About gaines_wright

  As I often struggle with the IMO awful message editor here, I often think about the old BBS days when we used a shareware program called Silly Little Mail Reader ( SLMR ). Not to be confused with the later email program with the same name.     With SLMR you could dialup a BBS, and download all of the messages and upload your replies in zipped format. A real time saver when you are using a 2400 baud modem, which is basically equivalent to a 2400bps internet connection. Slow!   Then you could use SLMR to read the messages, and compose your replies off line.  It was very intuitive to use, and what you composed would appear verbatim when you looked at it later. Unlike here where the editor eats most of your white space when pasting text into it.     If anybody is interested here's a link to an article about those days: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/01/modems-warez-and-ansi-art-remembering-bbs-life-at-2400bps/ As the above article ends:   +++ATH0   !@^^§¡©£¡) NO CARRIER ... View more

  Even though I've never had such an issue myself, I've often followed the threads in tech support about speed problems. Usually in one of first couple of replies will be instructions about running a series of speed tests, and how they are absolutely necessary to trouble shoot your system.     Why are they necessary? Earlier in the week my speed was 30.24, this morning it's 27.90. What does this tell one, other than the system had less load on it on the first test?     Here's some speed tests that I ran within minutes of each other this morning: Hughes speed test:                   27.90 25mb file size with testmy.net: 37.4 Testmy.net default file size:      30.6     Perhaps that's why Hughes prefers the testmy.net 25mb test over anything else. It always reports much higher speeds on my system.     I recently followed one members travails with speed issues, who had testmy.net results going back over a year, which was not good enough. It never is! The tests have to be performed in an exact certain way. One file size for gen4, a different size for gen5, 3 tests, 3-10 minutes apart, but not an hour apart, 3 times a day, morning, noon, and night.     BTW the member's issues were not resolved as of today, after a month of running more speed tests. Of course, the member was told that the testmy.net 25mb tests showed that they were on the threshold of being within the promised speeds. Not surprising, if their system is like mine, where the testmy.net 25mb results are always about 10 mbps higher than the Hughes speed test.   Sorry, but all of this is beginning to strain my credulity about the usefulness of all these speed tests. Especially since I believe that Hughes may be cherry picking the tests for the highest speeds. Why else would they refuse to accept the results of their own speed test? "I know I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?" Tom Clancy ... View more

  I've been reading here about a some peoples problems with power failures, so I thought I'd post the method I used during the many power failures I had before I got a whole house generator.     I had a portable generator with enough capacity to run my lights and ceiling fans, fridge, freezer, microwave, toaster oven, well pump, and one small window AC. An easy way to do this is to buy a generator with enough capacity to have a dryer receptacle. Then you construct a cable with 10/4 portable cord with a male dryer plug at each end.     During a power failure you turn off the following breakers: main, dryer, water heater, central heat & AC, stove, water pump, and any other large loads. Plug one end of the temporary cord into the generator before it's started, run the other end of the cord into the laundry area and plug it into the dryer receptacle, start the generator, and close the main on the generator.     Then you close the dryer breaker at the main panel. If you have done every thing correctly you now have power to all the essentials, without having to run extension cords all over the place.     Keep in mind that you've only got about 30 amps available, and the more stuff you have powered on, the faster the generator will run out of fuel. Never turn on the central heat & AC breakers, as this would probably immediately trip the generator. Don't use more than one burner or the oven on the stove, unless you turn off the water heater, well pump breakers, and the window unit AC. IOW you have to actively manage the loads.     To test if the utility power has returned you only have to open the dryer breaker, and close the main. Make absolutely sure that both breakers are never closed at the same time until the generator is disconnected. With the newer electric meters, this test is not necessary. you can just look at the LC display on the meter. If it's back on, you have power.     If the power has returned, open the dryer breaker, and close the main and any other open breakers, shut down the generator and remove the temporary cable, plug the dryer back in, and then close the dryer breaker at the main panel.   Simple yes? I got so tired of doing the this in the middle of the night by flashlight, that after my portable generator was stolen, and I had gone through a 38 hour outage without it, I had a whole house generator installed. Expensive, but I was getting too old to stumble around in the dark with a flashlight anyway. It also has the advantage of using propane for fuel, and it came with a 250 gal tank.     The generator was installed three months ago, and we haven't had a power failure since. Just a few glitches that didn't last long enough for it to even start its warm up cycle.     See, my expensive new generator is working very well! :>)> ... View more