I Think I Figured It Out . . .

When I got up this morning I had no data service on my Samsung S8+ phone and only 1 tiny little bar of cell service, which was not enough to actually make a phone call.




I was more worried than I might have been normally because right before I went to bed about 1:30 this morning, I did a System Update on my phone. So I was a little concerned that the update might be the problem. But then I noticed that I had email coming In on the phone until about 8:50 am, so it had been working all night.

Finally, after waiting an hour or so with no change, I enabled WiFi Calling through the RV Park’s WiFi. All I really had to do was to turn it on and then give it a street address for the 911 system.

And it worked just fine to call Jan to say, “Good Morning!”

Then gradually as the day passed, everything slowly came  back, with first 1X for a while, going in and out, then 3G most of the afternoon, although I didn’t seem to be able to get any data through it.

Then about 6pm I was back at 4G, with data, and my usual 3-4 bars of signal.

I spent most of the day playing with Zen Cart, working on figuring out how to load a new client’s data file into it and have it all come out in the right place. Not sure how it’s all going to fit., but I’ll shoehorn it all in somewhere.

I Think I Figured It Out.

Sunday afternoon I went online and signed us for the Movies Extra Package on DirecTV. It gives us 8 additional channels for  $4.99/month, including a couple that I might like, C&I (Crime & Investigation) and Smithsonian. But the main reason we got it was because Jan wanted the Hallmark Movies and Mysteries Channel.

It said I should have the new channels, starting at 565 in just a few minutes. But they never did show up. In fact we have no channels at all there, not even on the Guide. And I even tried rebooting the receiver.

So yesterday morning I called DTV and they said I should have it, and they tried to turn it on again. No luck.

I even went online and found out about the ‘secret’ reboot command CLEANMYBOX. This is accessed by going to the Search function and typing in CLEANMYBOX. Then select ALL and hold down the RED button.

This will cause your DVR to do a full reboot, reloading both the Schedule and the Guide data. I was hopeful about this since it had fixed similar problems for several others. But again, no luck.

Then today while I was looking at the DTV site again, one of the new channel names jumped out at me – HDNet. And it looks like that is the problem.

Although we have an HD DVR, we got it for the increased storage space. We don’t actually have HD because our Winegard Carryout dome won’t support it. But what’s curious is that, unlike other packages of HD channels, the Movies Extra package is not flagged as HD.

Nor did the girl I talked to mention it, strange since our account is not marked for HD. So I guess I’ll have to call them back and cancel it. At least until we have to get a new dish for HD next year sometime since DTV will be doing away with all the SD channels.





Thought for the Day:
 

Sometimes the handwriting on the wall is in Bright, Bold letters.

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