I'm Back!

Didja miss me? 

Did you even notice I was gone?  I haven't had internet since Sunday afternoon.  It's been dropping out from time to time for a while now, but Sunday when it dropped, it didn't come back.

My first thought was that my router had gone out, since it is pretty old.  Yesterday after work, I went to Wally World and got a new one.

Turns out that wasn't the problem after all. 

I took the router back to the store and called ATT customer service.  Wonder of wonders, I got to speak with someone who speaks ENGLISH!  And without an accent, too.

Well, first I was speaking to a computer, getting nowhere, and in a moment of frustration, I blurted out, "I want to speak to a real person."  The next thing I heard was that robot voice saying, "Please hold while I transfer you to the next available representative." 

I had a lovely conversation with a CS rep named Joshua, and after turning the router off and on, and checking to make sure all the cords were securely plugged in (which I had already done), he suggested that they send me a new router, since mine is so old.  I told him that I had already tried a new router and it didn't solve my problem, so the next thing was to send a tech out to the house. 

I tried and tried to get them to schedule him to come after three, but they don't do that.  They gave me a between 1 and 5, so I had to leave work early.  I was expecting him to come at 4:30, but to my surprise, he was at the house before I got home. 

He hooked up his fancy, schmancy meeter to my box on the utility pole and said that the signal wasn't getting through.  He knew it wasn't my phone lines since my telephones still worked fine.  It was something specific to my DSL. 

Well, to make a long story, still long, he had to replace a circuit card down at the hub, by the highway.  Soon as he did that, my internet came right back up, slick as a whistle. 

Normally, I don't say things like "slick as a whistle", but I'm in a generous mood tonight.  Any other night, you'd get a "slicker'n snot on a doorknob", but I'll be kind. 

And since it was the circuit card, it was affecting more than just me.  Beverly called me a few minutes after the guy left and said they'd been having the same problems.  Now, maybe everything is fixed.

Anyway, we're back in business, and you can expect normal blogging to continue unchecked.