TITAM - Technical issues that affected me

  As of Nov 14, it appears PIA has stopped working again: Play Store not working (on some devices, OK on others) YouTube not working (on some devices, OK on others) Can't connect to BBC.com, CNN.com, but can connect to most other sites fine Smart home devices offline (ecobee, Honeywell, etc)  Honeywell Home: Endless loading Of course, nothing changed on my end, and everything works just fine outside of PIA.  Mobiles also work outside of router-based PIA with the PIA app. See here for the original saga.  Seems they can't keep their network stable for more than 3 months at a time now.  Awesome stuff, those Next-Gen servers - a real improvement! Strangely, the new problems are not as widespread or consistent as before.  One device has no YouTube, but others do.  One device can't access CNN or BBC, but others do.  A third device has no Play Store, but others do. One constant is the smart home devices.  As before, they are connected, but cannot re...

Note: this post has nothing to do with the dreaded "C-wire" that is required to run an ecobee.  If you're looking for that, go elsewhere. One of the more frustrating items for a heating/cooling system is the sheer number of possible ways to set it up.  Sure, there are "standard" ways, but there are also always other ways. My previous post on a missing G (fan) wire was not my only issue; in fact, it wasn't even the hardest issue.  The actual problem I had - the one I called ecobee about - was that my humidifier wasn't working. For anyone who may not know, a whole-home furnace-mounteded humidifier is de rigueur   in Canada and the northern parts of the USA.  The cheapest and most common kind is the "evaporative" kind which uses hot furnace air to work - hence, it only runs when the furnace runs. There are undoubtedly many ways to wire such a system, most of which the ecobee3 will support.  But it sure helps to know what the ecobee3 do...

Note: this post has nothing to do with the dreaded "C-wire" that is required to run an ecobee.  If you're looking for that, go elsewhere. One of the more frustrating items for a heating/cooling system is the sheer number of possible ways to set it up.  Sure, there are "standard" ways, but there are also always other ways. We had a new furnace installed not long ago.  However, there were not enough wires run to the thermostat to support the additional A/C system.  The cable had only enough wires for heat-only operation. To make it work, the installers should have run a new cable, but they didn't.  Instead, they disconnected the G (fan) wire, and used it for Y (cold call) instead.  This led to an atypical installation that lacked a G (fan) wire at the thermostat. Note it still worked.  The thermostat sent the W (heat) and Y (cold) signals, and the furnace controlled its own fan.  No worries, thanks to them thar new-fangled furnace, y'all. ...