comcast just for summer
 

Does anyone subscribe to Comcast for internet use just for summer months? Will be in Wolfeboro for a few months in our rental. thanks

Thought Metrocast covered Wolfeboro :confused:

Call Fairpoint and ask if you can get DSL without a yearly contract.
Call the cable company and ask if you can get cable without a yearly contract.
Ask the landlord if there was ever such in home.
Many rentals provide this with rent but those are usually the weekly rentals.

Yes, it is Metrocast and yes, you can get it just for the summer or the few months you are in Wolfeboro.

This is correct. The only IF is.. IF the home is wired. I have Metrocast in my cottage at Lake Shore Park, that I can turn on and off with a phone call. We only pay for the months we have the place open.

cable for summer
 

thanks all.. such a newby I dont even know the cable carrier.. good advice

Idly curious...

Do you get a monthly rate for that or are they adjusting a standard contract period (eg: 2 years) into actual usage (...24 used months)?

Seasonal Cable
 

We have Metrocast cable service at our cottage on East Bear Island. We had to pay for a full year of service we we first subscribed. Since then, a phone call takes care of turning the service on or off. Last season when I called to turn the servce off, the MC rep. asked when I wanted it back on. I said April 1, 2013 so when we open up this year, service will be on.

MetroCast docking fee...
 

For the months we don't use cable or internet, we're charged a $9.08/month "docking" fee.

Why not just pick up a mifi, or some sort of cellular based wifi hotspot?

Our AT&T iPhones can also be used as wireless hotspots at the press of a button. Many phones these days have the capability. Just bump your data plan for the time period if you don have enough data.

We use an AT&T hotspot out on Barndoor and it works beautifully. They allow you to suspend service after you've had the service for a minimum of 6 months. The Verizon hotspot would not work on the island.

I have my Time Warner shut off for 6 months in summer at my ski house.$5 monthly when "off".The nice part is it is never off when I go there in summer!

I had 'free' service to an apartment I had about 20 years ago. I forget some of the details but I was told the cable company would eventually send a tech around if somebody stopped paying a bill. Then they would disconnect all the dormant lines at the same time. As long as they don't have reason to stop by they probably won't bother you.

Don't think its worth it because it does get the service "turned" on each fall.A friend has had the same situation as me for the last 4 years.Pretty sure if it went for a year they would manually shut it off.

Cable service.
 

I know of a number of folks who cancelled their subscription and or moved to a new location and find that connecting directly to the cable outlet on the wall allows basic cable. I talked to a technician and was told normally there will always be a signal at the cable outlet unless they unhook the cable at the pole. Most of the time they don't. You do need a box to unscramble premium channels. The cable company has some kind of password in the box.

There is a new switch installed on the poles that can 'hook and unhook' your service electronically from the office. This eliminate the manual labor of climbing the poles. This is necessary as there are boxes out there that you can buy with password. This is illegal and there is a heavy fine if caught.

It's not really a "password", it's more of an encryption key, and it's VERY rare to find a system anymore where you can buy a box that will unscramble channels you don't subscribe to.

The keys are rotated, plus in every modern system the boxes communicate back to the head-end to essentially authorize channels in real time.

^^ correct. unless the box is provisioned in the billing system, responding to/communicating with the headend equipment (needs to in order to obtain an IP address, 2-way communication), and also to unencrypt the digital channels, without that you've got nada.

"I talked to a technician and was told normally there will always be a signal at the cable outlet unless they unhook the cable at the pole. Most of the time they don't. "

if you can get channels in a dwelling that's supposed to be "off", someone is not doing their job. it's either supposed to be disco'd at the pole, or, in the case of multi family units (apartments etc), all the outlets are run to lock boxes fed by 1 or more drops from the pole. inactive accounts are disco'd in the lock box in these cases. or at lease they're supposed to be...

So what happens when you have Internet but not TV? They can't just disconnect you...

they install a filter that blocks out the video. referred to as an "internet only filter".