Last night I finally got around to switching the computer over to the new CenturyLink fiber connection, which I had installed for the phone 8 months ago. The changeover was easy, plug-n-play. As soon as the computer’s Ethernet was plugged into the CenturyLink box, the computer instantly started using it. Should have done it a long time ago. Then I disconnected the cable from the Comcast modem and disconnected the whole cable from its inlet on the house wall.
This morning an India call center called me and said they had detected the disconnect. I tried to tell the foreigner that I was intending to unsubscribe, and she started saying a bunch of stuff that I couldn’t understand. After I shouted HOLD! HOLD! HOLD! HOLD! HOLD! she finally stopped yammering, and I said I CANNOT UNDERSTAND YOU. COMMUNICATE BY EMAIL. SEND ME AN EMAIL. She hung up.
Comcast’s customer “service” is legendary. What’s salient is the detection. I often disconnected the modem itself during thunderstorms, sometimes for two hours, because a previous modem was damaged by lightning. I’ve never gotten any calls or notices for those disconnects. Their system must have caught the change in impedance when the cable itself was removed?
Old landline phone companies were expert at detecting an added extension or other tampering by changes in line impedance. Wouldn’t be surprising if the new version did the same.
Polistra's Mill 