Sunday, March 30, 2008

Broadband - on a wing and a prayer

from w, Did a mouse kick the bucket and lie on a cable inside the wall? Did someone object to my writing about Fiji politics and creep inside the computer and stop the traffic? Did the error about daylight saving NOT starting today cause some error? It certainly did with mobile phones and our other computers were demanding that we change the time, though it’s not until next week that we get up an hour later.

These questions were in my mind this morning when the third light on the modem would not light up. Was it that Peceli touched something he ought not, after listening to the Fiji Radio news this morning? By midday nothing seemed to be able to fix the connection, pulling things out, typing words in. I phone iprimus and talked for about with a patient man in the technical department who said, just do this simple thing… . this simple thing was about 30 things to do. Hmm. Not so simple. Still wouldn’t work. He rang back two hours later and asked for a mobile phone so we could pull out all the plugs on our ordinary phone etc. etc. Another 15 minutes of his patient instructions. No, still not working.

Peceli put everything back into place and the modem lit up like a battleship! But I had fiddled with the connections and lost Broadband by then! Hmmm.

I went off to a book club meeting still frowning, and returned after 4 p.m. and Peceli was happily working in the back garden and said, ‘Go and check the computer. It’s working again!’

How did he do it, I do not know and he won’t tell. Maybe a prayer?

(twenty minutes later): I went out to the letterbox to pick up today's mail and there was a letter from iPrimus. 'We are making changes etc. etc. You may notice a brief interruption to your internet service..... On the morning of 31/3/2008.' Which is today!!!! The letter was dated 26th and arrived rather late, don't you think! Also, why wasn't the technic guy informed before he patiently, very patiently, took me through the steps to fix up the 'perceived' problem?

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4 Comments:

Blogger The Moody Minstrel said...

Receiving an announcement of interruption of service after the fact? Typical.

One of the insurance companies with whom I have a policy once sent a collector (read "hired thug") who came to my house while I was at work and demanded my in-laws pay him for three months' worth. They did so...and then blew up at me when I came home. I was pretty confused by it all, but then the next day I received the reason in the mail: the bank account I'd created solely for paying for that insurance via automatic transfer had run out three months before. I had actually put more than enough money in it to cover the deficit a week before, but apparently the insurance company hadn't been informed yet.

At least it all got worked out in the end.

3:37 AM  
Blogger Peceli and Wendy's Blog said...

Hello Moody,
Well, things happen with so-called experts and working with servers from a distance.
Chapter four of my sorry tale was when my phone wouldn't work - in or out - if the internet was on, and a phone is essential. Maybe my connection had somehow changed to dial-up!
Then chapter five - all gone again until I got sticky tape and pinned down those cables so they couldn't shift when someone stomped around the house!
Then email wouldn't work! But late this afternoon an angel of a man, Geoff, came and fiddled and checked and got my email up and running again. I can breathe again!
w.

2:11 AM  
Blogger The Moody Minstrel said...

Another possibility:

I also have a broadband phone service as part of my Yahoo BB account, but it has conked out in the past (as you described, it became like a dial-up service again!). On every occasion it turned out that something, such as an electrical storm or my kids playing with their Nintendo DSes on wireless network nearby, caused my modem to reset itself. All I had to do was switch the modem off and reinitialize it, and the phone service came back to normal.

6:31 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

or maybe it was a ghost (or an owl in the lines)? That sounds so frustrating...all that work for nothing! I've been that route myself.

8:51 PM  

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