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Got this in my e-mail today from Comcast:

Dear Comcast Customer:

On Wednesday, November 9 at 2 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time), FEMA and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will conduct the nation’s first ever Emergency Alert System (EAS) test. The purpose of this test is to help determine if the national-level system will work as designed, should officials ever need to send a national alert.

This test will last approximately three minutes and will be seen on all local, cable, and satellite TV stations across the country, as well as radio.

Here’s What You Should Know

Your Comcast programming will be temporarily interrupted. However, as soon as the test ends, you will be returned to your regularly scheduled programming. While we do not anticipate an interruption in your service, in some rare cases, you may need to:

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• Use your remote to channel up and then channel down or power down your box to fully restore programming after the test completes.
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• Any DVR recordings that are in progress during this test will be interrupted, and in some cases, lost.
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If you experience the Emergency Alert System message for more than five minutes, please do the following:

• Power-cycle your cable box by unplugging the power cord from the outlet
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• Wait thirty seconds and then plug it back in

The guide data and Video On Demand content will take a period of time to fully restore. Please wait 20 minutes before choosing Video On Demand as this might result in other errors with your box. To watch a video and learn more on how to Power-cycle, CLICK HERE.

To learn more about the national EAS test, visit us at: http://www.comcast.com/nationaleastest/ or visit FEMA at http://www.fema.gov/emergency/ipaws/eas_info.shtm or the FCC at http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/emergency-alert-system-nationwide-test

We thank you for being a loyal Comcast customer.

Comcast Customer Service

Actually they've been running tests here overnight almost all week. It has REALLY screwed up the Comcast TV and net between 1AM and 5AM! SLOW net, sometimes completely blocked. On TV the channel changes by itself, mostly bumping from Fox or PCNC to a shopping channel.

The MetrSource news feed we use is also affected. When the Comcast test runs the Metro news feed locks and it's clock is messed up. Metro is NOT on Comcast and feeds from Phoenix so it looks like it is a co-ordinated, nationwide test.

I told the engineer and he could care less.

Meanwhile the wireless net I use my Edge on at work is not with Comcast and works fine.