I think Comcast is on to me....

R

ryan

Finder, Filleter, and Fryer of Nemo
Aug 20, 2002
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Fort Wayne, Indiana
So is it really stealing cable if its their fault? Every since comcast hooked up my cable internet (years ago now) I have had showtime, cinimax and hbo for free (if you can call it free, they still charge way too much). I know a few other people who have the same thing.

But today, there was a comcast van parked around the corner from my house (in front of a house where no one currently lives) and the two guys carried a ladder through the easment and jumped my fence to get at the box on the pole. As of the time i left for class they hadn't come to check the hookup on the side of my house.

Maybe im paranoid form those darn commercials they keep running about what happens when you steal cable. Think they would do anything ?

ryan

at least it was comcast and not the movie companies.....i'd have to hide my whole hard drive.....
 
This is a problem that, as far as I know, they are aware of, but haven't tried to fix yet. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the problem is as follows: data streaming to your cable modem comes through your cable line on a very high channel (I believe in the 80s). Normally, to limit a customer to basic cable, a cable company will simply filter the cable line to only allow channels below a certain number. However, since the cable modem needs this high channel number, they can no longer use this filter, and all channels below it come through.

Sounds hard to believe, I know, and maybe it's not even true. However, I have a coworker who has taken advantage of this "feature" of cable modems for the last several months. (I also work closely with the cable industry, so I am blessed with very knowledgable coworkers). My assumption is that fixing the problem would be more expensive than letting it go at this point. How many people get cable modems but try to stick with basic/no cable?

Incidentally, my coworker told them about this issue, and they claimed they were going to come back out with a different filter to "fix" the problem. That was months ago, and they still haven't.

Any corrections are welcome.

Cheers!

-sj
 
I'd fight that bill till the day I died!!! And I can be one serious BI$%H, just ask my husband! HA HA! ;-)

Anyway, when my hubby and I bought our first home and they (it wasn't comcast back then, but comcast eventually took over whoever it was) came to hook up the cable, I had been misquoted some minor thing and in order to make me happy (aka - stop my bi%$&ing) they gave us HBO, Cinemax and Showtime free for 3 months.... when we moved out 5 years later, we still had all 3 and had never been charged for them.

When I called to hook up service at our new house, they told me "Oh, uh, um, that lineup doesn't exist anymore, you'll have to choose a new lineup..." but not one word was mentioned about the free services.

It wasn't my fault that they don't have procedures in place to terminate a "freebie" service after the "freebie" period has expired! And darnit if we don't miss the heck out of those funny/crazy shows that used to come on HBO late on Sunday nights!! :sad Oh well......
 
Nah. You never signed up for a program that gave you those options and never agreed to pay anything for them. They are rendering the service to you - and its their fault. I mean, you may be able to just say that you signed up for X package and didn't realize that you were even getting any extras since you trusted them to provide what you paid for.

If they *do* try to make you pay for it, fight it because that's ridiculous. Now, if you were, say, running a cable line from your next door neighbor's to your house, then yah, it'd be your fault:)
 
VitaminJ said:
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the problem is as follows:...Any corrections are welcome.

Cheers!

-sj
Click to expand...
I remember from electronics 101 (way back when) that you can make all sorts of filters for frequency pretty easy; notch filters, high filters, low filters, bandpass filters... but I don't know if it is that simple on cable signals
 
ryan said:
... I have had showtime, cinimax and hbo for free ....
Click to expand...
If they try and accuse you of stealing the pay channels, pretend you are a religious extremist and would never have such filth in your house - and how dare they insult you and they will be hearing from the AFLCIO..
:D
 
10 years ago they used low and high filters (they call them negative traps to descramble, positive scramble). A friend gave me a set for all the channels. :D Now days though I don't know what they are using. To answer your question, I would say you have nothing to worry about. As long as you didn't tamper with the box they can't charge you for it and you can't get in trouble. We researched the laws back when my friend sold the filters and you can only get in trouble if you manipulate the signal or mess with their equipment. You did neither.
 
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