We now have a better, more stable, slightly faster internet connection.  The reason is the result of a problem that was noticed over the weekend.

You see, the connection we used to have came from a pole that was on the south side of the street on the south side of our house.  The run from that pole to the side of our house was at least 40 yards.  Over the weekend, we noticed that it had started to droop – badly.

Monday morning, it was sagging low enough that it was causing a problem with the BIG RIG truck traffic that uses the street along the south side of our house.  So, I called in to the cable internet ISP and told tech support that we had a problem.  They took note of it and said that the earliest they could guarantee someone would arrive to work on it would be Thursday (yesterday).  But, they made a note of the special situation (traffic problems) and said if someone could come out sooner they would.

Thursday morning when I looked out at it, the cable was laying entirely on the ground.  I sort of suspected at that time that the company would need to replace it, even though I still had internet access.

When the technician showed up, he did a quick walk around the house and said that while he could just rehang the cable where it was, he would rather bring it in from the line that runs along the major street to the east of us.  I told him to do whatever he needed to do to make the connection as reliable as possible.  Access to the internet is important to me.

The new line comes off of a pole that is only 15 yards from the house.  That is a major benefit because it puts less weight on the joint at the pole and at the house.  Plus, the shorter distance causes less signal drop due to the native resistance of the cable, so we have a slightly faster and stronger signal.  Life is good.