I would like to apologise to my several readers (including my dog Gemma, and cats, Biscuit and Ellie), for the infrequent updates to my stories.
It is a tale of woe to match any saga.
There I was on the Internet, surfing away merrily, a light song on my lips, when suddenly it happened.
My connection dropped.
After screaming a few choice naughty words, I checked my router by thumping it; no joy. I then cursed it; no help. I even switched it off and on again - nope.
I had had problems before with my provider and because of this, I had requested a MAC number and told them that I was transferring to somewhere that didn’t have a call centre in Outer Mongolia and above all a call centre that was staffed by English speaking people; not ones that only conversed in Outer Mongolianese and with an expertise on par with a particularly thick amoeba.
Unfortunately, Tiscali, my ISP didn’t just send me a MAC number, oh no, they then kindly cancelled the line and service immediately, leaving me high and dry. Hence I do not have broadband and I only have the dreaded dial up connection that takes an hour to load a page — well it seems like that, anyway. Much of my work uses the Internet and now that I have only have dial up, it will take a lot more time to do what I have to do.
Hence, there will be some delays in posting stories for which I humbly apologise.
Normal service will, I hope be back up and running by next week.
Frustrated hugs
Sue
Comments
Normal Service
I had dial up service through the college I worked at for many years. It worked just fine. I learned not to try to download wmv files or large attachments on email, and I could not get music or movies of course.
Since we moved I have had DSL through ATT. It started out okay. But over the last 6 months, the service has degraded till I am contemplating going back to the dial up. They came through and did an upgrade to fiber optic stuff about 6 weeks ago and it has gone in the trash can ever since. They can find nothing wrong up to the modem It all works according to them. I guess they have to have a different defintion of "working properly" than I do. The last couple of times I have tried to call them, after fighting my way through the jungle of tree, I have wound up, it seems, in the same call service center, talking to Asians with terribly accented English, trying to speak through an intermittent phone signal that cuts in and out (Can you hear me now), . I swear I have spoken with the same people when calling ATT about service, as when I was trying to hook up the wireless router from linksys, as when I had problems with trying to figure out an MP3 player, and a couple of other things. The latest was when they came out and cut my phone and dsl off for three days to ready the connection for the Uverse that we talked about trying but never ordered, and I have yet to see a service credit for the downtime, nor find anyone that admits I called about it, yet three times, trouble shooters have knocked on the door to apologize for any inconvenience , and offered me free service boxes and special pricing on whatever it is they are selling....tv through the phone lines I guess. Yeah thats gotta be reliable I figure. Then I call call outer mongolia and complain cause I can't get a signal from a tv station 30 miles away.
DSL trouble
Stacy,
One of the biggest issues that arise with a fiber to the node fed DSL line is a setting on the modem or a programming fault. You see, I install and repair the self same services with my employer. I haven't been trained on the fiber tot he node services but that doesn't mean that I don't get the opportunity to talk to the ones who actually do them at the moment. I have heard that a lot of people that upgrade the service don't have the modem set on the correct type of service, ie: PPPOA instead of PPPOE. The other problem stems from when the line was originally programed in the DSL translations group that has programmed a certain type of filter on the DSLAM to a lower number instead of the higher number (what it's really called, I can't remember at the moment) but what is does is caused variable problems with the service. it works as it is programmed but it is really flakey and not a reliable connection. The only way that someone would know what is wrong is if they were able to talk to the programming group and verify that they line is programmed correctly.
I also hear you about the Tech Support issues. My company uses a group of contractors in the Philippines to do our support but they are English as a second language people and it is very frustrating to me as a technician and someone who knows what they are doing and having to actually talk to the contract center. I hate that part because it is inevitable that they try to go through the trouble shooting steps just as their computer screens are telling them to do. They just don't get it even when I tell them that that I am a technician and that they need to forget about their scripts for trouble shooting. They always get so flustered that they have to start at the beginning of their scripts... I most of the the time just tell them to never mind and hang up.
So, if you have to call in for technical support, have them check and verify that the programming for the fiber-to-the-node service is absolutely correct. It might clear the problems if no one can actually find the problem like that.
Goldie
Who'd a thunk it.
It sure would be nice if they mentioned that kind of stuff when they send out the info on upgrading material. Especially since I asked if that would make any differences. I called them today and complained again, and yes, they were obviously reading from a screen cause they thanked me for the info I provided evertime they turned around. Then they wanted me to start unplugging stuff and changing things, and I just didn't have the time or the mood to start stripping and moving stuff. Guess I'll bring this up when I get around to calling them back....thats if I can hear/understand them.
Flaky DSL
I had the same problem at my old apartment. Finally got so fed up with it I set up online billing, 'cause if I couldn't get on I sure as hell wasn't paying for it. Right after that I lort connection permanently:(
Melanie E.