[Leica] Epsom P800 Update

[Brian Reid]

> I think I need to get the ISP people here and redo everything.

In the world of commercial service delivery, there is almost always a 
formal division between them and you. The water company here is 
responsible for delivering water to my water meter, and I am responsible 
for the pipes after that. If a pipe bursts in my basement, it is my 
problem. If a pipe bursts under my front yard on their side of the water 
meter, it is their problem.

Ditto for electricity. The wires up to the electric meter belong to 
them. The wires that go from the electric meter to my main fuse box 
belong to me.

Ditto for telephone. The telco people have popularized the phrase 
"inside wiring" to describe the part that they are not responsible for. 
There is a gray box on the outside of my house. Their phone wire goes 
into it, and my phone wires come out of it.

Each of these services has what is referred to as a "demarc" 
(demarcation), but most tradespersons spell it "demark", as does my 
Scrabble dictionary. Diagnosing whether the service is on the inside or 
outside of the demarc is how you determine who pays for a repair.

Cable TV is slightly different because they want to charge you 
individually for each television. So they don't put a demarc on the 
outside of your house. The cable box is the demarc. Usually they own it. 
If you have two TVs, you need two cable boxes, each of which demarcates 
their service from your consumption of it.

Internet service is normally demarcated at the modem. The wire going in 
to the modem belongs to the internet company; the wire going from the 
modem to your router belongs to you. However, since most people have no 
idea how to hook up stuff inside their houses, most internet companies 
will do "inside wiring" on the customer side of the demarc, simply 
because it helps them sell more service. If your internet service 
doesn't work, you won't consume their product.

My guess is that in the early days of Edison and Westinghouse selling 
electrical service there were similar issues of fuzzy demarcation. Maybe 
Edison Electric would hook up your lamps for you. I remember the era in 
which the telephone company owned all of the telephones and I wasn't 
allowed to take them apart.

Around here there are internet "inside wiring" companies that will set 
up technology on the customer side of the demarc. Best Buy's Geek Squad 
is the best known, but there are lots of them out there. If there was 
still such a thing as the Yellow Pages you could find such companies 
there.

Unless your ISP is specifically in the business of inside wiring, they 
might not be the right people to do this.