* *** TING_CONVERSION_NEXTDOOR_POST TXT - 25 Aug 2021 12:46:07 - JGKNAUTH Post made on 5/30/21 in reply to https://nextdoor.com/news_feed/?post=188607846 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Converting to Ting Internet, 1-VoIP, and Ting Mobile ========== == ==== ========= ======= === ==== ====== I started using Ting Internet in mid-March and have had no problems at all with it. I returned all my Spectrum equipment in mid-April. I also switched my cell phone service from Verizon to Ting Mobile. I'm now on Ting Internet (vs Spectrum Internet), YouTube TV (vs Spectrum TV and DVR), 1-VoIP (vs Spectrum Voice "landline" phone), and Ting Mobile (vs Verizon). It looks like I will be saving at least $100 a month after all these changes. TING INTERNET ============= Previously I had an Ethernet cable running from my Linksys router to the Spectrum cable modem. Now that cable goes from my router to the ONT box Ting installed in my office. All my other internet and LAN wiring stayed exactly the same. When my desktop (Ethernet-connected) PC is not running heavy background jobs, Ting speeds are around 940 Mbps down and up. On my wireless laptop in another room, the speeds are around 200 to 300+ Mbps down/up -- very good for wireless at that distance. Speeds are lower when background number crunching is going on because that takes away cycles from the speed-measuring program. My TVs use wireless to access the router and thus to Ting internet -- builtin wireless on one TV and via Amazon Fire sticks on others. I haven't seen any stream stuttering with Ting. YOUTUBE TV ========== YouTube TV's system with their cloud DVR took a little getting used to vs Spectrum TV's system and hardware DVR. There are definitely some pros and cons, but I guess I'm getting trained. It's certainly nice that YouTube TV runs well on PCs as well as on TVs. In fact it is easier to control on PCs than on TVs. On the other hand, the Spectrum DVR/guide is much more compact, easier to manage, and seems more functional and better organized in some areas than YouTube TV's. On YTTV's guide and its other screens there are big (often live video) displays for each entry, which limits the number of entries you can see without a lot of scrolling. Also, the Spectrum guide lets you see two weeks ahead; YouTube TV limits that to one day. Etc., etc. Net: It's different, but a lot less expensive than Spectrum TV to get the same channels (at least almost all those I had watched before). [UPDATE 5/31/21: After the initial post I found there is an apparent Firefox bug when playing a YouTube TV movie or show. Network activity stops after a short time and the buffer then gets depleted, resulting in a spinning arrow lockup. However on the same PCs there is no problem running the same YTTV movies or shows under either Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome. Also, Firefox has no problem running a YouTube (vs YouTube TV) video. There is no YTTV lockup on my TVs or my iPhone. I reported the problem to Mozilla on 5/30/21.] [UPDATE 8/25/21: The Firefox/YouTube TV lockup problem disappeared after a couple of weeks. I haven't seen it since. Also, YouTube TV's guide does now show more than a day's worth of listings; however it is still much harder to navigate than Spectrum's guide, e.g., scroll ahead a week.] 1-VOIP ====== The landline change to 1-VoIP was essentially just unplugging a phone line from the Spectrum phone modem and instead plugging that line into the little ATA gizmo (Analog Telephone Adapter) that 1-VoIP sends you. The ATA connects to my router (thus the internet) via an Ethernet cable whereas the Spectrum phone modem connected to the internet via the Spectrum cable. I was very happy to see that I could use unchanged my current phone line wiring to my answering machine, which is in a different room than the internet equipment. Many years ago Time Warner had done some rewiring of my house's "AT&T" phone wiring to enable the Time Warner (now Spectrum) phone modem. That changed wiring turned out to be exactly what I needed for the 1-VoIP ATA. The sound quality with the 1-VoIP landline seems about the same as with Spectrum's VoIP. 1-VoIP has a nice website that provides much more data than Spectrum. Also, 1-VoIP supports Nomorobo to filter spam/scam calls. Spectrum used to use Nomorobo, but then changed to their own filter, which seemed to work less well than Nomorobo. TING MOBILE =========== Ting Mobile (sold last year to DISH by Tucows) is now pretty much separate from Ting Internet (still part of Tucows), although the two Tings still share some backend accounting, website, and support services. That caused me some initial confusion until I discovered the split. So far I have found the support for both the Tings to be good. I use cell phone services very little, much less than the simplest Verizon plan offers, but I was still paying a lot for. I did have to get a new cell phone to use with Ting Mobile. The problem was that my old cell phone used Verizon cell towers/frequencies/whatever. Ting Mobile around here uses T-Mobile frequencies. My old iPhone 7 did not pick up very well what was available after the switch to Ting Mobile. The iPhone 12 has no problems with the T-Mobile frequencies. I was due to update my phone soon anyway. CALLER ID CONSIDERATIONS ======================== Caller ID is an area that Ting Mobile and 1-VoIP handle less well than Verizon and Spectrum. The calling *number* displayed is good (non-spoofed) -- at least as good as the still-being-implemented Stir/Shaken protocols now provide. However when you receive a call on a Ting Mobile phone, the displayed caller *name* is usually just a location, if any name at all is displayed. That's because Ting Mobile does not query a telecom industry CNAM database that associates names with phone numbers. And when you call from a Ting Mobile phone, "WIRELESS CALLER" instead of your name is usually the name displayed on the called phone because Ting does not update the CNAM database to record your name for your phone number. You get what you pay for. In contrast, 1-VoIP does the database update that allows your name to be displayed on the called phone (if the called phone company queries the database). However when someone calls a 1-VoIP phone, 1-VoIP queries the CNAM database only the first time it gets a call from that number. It then records the name-number association in a local 1-VoIP database and uses that name from then on when that number calls. So if the CNAM data later changes, the 1-VoIP displayed name can be obsolete. You have to notify 1-VoIP telling them they need to check CNAM and probably do a manual update to get things back in sync. The takeaway is that you should keep your phones' contact lists up-to-date. Capable phones display that contact list name information for the calling number instead of the name the phone companies provide. If someone calls who is not in your contact list, the name displayed by your phone is always questionable. Sidenote: The iPhone Settings > Phone > "Silence Unknown Callers" function is nice to know about for people who don't want to be bugged by calls from people not in their contact lists. That's what I have found so far. I hope this is helpful. All in all I'm happy with the changes I made. Jeff