Mistakes in Motherhood

*If you have not read part one, do so now*

So, this morning I woke up and called my DSL company to ask them how much a new modem was. They said it was $99.99 plus $16.50 shipping & handling and they said it would take to get here with the holiday rush & weekend. So I asked them what the difference was between their modems and the ones at Best Buy. He said that Best Buy actually carries their modems, and he said that he agreed that it did sound like my issues were modem related.

So after dropping off a package at the post office (quick and easy, I LOVE the self service machine, I was finished in the time it took them to serve two people and there were at least 20 in line), I went to Best Buy and found the same modem for $89.99. While talking to a sales associate, they told me that the modem/router combos are crap and to get a regular modem and a wireless router.

So within a couple minutes I had a direct connection and was surfing the web, so I called my ISP to tell them to cancel the service call (external not internal) and get another ESL support person who did not understand me when I said “I called last night because I could not connect, I have a new modem and it is working fine now, please cancel my service call”; apparently she took it to mean “check when the guy will be here”. Ugh!

So as soon as I hung up with her I lost connectivity, so when I went to call my phone company and I had no dial tone! So now I am freaking out thinking that ESL-lady somehow got confused again and shut down my service.

About 5 minutes later I get a knock on my door and it is the serviceman from my ISP. He explained that he was the one who disconnected my phone (he was testing the line) and that if I had problems connecting the wireless to call back. Well, installing the router was a breeze, and once I was able to find out how to change my encryption password I was up and running.

So, did all this fix Bobby’s connectivity issues??? Yes! He has been online for 3h:20m longer than he has been in MONTHS! His normal connection time was closer to 3 minutes of Internet, and 2 minutes to reconnect.

Of course, now I am having issues with getting my hotmail in OE, but maybe they are just having issues today. Even if I have to go to the website to read my email, no biggie, I rarely use hotmail anyways.

So, there is my day, I am so glad everything is solved, now I just need to figure what I am going to cook for dinner!

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Well, last night Bobby and I decided to get to the bottom of his “limited or no connectivity” issue he has been having for months with his laptop. We were trying to play Spades on Pogo and he kept getting dropped from the Internet and it was pissing us off. So, we went to the basement to do the typical reset button, unplug and wait, etc. So I was reading online that sometimes the problem can be solved by new drivers for the the wireless LAN card and the firmware for the modem. Well, each time we tried to update the firmware, the install would fail and be stuck in an endless cycle of turning on, failing, and restarting.

So I called our DSL tech support and got someone who spoke ESL (English as a second language) took me through the most simple of support (TS: Did you unplug it? ME: Yes, 3 times. TC: Well lets try it again.) durrr. By this time I was convinced I needed a new modem, mine was 2 years old after all. So he tries to tell me that tomorrow they will send someone out to fix it, and it will cost me $100 or less. I asked him “Isn’t it cheaper just to get a new modem?” and he said “I really don’t think it is your modem, but here is the number to call and ask about the price”. So I called and it said “we are closed, please log onto our .com to get all your questions answered”. Lame-o!

Stay tuned for part two….

1 Comment | In: A lot about nothing, Geek Speak | tags: Technology. | #

The next blog I wanted to showcase was Suni’s blog, she has been super sweet in saying such nice things about my other blog.

She makes me feel like The Grinch, or Scrooge with all her beautiful Christmas Dishes, I don’t even have my tree decorated yet! Bah Humbug! I have never been huge on decorating, but now with an active toddler, glass ornaments are a nightmare in my opinion!!

Anyways, check out Bucket O’ Bulletz!

No Comments | In: A lot about nothing | tags: Blog/Blogging, Holidays, The OTHER Blog. | #