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cypherstream
MVM
join:2004-12-02
Reading, PA

cypherstream to jmh87

MVM

to jmh87

Re: Service Electric Cablevision News

jmh87, is the main unit handling the internet too or do you have your own cable modem?

Is it fast, easy to use? Is it an improvement over the old system?
jmh87
join:2009-01-05
Selinsgrove, PA

jmh87

Member

cypher, I have separate cable modem. the installer said they will not use the modem in the main unit, too many problems.

It is pretty fast, but i am coming from directv. It is going to take some getting used to, but it seems pretty functional. I had an old Moxi box years ago and I see some similarities.

cypherstream
MVM
join:2004-12-02
Reading, PA

cypherstream

MVM

Ok do they have to put the main box near your cable modem and plug it into your router? Just curious how they get the Internet connection onto the coax cable so they can download the guide data.
Jed1
join:2012-01-14
Frackville, PA

Jed1

Member

I was told last week that the newer models from Arris will no longer have the internet modem built in, only the phone modem. I think he said one of the ports on the back of the main unit acts like a Ethernet port.
You just could use a internet set up with no MoCA. They do have to set up an account for you so it can access Arris's website to get its updates.
They have to keep the phone modem built in as the caller ID on TV will not work as the Arris gets all its updates through an internet connection just like TiVo.

cypherstream
MVM
join:2004-12-02
Reading, PA

cypherstream

MVM

They should of just went with an open standard like DSG (DOCSIS set top gateway). Time warner and Comcast have no issues with that.

motorola870
join:2008-12-07
Arlington, TX

motorola870

Member

said by cypherstream:

They should of just went with an open standard like DSG (DOCSIS set top gateway). Time warner and Comcast have no issues with that.

hmm wonder if they could have gotten the DCX3600M with Tivo interface? I know pace has the Tivo interface on some of their boxes with DSG in use.
JoeKustra
join:2013-06-04
Ashland, PA

JoeKustra to Jed1

Member

to Jed1
I wonder. Can I blame the whole house systems for my slow internet? I'm running 1/2 speed most of the time. That's down. Up hasn't changed.
jmh87
join:2009-01-05
Selinsgrove, PA

jmh87 to Jed1

Member

to Jed1
Jed1, that is exactly what i was told by the installer. I will have to keep in eye on the internet speeds to see if they change at all.
Hellrazor
Bah Humbug
join:2002-02-02
Abyss, PA

Hellrazor

Member

When you say it is slowing down, are you talking about latency or overall speed?
Jed1
join:2012-01-14
Frackville, PA

Jed1 to cypherstream

Member

to cypherstream
I agree. It would open up some doors for non cable box users.
Jed1

Jed1 to JoeKustra

Member

to JoeKustra
Joe, jmh87, and Hellrazor, the internet issues is region wide. Even RCN customers are having the same problem.
»[Speed] Cause of Inconsistent Evening Speeds?

I can guarantee that it is not signal related. I have been complaining about this since August.
Leadslinger
join:2014-12-14
Catawissa, PA

2 edits

Leadslinger to Jed1

Member

to Jed1
We live in Numidia, although we technically live in Catawissa and have a Catawissa address and 17820 zip code, and we have dealt with Verizon DSL, phone and Direct TV bundle for several years now. The internet speed is ridiculously slow for what we pay. We get about 2.89 megs. We are going to shut off our landline phone and just use our cellphones so we will only have TV and internet. 4 people live here, sometimes 5 when 1 is home from college. We are heavy internet users and I believe we are under the Sunbury coverage area for SE.

We are looking at the 35MBps internet + TV plan, however we are very concerned about the poor customer service, unreliable speeds, and most of all the cap. We have never had capped internet and find it absurd. I don't know if we'd go through 500GB in a month or not but I could see it happening because 3 gamers live here and we use YouTube a lot, as well as wireless devices (iPhones etc) on the WiFi.

We really want Comcast, but from our research it seems like they don't cover our area. We are trying to find a provider that is NOT capped but it seems like there are none. Does anyone know of any providers in the Catawissa/Numidia area that don't have caps? Or does Verizon offer a faster DSL plan? I read that Verizon does have a 15MBps that is not FiOS, but that is not available in a lot of places.

One way to find out would be to call Comcast and see if we can get it where we live but I doubt it. I saw that Comcast is available in Bloomsburg which is pretty close to us, that's where we shop and sometimes the big providers don't list or really acknowledge "nowheresville" so I'm holding onto some hope for Comcast. Also we could call Verizon and see if we can get a faster connection, but the downside to both of those is having to deal with the phone nonsense, and also if the faster Verizon service is available here it will probably be way overpriced just like everything else from Verizon. We'd love Verizon FiOS or Comcast but to my knowledge FiOS is not available to most of the region and Comcast is spotty in it's availability in NEPA. I'm basically stuck between do I want to switch to SE and have a loose rope around my neck with the bandwidth cap but have faster internet, or do I want to just keep what we have because there's nothing better considering we are not going to "reduce our bandwidth use". The main problem is that when someone is on YouTube or downloading something, our internet becomes pretty much unusable for everyone else on it. Ping goes from 48ms to 800-1000ms which is very frustrating.

I would really appreciate any input. We are at wit's end. We rely heavily on our internet, and Verizon DSL is reliable, but 2.89MBps is just too slow. I believe our plan is supposed to be 1-3MBps or 3.1-7MBps. I would settle for 3.1-7MBps DSL if that's not what we already have and it's available. The cost might be offset by us shutting off our landline phone. Thanks in advance.
JoeKustra
join:2013-06-04
Ashland, PA
ARRIS SB8200

JoeKustra

Member

said by Leadslinger:

I would really appreciate any input. We are at wit's end. We rely heavily on our internet, and Verizon DSL is reliable, but 2.89MBps is just too slow. I believe our plan is supposed to be 1-3MBps or 3.1-7MBps. I would settle for 3.1-7MBps DSL if that's not what we already have and it's available. The cost might be offset by us shutting off our landline phone. Thanks in advance.

I would first see if you can find out if your are really saturating the DSL line or just the router or modem. Any system is only as fast as its slowest part. SE has some good tools and, when I lived in Mt. Carmel, had pretty good service too. I have no issues now except for the poor internet performance. I'm supposed to have 5/1 but only get 2.5 to 3.5 down anymore. Up has actually gotten better, usually over the 1.0. Most of my internet use is not external. I used to have 15 down but dropped back when I figured I was spending too much on Netflix and Amazon due to poor will power. Now I stick to TV but like to move data around between devices. I was going to transfer my Verizon DSL when I moved but they said there were no ports open at my location. When my sister was using my system last summer she was on YouTube all the time and it had no measurable affect on my usage. I do around 15Gb a month toward my 150Gb cap. But like I said, I seldom download which will eat into your usage. Sometimes I will watch a TV show I forgot to record and the peak for that day is quite striking. Data downloads, like updates, and casual surfing are not significant. Good luck with your quest.
Leadslinger
join:2014-12-14
Catawissa, PA

1 edit

Leadslinger

Member

Thanks! It's not hardware related as we had previous issues and someone from Verizon came and ran a new phone line and we got a new modem twice. We just have the the 3MBps max speed I think and get 2.50-2.89MBps which you can't complain about because it's pretty close to the max advertised speed for that service, although it isn't fast enough for us and causes latency issues. I had another question, in the Sunbury coverage area is the bandwidth cap only from 5pm to 1am, or is it all day? It doesn't mention 5pm to 1am on the Sunbury SE website but on the main website it does. Some of us work pretty weird hours so that might make things a little less of a problem since we'd be using it quite a bit when it's not counting towards the cap.

I'm still worried. I've heard of one person using over 300GB of data in a month due to gaming. This is going to be a connection used heavily by 5 people, 3/5 of them being in their late teens and early 20s and being gamers, and using the internet for entertainment like most people do TV. When you take that into account it gets a little bit concerning. Having a cap at all just really irks me. Maybe it's because we are a military family and just have an attitude problem. Even if it was a 1TB cap it would bother me. "Don't tell me how to live my life" kind of thing. I actually hate TV. I'd get rid of TV when I got rid of the phone if I lived alone. I digress. I value your experience and opinion and thanks again.
JoeKustra
join:2013-06-04
Ashland, PA
ARRIS SB8200

JoeKustra

Member

To the best of my knowledge all time specific caps are removed. SE sometimes gets behind on their website maintenance. I only complain about the speed because it used to be 4.8 all the time and now it's 2.5 to 4 all the time. My cap is 250, not the 150 I stated before. I'm not sure what the "main site" would be. Yeah, caps suck. I no longer get my service from Sunbury either. I had to switch to Hazleton when I moved. I don't know of a good answer to your problem with caps. But unlike some cable companies, you can buy your own modem and router.
Leadslinger
join:2014-12-14
Catawissa, PA

Leadslinger to Jed1

Member

to Jed1
Sorry to be a nuisance, but I saw people talking about getting a business account which is uncapped. How do you go about doing this? We already ordered the SECV 35M plan TV + Internet bundle and we are going to give it a test run. I don't know exactly how long it will take to get it installed or what is involved with that... I'm guessing we're going to want to buy our own cable modem from Newegg or something. If we reach the data cap and they suspend our service we're just going to spitefully switch back to Verizon DSL because that's how economics work, and that is how corporations go broke. SECV will eventually run into financial problems if they keep going in this direction, from my insight. I am fairly technologically informed and have a little bit of an IT background but I've never had or dealt with cable internet. I know that these caps are garbage and are just to pad their pockets or they are getting desperate - a sign that they are going downhill.

Personally I hope SECV goes broke, because it seems like my only choices for internet in Numidia/Catawissa are Verizon DSL or SECV. SECV is just monopolizing the region, I find the way they conduct themselves to be disgraceful and I'd like to see some competition in these more rural areas. A few years time probably. I'm infuriated with the situation and as much as I dislike Verizon I can't blame them for not running fiber to a small village in the country side with a population of 200 and most of them don't have internet or are elderly. I'm not being age prejudiced, but most of our elderly neighbors don't have internet and don't care to have it. We personally live off of it. It is our entertainment. We don't download movies or watch movies online, but sometimes we watch lengthy YouTube videos and often watch short to medium length (5-10 minute) videos.

I won't go into details but I'm currently unemployed due to medical reasons. Hope to get back to work this Summer although it may take longer than that. So, I'm home all day. I don't watch TV. I'm online most of the day. I could probably myself use a very large portion of the 500GB cap. The worst case scenario is to go back to DSL with my tail between my legs and wait until something better becomes available in our area which may be a long time or never considering how rural it is. I can see SECV working great for a casual internet user or 1-2 person household, but for what a lot of people use internet for I do think a business account would be the only way we could make it work. Heavy gaming, YouTube, browsing constantly, wireless devices updating, games updating, essential programs like anti-virus updating and other important programs updating. The cost of internet speed should be going DOWN with new more efficient technology, but it is going up and it is capped? Even with people using more and more data and internet technology becoming used more? People are using more and more data so they are setting themselves up to have a continuance of customer loss. I don't even have their service yet and I'm furious. The only provider better than slug DSL in my area is capped and has unreliable speeds. Unacceptable to me.

We also use Skype and Facebook pretty much all day every day. I am sure the Skype voice group calls use a lot of data and 30 days of it will add up. I can go on and on, but I'll probably stop here and save it for SECV when/if I am not satisfied with their service. I'm not paying $118 a month before taxes and other fees just for internet and TV to be bamboozled. They will most definitely "hear" about it.

Anyway, I'm interested in the business account. If it involves a contract or some installation fee like I've heard Comcast business accounts do, it is not a big deal. We have had internet for years and plan on having it probably indefinitely anyway.
Jed1
join:2012-01-14
Frackville, PA

Jed1 to Leadslinger

Member

to Leadslinger
Joe pretty much covered all the bases here but I believe you are served by SECV Sunbury. Comcast will never serve your area and Verizon is no longer expanding FIOS. Also Verizon is abandoning the old POTS line that carries your DSL.
So your option are pretty limited.

SECV phone service is a real good deal. You get unlimited local and long distance, voice mail and about a dozen other calling features. It works with the existing phone in your house so you do not need to buy new phones. I would junk the cell phones and just use that. The caps on the internet are full time so you will have to determine your monthly use and pick the speed that best fits your needs.

Stand alone internet is pretty steep:
»www.secv.com/sunbury/sho ··· sun.html

The Triple Play is the best deal, just select the internet speed you want and then pick the package you desire:
»www.secv.com/sunbury/sho ··· sun.html

They have a good deal on the 6 tuner DVR:
»www.secv.com/holiday/

Anyhow here is their rate card for the Sunbury division:
»www.secv.com/cdocs/rate_ ··· _sun.pdf

cypherstream
MVM
join:2004-12-02
Reading, PA
·PenTeleData
ARRIS SB8200

cypherstream

MVM

TWO SECV Trucks at a neighbors house the other day. Then today walking by, noticed on their big TV they had the new whole home DVR guide up on the screen. Didn't mean to snoop but the size of the TV and where it is when walking by, you can't miss it. It was the dark color scheme with purple highlights.

SeattleMatt
Streaming Tech Director
Premium Member
join:2001-12-28
Seattle, WA

SeattleMatt to Leadslinger

Premium Member

to Leadslinger
Leadslinger-
IF you're in the Sunbury system - you'll be in good hands. My parents - and my brother and his family - have had SECV for 10+ years now.

Their customer service blows me away anytime I go home to visit and have to do anything for them (Ex: the time I bought them a new modem). Also - if they ever have an issue - they send a tech out in hours, not days. About the only thing I find silly - is that even in 2014 - they're still only a Monday-Friday 8-5pm shop. Not having weekend hours blows me away.

As far as the cap - I really wouldn't worry about it. I can tell you no one has gone through 300GB from gaming.

Also - Comcast is NOT in Bloomsburg. That's another SECV area. The closest Comcast would be is in the WB/Scranton area.
Leadslinger
join:2014-12-14
Catawissa, PA

Leadslinger to Jed1

Member

to Jed1
We just don't need a house phone that's why we are getting rid of it. We need the cell phones though so we can't get rid of them. We are a young family, I'm the oldest child at only 22, parents are only in their 40s. I say "only" so they won't clobber me. Point being we are all very into technology and use the internet a lot, my parents watch a lot of TV when they aren't working, but we're getting rid of our landline phone no matter what route we end up going.

I don't really understand what you mean by Verizon abandoning the POTS line. To my knowledge that wouldn't make us unable to have DSL, it would only effect phone service. Am I correct?

We are going for a TV + Internet package. I have a friend who has SECV that I know in real life and would not lie to me and his family have hit their cap and had their internet suspended for 30 days before. He's in a similar situation with the teenaged to early 20s children still living at home due to the lack of high paying jobs in the area for highschool grads (both of us are). It's an increasing theme I'm seeing in the region and it's sad, but I don't see how internet providers like SECV and Comcast can call the caps reasonable for large families like ours. We both have the same sized families, similar ages, except our family most definitely uses the internet much more than they do. Technology becomes more efficient and the means of delivering internet becomes cheaper but the prices go up. It is a shame. Not to mention the steadily increasing average data use. Just wait until 4K video comes along...

Yeah, they ordered the $118 plan from that card. 35M. I don't think it's going to work out. Sorry if this sounds like I'm ranting but I'm pretty stressed out over all of this.
Leadslinger

1 edit

Leadslinger to SeattleMatt

Member

to SeattleMatt
Appreciate your insight. However, 5 people live here. All of them use the internet heavily as I mentioned. 3 of them are hardcore gamers and also watch a LOT of videos on YouTube. I know about how much data one of the games use, around 20-30mb per 15-20 minute match. I don't how much data the gaming consoles use though... There is an Xbox 360 and Xbox One that both get used frequently. How about 6 hour Skype calls on a regular basis, regularly downloading things? I have a little bit of an IT background and I myself am a heavy internet user and gamer. I can see 500GB being exceeded easily.

A regular day of internet usage for me right now since I am currently not employed due to a medical problem and home almost all the time for now living with my parents and two brothers (one living at college but currently home for Holidays, 1 in highschool) is a lot of gaming to keep myself busy so I don't go crazy since there's nothing to do out here and you don't have much money, I can see the gaming data from just myself being at least 3GB a day, factor in both of my brothers and things start to look grim. I also watch a lot of YouTube videos a day, I try to be polite and set them to 360p so my family doesn't experience latency issues but YouTube automatically sets videos to 480p and sometimes when I YouTube binge I don't change it. 480p videos don't seem to cause too much of a problem with latency anyway. However, if my brother watches streams on Twitch, it gets really bad.

We can do all of that right now with no worry about a cap because we don't have one... It works well enough when only 4 people are here and not downloading a large file like a new game or watching a YouTube video in HD but we usually don't do that. I can see a 500GB cap being fine for someone who lives alone or a family of 2-3, but a family of 5 that uses the internet as much as we do and how we do, I don't think it will work.

So, the whole thing about choosing a plan that fits your needs? Kind of can't unless they come out with an uncapped plan or we get a business account but I haven't seen anyone mention how to go about doing that. That might be the golden ticket but other than that I don't see it ending well.

I'd love to move to somewhere where I could get FiOS since Comcast has stated they are going to have caps nationwide by 2019... But I'm only 22 and our family is struggling to stay middle class. I'll probably be living with my parents for at least a few more years which is a little embarrassing but relevant because wherever they go I'll go. We've lived in our current house for about 12 years and they haven't expressed any intentions to move in the near future. It's pretty depressing to me how limited we are for internet providers around here. Seeing as one of my brothers is at college most of the time and the other is going to the Navy as soon as he graduates later this year, maybe they will consider moving and downsizing since as I said, we are struggling to even stay middle class but internet is essential to all of us. Even my mother said she can't go without it. Many more reasons to move other than just internet but I can't say it's not a major selling point, closer proximity to businesses, job opportunities, etc.

Ultimately the choice is in the hands of my parents, however they asked myself and my brother our opinions since are we both very tech savvy (he's going to school for it right now). They jumped the gun and ordered the 35M package from SECV the other day with 205 channels, the DVR and a 500GB bandwidth cap. Myself and my brother both think it is a bad idea and my mother is very uneasy about it and considering canceling it (if that's possible).
JoeKustra
join:2013-06-04
Ashland, PA

JoeKustra to Jed1

Member

to Jed1
My speed is running normal today. I also notice a ticket open for speed slowdown in Frackville. Perhaps they have listened to you?
Knuckles5007
join:2010-09-12
Stroudsburg, PA

Knuckles5007 to Jed1

Member

to Jed1
Apologies if this has been mentioned before or if it doesn't exactly fit the topic at the moment. I wasn't sure either or not to start a new thread over this or if I should post in this thread since Blue Ridge is somewhat related to SE in some twisted sense.

I noticed a few weeks a go that Blue Ridge finally increased the rate for it's two top tier residential packages by doubling the previous rates (upstream is still the same, though).

»www.brctv.com/internet#a ··· -pricing

30Mbps is now 60Mbps, and 50Mbps is now 100Mbps. I doubt they can actually reach transfer speeds that high given all the posts in this thread so far. But at least the price remains the same as before, making these somewhat worth their price. According to their Internet Policy Agreement however, the data cap seems to still be at 250gb up/down combined during peak hours.

»www.brctv.com/sites/defa ··· odem.pdf

This hasn't been changed to reflect the new speed increases, but I'm curious if they're going to change the data caps to somewhat match up with it's partners. Although if I remember correctly, Blue Ridge is absolutely horrible with changing their policies in time (I remember when their data cap was 40gb, ugh). I also don't know if this affects Commercial customers as well, as their service agreement hasn't been changed either (nor can I find a listing of the current commercial packages on the newly designed website).

SeattleMatt
Streaming Tech Director
Premium Member
join:2001-12-28
Seattle, WA

SeattleMatt

Premium Member

Looks like a new Channel Update as of 12/5 on the SECV website.

Only thing I can see is BBC World News HD on 650.

Anyone notice anything else?
Jed1
join:2012-01-14
Frackville, PA

Jed1 to cypherstream

Member

to cypherstream
Yea. That is the only change over the Moxi, which was a blue background. I think SECV picked those colors.
If you have a Moxi remote handy, you can walk by their house and change the channels on them as the remote is identical to the original Moxi remote.
I can imagine the CSRs trying to figure out that customer call. This dumb box keeps changing channels all by itself.
Jed1

Jed1 to Leadslinger

Member

to Leadslinger
With Verizon that will also be the DSL service to. They have been trying to sell all the old POTS (plain old telephone service) systems in PA since 2007. I do know that they already sold of their POTS systems in 9 states. Verizon is going to be all wireless. AT&T is also going this route.

When you get the internet service hooked up you can track your usage by going to this page on SECVs website:
»www.secv.com/sunbury/sup ··· sun.html
Just click on the Internet Usage Meter. With 35 meg you get 500GB.

I understand your rant all to well as I am not immune from all the decline. The rural areas of our country are getting hit hard economically. I do not think the circumstances will improve in rural America.
Elected officials seem to be more concerned with serving the needs of moneyed interests than the needs of their own constituents.
Jed1

Jed1 to Knuckles5007

Member

to Knuckles5007
I have been wondering myself if any of the other partners are going to use full time caps.
Right now it looks like SECTV is not.
»www.sectv.com/Web/aspInt ··· ystem=LV
»www.sectv.com/Web/PDF/HS ··· ment.pdf

Here is what SECV has posted for their customers.
»www.secv.com/cdocs/hsi_c ··· _mah.pdf
»www.secv.com/cdocs/secv_nmd.pdf

So far it looks like this only affects SECV customers. I am wondering why they did this.
Jed1

Jed1 to JoeKustra

Member

to JoeKustra
They have told me that they are working on multiple problems. That ticket is still open. I just checked my speeds and I am at 10 meg down which is just one third of my speed.

From the other tickets listed it looks like they are starting to move us over to the Delano Hub.
»www.engr.ptd.net/ticket/ ··· view.cgi
New Ringold is still in progress and Tamaqua will start tonight after midnight.
Jed1

Jed1 to SeattleMatt

Member

to SeattleMatt
They added BBC World News in October. I had them correct a mistake in the listings as they had TBN and FamilyNet switched around. They only fixed this with the Hazleton lineup. The rest of them are wrong.
Hellrazor
Bah Humbug
join:2002-02-02
Abyss, PA

Hellrazor to Jed1

Member

to Jed1
said by Jed1:

Yea. That is the only change over the Moxi, which was a blue background. I think SECV picked those colors.
If you have a Moxi remote handy, you can walk by their house and change the channels on them as the remote is identical to the original Moxi remote.
I can imagine the CSRs trying to figure out that customer call. This dumb box keeps changing channels all by itself.

Damn that would be fun if you had a really annoying neighbor...