Frequently Asked Questions

Virtually ALL domestic wireless carriers support the BEAM Messenger service offering.  For the most current list of those carriers, please see BEAM Terms and Conditions.

To Opt-Out, text STOP (without additional characters or spaces) to 888-989-2326.

Customers must be opted-in to the BEAM Messenger system again if they get a new mobile phone number – not if they get a new phone with the same number.  Please ensure you update your BEAM account with your new mobile contact number (and delete the old mobile number).

No.  BEAM Messenger recognizes upper and lower-case letters as the same.

BEAM customers do agree to accept text messages per the Company’s Terms and Conditions; however, customers may opt-out at any time by texting STOP to 888-989-2326.

BEAM does not charge for BEAM Messenger.  Customers’ mobile service provider may charge the mobile user to send / receive text messages depending on the terms of their mobile account.

NO!  BEAM protects its customers and their account information and will never sell or share it for any reason.  You will only get text messages from BEAM through the BEAM Messenger service.

NO! BEAM will only send service disruption messages including outage or maintenance notifications as applicable.  Customers may also initiate these inquiries by using the KEYWORDS shown below.

BEAM Messenger is faster and easier than calling the call center or logging on the website.  You have immediate access to important account information (like that referenced above) faster and more conveniently. A record of your account status is stored in your SMS history for quick reference.

BEAM Messenger is a mobile account alert platform proactively delivering account information (outage and maintenance notifications).  Information can be initiated by either BEAM or the Customer with the use of “KEYWORDS”. More information can be found at our website at https://ctvbeam.com/agreements-policies/.

You have a right under the Cable Act to see your personally identifiable information that BEAM collects and maintains. The information BEAM has about its Customers is maintained at its offices and systems. In most cases, the personally identifiable information contained in these records consists solely of billing and account information. If you would like to see your information, please mail a written request to CTV, ATTN: LEGAL, 2400 Sportsman Drive, Phenix City, Alabama 36867. You may also submit your request via the form available at www.ctvbeam.com. BEAM will be glad to make an appointment for you to come in to our office during regular business hours. If your review reveals an error in our records, BEAM will correct it. You will only be permitted to examine records that contain personally identifiable information about your account and no other account.

To Watch What You Have Recorded:

1. Press the ‘Menu’ button.
2. Use the right-arrow key to scroll over to and highlight the DVR icon.
3. Press ‘OK’ twice.
4. Use the up- or down-arrow keys to select your recording.
5. Press ‘OK’ twice to play.
6. Press ‘Exit’ to return to live TV.

To Record the Channel You’re Watching:

1. Press the RECORD button on your DVR remote to begin.
2. Press the STOP button on DVR remote to end.>

To Record One Episode at a Scheduled Time:

1. Press GUIDE.
2. Locate channel and correct time slot.
3. Highlight show name and press OK.
4. Scroll right, highlight the red dot icon and press OK.
5. Select RECORD THIS PROGRAM and press OK.
6. Press OK once more to confirm.
7. Press EXIT to return to current channel.

To Record A Series:

1. Press GUIDE.
2. Locate channel and correct time slot.
3. Highlight the show’s name and press OK.
4. Scroll right, highlight the red dot icon and press OK.
5. Scroll down, select SET UP A SERIES RECORDING and press OK.
6. Scroll down, select RECORD SERIES WITH THESE SETTINGS and press OK (modify the RECORD, SAVE and SAVE UNTIL settings as you wish).
7. Press EXIT to return to current channel.

To Record A Series You’re Currently Watching:

1. Press the ‘Info’ button twice.
2. Use right-arrow key to scroll over to and highlight red dot.
3. Press ‘OK’ button.
4. Use down-arrow key to scroll down and highlight “Set Up Series Recording”.
5. Press ‘OK’ button.
6. Use down-arrow key to scroll down to “Record Series With These Settings”.
7. Press ‘OK’ button.
8. Press ‘OK’ button again.
9. Press ‘Exit’ button.

1. Go to watchtveverywhere.com.
2. Select CABLE TV OF EAST ALABAMA from the dropdown menu.
3. Click REGISTER.
4. Fill out the fields (note the ‘verification code’ field; the code is located to the right of the blank field).
5. Click REGISTER to submit.
6. You will receive an email with an activation link.
7. Click on the link in the email to complete your activation.

1. Go to My Account.
2. Click the MYACCOUNT link and select BILL PAY.
3. Begin registration by entering your 16 digit account number.
4. Enter your zip code and the primary phone number on your account.
5. Complete all registration fields.
6. Accept the Terms and Conditions to continue.
7. You can now pay your bill online, review your bill, enroll in paperless billing and set up recurring payments.

Wireless is convenient, but a direct wired connection is stable and fast.

While a wireless modem or wireless router allows you to conveniently move your laptop or tablet from room to room, the quality of your wireless signal fluctuates, and the overall speed of the connection significantly degrades. Wireless connections are slower than direct connections into a router or modem and are subject to greater fluctuations, interference and congestion.

Other variables that impact your performance, whether wired or wireless, are your computer, including its age, processing capability, operating system, the number of applications running simultaneously, and the presence of any adware, viruses, virus scanners, or other wireless devices.

A short list of devices that will create wireless interference and therefore problems for your Wi-Fi connection include: cell phones/pcs phones, cordless phones, wireless power meters, baby monitors, wireless thermostats, microwave ovens, Bluetooth devices, wireless video cameras, outdoor microwave links, satellite service, gaming systems, wireless game controllers, watches, mp3 players, Zigbee devices, fluorescent lights, WiMAX, large metal objects, walls, and more. Any wireless device has the potential to disrupt and degrade your wireless data connection.

When using a direct wired connection, Cat5e or Cat6 Ethernet cable provides the best possible connection—avoid standard Cat5.

Though the default pre-shared key (password) on your CTV BEAM-provided modem is incredibly secure and nearly impossible to decrypt, you can change it to something different. Doing so requires that you connect one end of an Ethernet cable to your PC and the other end to one of the modem’s Ethernet ports. Then follow the instructions below:

For Arris 860:

1. Using browser, go to 192.168.0.1 and press ENTER.
2. Click WIRELESS SETUP tab.
3. In the PRE-SHARED KEY field of the SECURITY SETTINGS field, change the password to what you want.
4. Valid characters are a-z (A-Z) and 0-9.
5. Press APPLY to save settings.

For Arris DG2470:

1. Using your browser, go to 192.168.0.1 and press ENTER.
2. On the BASIC SETUP page, change the PRE-SHARED KEY field for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz to what you want.
3. In the PRE-SHARED KEY field of the SECURITY SETTINGS field, change the password to what you want.
4. Valid characters are a-z (A-Z) and 0-9.
5. Press APPLY to save settings.

Though your speed will vary and depends upon the package you’ve chosen, transfer rates are much faster and much closer to your package speed when your PC is directly connected to the modem by an Ethernet cable. Generally, wireless connections are considerably slower. If you experience unusual slowdowns or lag using a wired connection, follow these steps to test your speed:

1. Bypass all routers, hubs, etc. and connect your PC directly to the modem using an Ethernet cable.
2. Close all applications on PC.
3. Open your browser and click here to run a speed test.
4. The test will begin automatically and complete in about 60 seconds.

Results may vary based on the device you use to test speeds as the speed capabilities are different for each device.

On your HD/DVR:

1. Press POWER on your Motorola/Arris remote to turn the box off
2. Press MENU a few times until the on-screen menu appears.
3. Use the DOWN ARROW key (located below the OK button) to select CLOSED CAPTIONS.
4. Use the RIGHT ARROW key to enable or disable closed captions.
5. Press POWER to save settings.

On your DTA:

1. Press MENU until the on-screen menu appears.
2. Use the DOWN ARROW key (located below the OK button) and go to CLOSED CAPTIONING and press the OK button.
3. Use the RIGHT ARROW key to scroll over to select: choose OFF and press OK twice to disable or select AUTO and press OK twice to enable.
4. Press EXIT button to leave the menu.

Small randomly-scattered or tightly-clustered groups of squares that flicker across your screen are referred to as “tiles.” They’re the digital equivalent of analog snow and usually indicate that the coax cable extending from the wall or floor isn’t tightly connected to the DVR/HD or DTA input. If you’ve ensured that the connections are tight but continue to see tiling or freezing, please give us a call.

DVRs and HD receivers indicate signal quality problems differently than the smaller DTAs. From time to time, DVRs and HD receivers may show “Reference Code: S0a00” on one or more channels; DTA’s may show “status 225” or “status 227.” If you see these codes, ensure that the coax cable extending from the wall or floor is tightly connected to the DVR/HD or DTA input. If you’ve ensured that the connections are tight but continue to receive one of those codes, please give us a call.

1. On your Motorola/Arris HD-DVR remote, hold TV button down for 5-6 seconds until it turns solid red.
2. Press POWER button.
3. Press the UP arrow key (located above the OK button) repeatedly until the TV turns off.
4. Press OK button.
5. Press the POWER button again to ensure the TV turns on.
6. Or, click this link and locate your TV model, follow the instructions and manually enter one of the codes designated for your TV brand.

1. Ensure the TV is on and that you can see video.
2. On DTA remote, press the SETUP button until the light at top of the remote turns green.
3. Press yellow A button on your DTA remote.
4. Repeatedly press the CHANNEL UP button on your DTA remote until the TV turns off.
5. Immediately press the SETUP button for about half of a second.
6. Press the POWER button on DTA remote to ensure the TV turns on.
7. If unsuccessful repeat steps 1-6.
8. Or, click this link and locate your TV model, follow the instructions and manually enter one of the codes designated for your TV brand.

Pairing your DTA remote allows you to place the DTA out of sight and still change channels, volume, etc. To do so, follow these instructions:

1. Press the MENU button
2. Using the DOWN arrow key below the OK button, scroll down to GENERAL SETUP.
3. Using the RIGHT arrow key, located to the right of the OK button, go to the next column and scroll down to highlight PAIR REMOTE and press OK.
4. Press SETUP button until the light at top of the remote turns green.
5. Press MENU.
6. Enter the code you see on screen.
7. If don’t see a pairing code, repeat steps 1-6.

If your DTA remote won’t change volume, follow these steps:

1. Ensure the TV set volume is at 30.
2. Locate the SETUP button on the DTA remote, located below the 7 button.
3. Hold the SETUP button down until the light at the top of the DTA remote turns green.
4. Immediately release the SETUP button and press VOL DOWN for a fraction of a second, then immediately press VOL UP.
5. You should now be able to change volume.
6. If unsuccessful, repeat steps 2 through 4.

If your DTA remote won’t change channels, follow these steps:

1. Locate the SETUP button on the DTA remote, located below the 7 button.
2. Hold the SETUP button down until the light at the top of the DTA remote turns green.
3. Immediately release the SETUP button and press 981.
4. You should now be able to change channels.
5. If unsuccessful, repeat steps 1 through 4.

If you see the words “no signal” on your TV screen, follow these steps:

• Ensure your DTA or DVR is powered on and connected to your TV.
• If using an HDMI cable (square on each end) to connect the DTA/DVR to the TV, use the TV remote’s INPUT or SOURCE button to verify that the TV is set to use the correct HDMI jack (HDMI1, HDMI2, etc.).
• If using a standard coax cable (round on each end) to connect the DTA/DVR to the TV, use the TV remote’s INPUT or SOURCE button to verify that the TV is set to the correct input (usually TV or CABLE) and the correct channel (3 if using a DVR, and 3 or 4 if using a DTA).