (ymmv). Storms that take out the power usually cut my POTS connection too.

The Harbor Freight $149 solar panel has been enough to run a laptop.

POTS = Plain Old Telephone Service, ie a copper wire.

jsw

Gunner Asch on Thu, 01 Dec 2011 04:06:10 -0800 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

Late 70's Pontiac. To change the spark plugs required a hoist and a five foot extension on the ratchet. As the only way to get to the rear most plug was from underneath.

At least it isn't like having to remove the intake manifold to reach the second set of plugs on MazdaRanger. (Should have sprung for the plugs & wires which offered less radio interference.)

tschus pyotr

Those vehicles' engine compartments were designed for the GM Rotary Engine, and they were too far along to change when it tanked for high emissions and low MPG.

The 2.3l four? The plugs come out through the gaps between the manifold runners with a long enough extension. Good place for platinum plugs.

jsw

That reminds me of the shoehorning of a V-8 into a Mustang. Flat rate hours for a tuneup: 5.1 to R&R engine, replace plugs. Lots of Stangs ended up in the junk yard after guys cut access holes in the inner fender wells and destroyed the unibody effect.

Platinum's good. What about the newest tech offerings, gold electrodes, zirconia enriched ceramics, double platinum electrodes, and pulse plugs? Anyone use these? Anyone get improved performance?

I got at least 5x better plug life from platinums in the old Ford.

-- Intuition isn't the enemy, but the ally, of reason. -- John Kord Lagemann

Gunner Asch on Fri, 02 Dec 2011 23:46:09 -0800 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

Mine. The one with four cylinders and eight plugs. I didn't _have_ to remove the intake manifold, to change plugs, but I was doing it anyway to pull the head. Figured "might as well change everything while I can do it "easily"."

Gunner Asch on Sat, 03 Dec 2011 18:03:32 -0800 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

Not again, anytime soon anyways.