Sometime after 9 PM on July 11th, I noticed that my internet had started to have issues, only giving me about half of the transfer rate I was supposed to be getting since my switch to CenturyLink (40 mbps download & 3 upload), which can be seen here:

After the call on the 11th, they said they were going to have somebody look at it, but I never got an update on this & attempted to contact them again for a followup on the 13th, to which I got 2 answers that didn't go anywhere (the first call not saying a thing after their picked up, the second call not saying anything until I started repeating "Hello?" to see if anybody was even there, they eventually asked for my name & account number, where after I gave them that information, they started claiming that they couldn't hear me speaking.

I tried again the following day (the 14th) in an attempt to get an update on what was going on, finally getting somebody who responded, it seems that a support ticket wasn't even opened on the first call I made on the 11th.  I did start messing with the cables attached to the back of my modem & did a few more power recycles to see if it was just a loose cable, I got it working again (at full speed), so I closed the work ticket & went to bed (spending more time that I should have trying to get this working & mitigating what online tasks I could get done while the connection was malfunctioning).  When I woke up however, I saw that the issue was back (this time on the other line to the modem), so I rescheduled the previous work order (luckily I still had the email with the confirm, reschedule & cancel links in it).

The technician came to work on the issue on the 15th, stating that the problem was simply a clasp that had disconnected itself from the connection, so all he had to do was reclasp it & my internet was working at full capacity again.

After the got it working again, I was discussing the transfer rates with him & prorated refunds for time that the internet was not working at full capacity.  He explained that I would get an automatic prorated refund based on when the support ticket was opened, but this would only be fore the time that the ticket was opened (this means I'd only be getting back to the 14th, the 11th to the 13th I'd get stiffed on).  I stated that I might have to call CenturyLink's billing to try & get back the rest of it (stating that I had speedtest & call logs regarding the matter I could probably use as evidence to get the rest of it).

Beyond that, he also was talking to me about the capabilities of what I should be able to get in transfer rates on my home (this coming after I was speaking to my neighbor about his outage with CenturyLink, a full outage for a couple days in his case, but he was getting a MUCH FASTER transfer rate).  The technician stated that I should be able to get a higher transfer rate & for testing sake, he increased my upload rate to test it's capabilities.  While he increased it to 20 mbps for this testing period (which he was intending on lowering back to what CenturyLink is claiming what should be available in my area, despite my neighbors being able to get 100 mbps upload & 40 upload), I was getting roughly 13 mbps when I ran a speedtest with the elevated speeds.

It appears for the time being, he's going to leave it at the higher transfer rate (at least until CenturyLink's system kicks it back to the mere 3 that was assigned to me when I switched back to them in 2018).  For this reason, I decided I wouldn't be seeking the addition credit to my account for the 3 days that isn't going to be prorated in the automatic refund as it's going to improve my ability to continue doing stuff online (at least as long as the increased upload rate remains for the 3 days that did not count due to their not creating a support ticket during the original conversation on the 11th).

Note that I have not been streaming to Twitch since the switch to CenturyLink & the initial tests that made it clear I could not continue streaming online multiplayer games with only 3 mbps upload rate, only leaving the possibility for single player games that didn't rely on internet bandwidth for decent functionality.  However provided this upload rate sticks for a while, I may be able to go back to streaming to Twitch until it's lowered again (at that point we're back to the waiting game of waiting for either CenturyLink to wire the neighborhood with fiber and ultimately until Google Fiber becomes available in my area, which is probably the only thing that is going to end my boycott that is keeping me from putting my payment information on any Google service after YouTube allowed Bandai/Namco to go after my YouTube channel simply because of a link that went to a review of one of their games on my personal site that they didn't agree with).

Long story short, those that are following the channel can expect some more streams to Twitch (at least until the upload rate is lowered again), so it's a pleasant change after 4 days of hell of not being able to do half of what I've been attempting to get done, we'll just have to see how long it lasts before I have to stop streaming again...

YouTube video corruption

I started noticing that videos uploaded to YouTube starting on 6/7/2021 were getting corrupted after YouTube finished processing those videos (while being unable to stream online multiplayer games to Twitch until I have decent internet again, I have still been recording gameplay for upload to YouTube when I run into something I feel is worth preserving).  I wasted a couple days trying to get this resolved on their site (limiting my game time as a result, even more so than the health issues that started limiting my gameplay back when I was still streaming to Twitch), reprocessing & reuploading multiple times to try & fix the end result, unfortunately there was always corruption on their end despite my best efforts to try and get a different result.

On 6/8/2021, I decided to take a different route in providing an uncorrupted version of these videos, this came through providing the original videos (prior to being uploaded to YouTube) on my personal site, allowing downloading of them & providing links to those downloads in each description (as well as creating a playlist to remind me of which videos I would need to fix later once determined that the corruption issue had been fixed on their end).

I'm also considering finding another site to upload them to that won't be affected by the corruption issue, I may start uploading those videos there as streaming alternatives to downloading uncorrupted versions if this issue takes too long to be corrected...

PS3/VITA cutoff backtracked

After further looking into this issue, it appears that PlayStation decided to backtrack on their decision to cut off full functionality of PS3/VITA options over PSN:
https://blog.playstation.com/2021/04/19/playstation-store-on-ps3-and-ps-vita-will-continue-operations

Of course these functions still have been cut off in the mobile app, as well as their online store (accessible through web browsers), meaning the only access to PlayStation 3 & VITA titles are through their own stores (meaning their own devices) & remote installation is no longer an option (nor is wishlisting of those title, which I used to keep track of what I still wanted to purchase at a later date, particularly when one of those games/DLC went on sale, apparently no longer an important concern considering I haven't seen a sale on PS3 titles in over a year & a half, but this also means I am likely to forget about what I still wanted to purchase if I wasn't ready to do so when I found them).

This means that I am also pulling back on my own cutoffs, not entirely, but at least to some degree.  Considering the mobile apps & site still have removed most PS3 functionality (with the exception of trophies, the only remaining remnants of PS3 & VITA games), I will still be removing PSN friends that haven't logged into the PS3 in over a year (with the limited exceptions stated before; roughly two-thirds of my PSN friend list has already been wiped because of this, with more expected to be removed in the coming months, as those users are close to a year according to PS3 login dates).  In regards to associating my PSN account with other accounts, I believe I will leave this removed for the time being; if I do decide to re-associate my PSN account with other online accounts in the future, incoming friend invites on my PSN account will remain disabled (seeing as I was only receiving friend invites for people that were using a PS4 or higher, which I was not accepting after looking at the trophies on their profiles).

What will continue is I'll still be willing to purchase PS3 titles over the PSN store, as well as DLC for games I already own (or may acquire in the future, provided the PSN store still remains functional on the PS3), this may open up more options for games to stream on Twitch (provided I can get my Elgato Game Capture HD to work again with Twitch servers, the Elgato developers unfortunatley unable to fix this for over a year & not responding to inquiries about it).  At this point a boycott against Sony products is an afterthought & unlikely to happen (unless the PSN store becomes inaccessible on the PS3 in the future, it's already having EXTREMELY noticeable latency problems).

Since the announcement of the PS3 cutoff, I also have been marking anything re-released on Steam as ignored; I will be going back on that decision to remove those games that were ignored if that was the only stipulation in that decision, however most of those games also had a Windows 10 requirement, those games will still remain on the ignore list as I still have not bit the bullet & decided to upgrade to Windows 10 yet...

Additionally, there was a detail on my Steam profile where I stated I did not recommend purchasing from Sony anymore, referencing this cutoff (which at this point has been backtracked after seeing the backlash they got as a result of their plans to do so); I will be removing those notes, however I still have not determined whether I will be re-adding those links to Sony products on my hardware specifications on my Steam profile (I may if I can still find store pages for them, but I don't intend on spending an extensive amount of time trying to find pages to purchase them from either).

Further PSN cutoffs

In addition to removing my PSN account from my Epic Games account last night, I've taken further steps to cut off PSN, this one related to other PSN users that aren't still using a PS3.

Roughly 4 days ago, I disabled receiving new friend requests on my primary PSN account.  This is because most friend requests I have been receiving do not have gaming history below PS4 or have no gaming history at all (normally meaning a new account for trolling/harassment purposes).  I may still be willing to add more PS3 friends in the future, but I didn't see a point in allowing additional incoming friend requests when they were people that I couldn't play with on that system or simply people trying to cause problems, so this will cut off people that are simply using PSN as an outlet to be abusive.

The second thing is I'm going to start pruning PSN friends that haven't been online in over a year.  Note that I'm going to be going by my PS3 friends list (not by what's on the site or the mobile app, as these have cut off PS3 support), meaning anybody who has not logged into a PS3 in over a year will be removed.  Of course there may be some exceptions, but for the most part, anybody listed as not being online in over a year when looking at my PS3 friend list will be removed.

Additional cutoffs are to be expected when it comes to the Sony brand name in the future.  A full boycott against Sony is still being considered, but as of yet, still not determined to be a step taken, but it's still a high probability in the near to distant future...

PSN cutoff, family/health issues limiting online activity

For those who have a PlayStation 3, you may have noticed that your system may not be able to stay connected to the PSN network.  In my case, I start up the system, it disconnects in under a minute & the only way to get it to reconnect again is to restart the system, which only repeats the same issue.

Because of this issue, I will be removing my PSN username from accounts that are associated with it as a means of cutting off those that still have access to it, this decision made in response to Sony's choice to ignore the complaints about this particular issue.  I also intend on publishing a boycott to my personal site in the near future if PSN continues to remain unstable as it currently is on this system.  With the way that PSN works when it comes to crossplay, removing this association should sever my getting thrown into games with PS4 players (those that play on PC, we can still play together, but I will no longer be supporting PSN if they can't keep their networks working, nor will I be putting any more money towards their products or franchises) & hopefully cut off a lot of the griefers from those systems as well.  As an addition step, I will be removing all links on my system specs on this blog, my Twitch channel & my Steam profile to show that I no longer recommend continued support through being a customer of this company (along with a note on those profiles that states specifically this).

On a further note, those who have been supporting the channel may have noticed I haven't been listing free games lately (this really only affects those subscribing at $5 or more on Patreon currently, there hasn't been a Twitch sub to my channel since July of 2019, one of the reasons why I had to make cuts to my internet service & stop streaming online multiplayer games, I wasn't making anything through Twitch to be able to afford it's continuation).  The reason for this has been a number of reasons, the first one a lot of people are already aware of, it's due to health issues I've been having myself (excessive bleeding leading to anemia, which is lack of energy & a lot of pain when sitting for long periods of time).

The second reason is a family matter, my mother has recently been diagnosed with cancer & we're working out the details about what treatments she'll be taking to deal with the disease (currently determined to be daily radiation treatments as it was caught earlier, doesn't look like chemo is going to be on the table, but we don't know that for certain yet).  As if the corona situation wasn't a bad enough plague to the world, our family is now dealing with a life threatening disease that is guaranteed to kill if left unchecked (covid seems to have less of an effect on those that are more healthy, it's possible to survive it without having to have treatments for it, but I still wouldn't suggest getting around others if you even think you might have it).

Obviously the days of my streaming as they were (being able to stream whatever I want) are over, at least until an ISP becomes available in my area that isn't going to have a monthly cost of a newborn child every month (figuratively speaking, but that's what it feels like when you can't afford it)...  Currently I am waiting for Google Fiber to become available in my area, which I can't say I expect will be coming any time soon as even CenturyLink still has not followed through with their statement from over 3 years ago that they were going to be putting in fiber in the neighborhood...  I do intend on going back to streaming normally when it becomes an option again, however paying the exorbitant prices that Comcast (i.e. Xfinity) is expecting (currently the only ISP in the neighborhood that provides a fast enough upload rate for streaming & playing online games consecutively) is not an option when I don't have the income to cover those costs...

Epic Games launcher "no connect" workaround; boycott restrictions lowered, but not gone yet

Finally managed to get back into the Epic Games launcher today (attempting to troubleshoot it again after Epic Games opened a new support ticket with me in response to the BBB complaint against them for not being able to connect for over a month), however I had to use the 2 year old installer & patch back up as can be seen in this video.  This installer is being provided through this blog to allow others that may still be experiencing this problem with being able to connect (seeing as installer v10.19.2 won't connect for those getting hit by it).

Despite being able to now connect, I'm still waiting to see if they are going to allow me to gain Clip in Fortnite (seeing as their connection issue prevented me completing the final one-fifth of the task necessary to get her when the launcher patch on 10/28/2020 prevented me from being able to log into the launcher for well over a month), I'm not willing to go back to purchasing from their platform otherwise (all other steps in the boycott has been dropped however, only this one remains).

In addition to the remaining point of the boycott (if they don't decide to give me what I got ripped off for), this still affects who I'm supporting on Twitch when they are streaming Epic Games exclusive games, but no longer when an Epic Games developed/published game is available on other platforms, nor does it affect games created with the Unreal Engine anymore.

Regarding the emotes that were removed from my channel, I am going to reinstate the Fleshpound (Killing Floor) emote, however the Raven (Fortnite) emote will not be reinstated until I've managed to gain Clip in Save the World).  This ultimately means that the Fleshpound emote that was gained at 5000 bits on the channel will be moved to 1000 bits & vice versa for the Raven emote (provided I don't put something else in the 5000 bits emote slot first, depends on how long it takes to acquire that Hero, which could be never if Epic Games gives me the finger on getting her due to their technical issue with the launcher).

EDIT:  I've been told that the mirror on Google Drive isn't working, so I've created a secondary mirror using my personal site.  For the time being, this file type (MSI) is not restricted, but I may change that later if I find download sites are defrauding my website of credit for hosting a mirror again (this has already been done with RAR & ZIP files, which can only be downloaded if the originating traffic is from the website itself).

Epic Games launcher still busted, emotes retired & BBB complaint filed in response to no fix

In response to Epic Games' lack of commitment to keep their client functional & refusal to even give a response to the launcher connection issue on their Facebook page (or even provide a new installer that might connect to their servers to complete an initial installation), it's been determined that it was time to file a BBB complaint against them for funds lost on purchases over their platform that are no longer accessible (this was already determined once it hit the 1 month mark if not resolved by then).  Additional complaints will be filed to the FCC at 2 months, then to Internet Crimes at 3 months.  Further details about the BBB complaint will be published later to my personal site once I have time to add it to the site as a new review of Epic Games.

Additionally, it was determined that it was time to retire both the Raven (Fortnite) & Fleshpound (Killing Floor) emotes from the channel (the Killing Floor emote being removed due to the fact the game uses the Unreal Engine, meaning they paid Epic Games a licensing fee to be able to use it in their game).  These may come back in the future, but only if the launcher ever becomes functional again & only if I managed to obtain anything that was released new while this technical issue kept me from getting back into Fortnite to acquire them (that means there will need to be another StW birthday event, which I don't particularly see happening, so I don't expect I will be ending my boycott against them either).