by rakemaster » 5 Jul 2007 12:45
I'm sorry, but this thread locking is just getting silly. Whoever locked it didn't understand what was being asked about. My father is an engineer for TW cable, and I am quite familair with what he's talking about.
Those aren't actually keyed locks. They're just a special kind of bolt that requires a nonstandard, slightly difficult to obtain socket wrench to open. There are several models of these wrenches. The most common are regularly shaped, some are irregularly shaped.
If it is on your property, you may be legally entitled to open it, depending on the circumstances. In fact, it's actually LIKELY that you (or the property owner) owns it. In some places (including my parents house), the cable box housing was supplied by the developer, not the cable company, and became our property when we bought the house. In any case, it's not a lock or key. Cable companies use actual keyed locks for many of their distribution amplifiers.
There is nothing very interesting inside these (not usually even an animal living there).
Many of the wrenches are available on ebay, but they aren't cheap. Even if the cable company charged you to come out (which they probably won't if you explain that something is inside eating their cables), it would be cheaper to have them come than to buy the wrench.
