Cheryl wants to know if she can get a closed captioning with no internet access. Leo says that there may not be. What you need to find is a non-profit like an Independent Living Research Center to help with alternatives. Look into that.
Steve ordered internet service to his house and he had to sue them in small claims court because they didn't show up to install it. He won a judgment of $600 plus court costs thanks to a California state law that provides for such relief. Leo says that it's likely the technician had a choice to either fix a complicated install and stand up the next guy, or stop the install and move on. Either way, a customer gets left in the lurch. But not showing up at all is bad customer service, and $600 is about right for a wasted afternoon.
Bill got a Samsung Galaxy Fold 2 for his birthday and he keeps getting knocked off the internet with it while being on the phone, through AT&T. Leo says it could be the location, with a cellphone tower that is having trouble. Leo says that it would be a good idea to go back to the AT&T store and have them reset it. From the chatroom ... here is a conversation about how to reset it.
Stacy lives in rural Michigan and she has really slow internet. Leo says that broadband companies don't want to install high-speed internet into rural areas because there aren't enough customers to justify the cost. Will satellite be a good alternative? Leo says that thanks to Elon Musk's Starlink network it will be. But it's $99 a month and costs $600 in equipment. And the more satellites they put up, the faster it will get. They've only put up 10% of the satellites they want to so far.
Another option is LTE and 5G if she's close to a tower.
Marcy is tired of the high cost of cable after that initial bundle deal. She's ready to cut the cable. Leo says that you have to read the fine print in your bundle deal to see what the details are. Usually, they raise the rate pretty dramatically. Marcy went scorched earth and canceled her service, then waited a few months to get the next offer. Leo says you can do that, but you can also threaten to cancel and ask to speak to the retention specialist. They can give you a better bargain.
There's a town in a remote area of Washington State that was destroyed due to fire, and Elon Musk's Starlink has volunteered to restore internet access to the beleaguered town at no charge. With about 600 Starlink Satellites in orbit, the town now has access to the private beta for use of emergency services and communications.
Benny's constant zoom meetings have killed his hotspot's bandwidth caps. Now he has to get internet access at home. Leo says that hot-spotting isn't meant to be your main home internet. It's only for being on the road where you have no access available. You could continue to do it and pay for more bandwidth. Your ISP may charge you less right now. But generally, cellular data costs more than standard internet access. Check out your cable provider. They may work you a bundled deal, but sometimes those aren't the best deals in the long run.
Al wants to block all internet traffic coming into his Windows 7 computer so he can use it in his local area network. Leo recommends using the Windows firewall, allowing traffic through 192 for access to your network, and block everything else. You can also do it through the router.
Tom is worried that the Internet will become overloaded if everyone is staying at home. Leo says that it'll work just fine. Networks are engineered with overcapacity now, and there won't be an issue. What about bandwidth caps? Leo says those were more about making money than anything having to do with capability for load. Leo also says one of the problems is people who don't have internet access and rely on work, schools or libraries, will be cut off. And he thinks the next few months will show that.
Nancy bought an HP Stream laptop. Is that for streaming video only? Can she only use it with the internet? Leo says that she can, sure. But if she doesn't have internet access, turn on hotspotting on a mobile device.
