Comments on: Does Cable Service Follow the Address or the Box?

By: Jay

Jay — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 15:10:32 +0000

Hi,
I know this is an old post, but…
I have Optimum at my house and I have Optimum for Internet only at my store about one mile from my home.

For this past super bowl, I had to work the store, so I took one of my cable boxes from the house and connected it at the store. Only basic channels would come in on the box (good for the SB cause it was on network tv) but every other channel had the on screen message telling me to call to order that channel.

Modern cable boxes are like network devices so I was under the impression that they are addressed by ip or Mac address. However, I now think it has to do with how they route the data over their networks… If your move was short (like the 100feet mentioned above) then the box may have been on the same part of the network (thus the system did not perceive that the box had actually “move” anywhere.

My 1 mile move (actually into the next town over) may have put the box on a different part of the network and thus the system wasn’t “looking” for it there and as such the box wasn’t getting the “ok” to receive channels.

Side note: when I reconnected at home, I had to call to deactivate the box. The box had lost is programming either because of the move, or because I took a while to reconnect. (I kept it at the store for a few weeks.)

By: debbie

debbie — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 03:13:37 +0000

Any clues?

By: debbie

debbie — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 03:12:46 +0000

I too just moved one city over have not transferred my comcast yet and plugged in my digital boxes and they do get the same service package i had before including hbo however only one line into house works so i had to split all boxes off that and the little boxes do not work only the big boxes so i am also clueless as to why the landlord swears it hasnt been used up here in 2 yrs as old tenant used satelite am i safe or when i cancel mine will this quit too?

By: jay

jay — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 06:43:28 +0000

i wish someone knew the answers to your questions. i’m trying to figure out the same thing. i want to use my cable box at someone elses house for one night to watch pay per view. they just have basic cable service.

By: Mira's Desk

Mira's Desk — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 03:05:28 +0000

I know of many cases where the basic cable service remains “on” when there is no cable box. In this case one can connect the cable directly to the TV to receive basic cable service.

By: Russell Page

Russell Page — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 21:57:11 +0000

I don’t think they send techs to turn stuff off. I moved into a house a few months after nobody had lived in it. A few months later I plugged in my TV and the cable worked (which i cancelled). they then came and turned it off.

The cable had basically been “turned on” for six months.