Thank you, Hernando

Of course, that might not really be his name.

But I digress.

Seven years ago we had the opportunity to switch from dial-up to DSL. There wasn't any hesitation on my part and I jumped on the modem/router bandwagon and never looked back. But seven years is two or three lifetimes in the tech world, and my equipment was beginning to show its age. While the router was stable, the modem, supplied by the phone company and paid for by me, had decided to wink out on occasion and need to be rebooted. Maybe it would be a week or two between incidences and then maybe it would opt to nap all afternoon.

Obviously, something needed to be done to upgrade the reliability of Internet access in this house. Reluctantly, and with all foot-dragging possible, I called the phone company tech line. George (maybe not his real name either) was appalled that such equipment was still viable and hastened to send me (free, he said) a new one piece modem-router. Sure 'nuf, it arrived on schedule. But it was near the weekend and one of my friends had had an awful time setting hers up... and more foot-dragging on my part ensued.

Finally, on Monday, with all my excuses played out and nothing pressing on the agenda, I called tech support and gave them my sad tale: old equipment unreliable and I KNEW NOTHING about setting it up.

(In my defense, I had read and even printed the online manual of how-to. Oh, puh-lease. It was an August 2007 edition, and so technical, I was out of my depth by page 3 or 4.)

Lucky, lucky me--I had reached Hernando! He was patient and detail-oriented. We had problems, some on his end ("the system isn't reading the new equipment" and my favorite, "we have a bad connection, I'll call you back"--we did have a bad connection. Was I not talking to the phone company?) and some problems on mine:

H: "You need to pull the phone line from the back of the modem now."

Me: "Okay." Pull. Pull. Break: the wire comes out of the plastic thingee and no amount of fingernails are going to unclasp it. "Just a sec while I get the needle nose pliers."

(Thank goodness they work because by this time, the old system is totally disengaged and I will be big time outta luck, until they can ship me a new unit.)

It took 90 minutes. An ordinary citizen couldn't set this up. It had to be configured. And re-configured. Twice.

Then he did some sort of magic and took over my computer and finished the job. I would not let him go until I'd entered my brand new password into all the other gadgets we have which run on wireless.

And when customer service called yesterday to see if I was pleased, I praised Hernando. Or whatever his name really is.

On having many baskets for the communication eggs

Yesterday afternoon, I sat down at my computer to check the afternoon's goings-on. The little ticker spun and spun but finally put up its triangle and exclamation point that it couldn't connect for my email. It's unusual, but not unheard of, for this to happen, to I skipped on over to Safari, which proceeded to have similar issues.

Not good, but not panic time either. The control panel told me I was connected to the internet via wireless. That isn't to say that the wireless is connected to the internet, though, so I went to check on the modem and router. All looked good. I decided to reroute the power, which means shutting down everything, and putting it all back together in a certain order. (Or, at least, that's what some tech told me years ago and I've always done it with good results, so I'm not rocking the boat now.)

But, alas, rerouting the power did not get me back online. It was time to call Verizon, but all I got was a series of short beeps. Tried another Verizon number. Same thing. Placed a local call. It went through. Called another 800 number unrelated to V. Short beeps. At this point, I realized the trouble was not mine and I went to make a tea bread.

Bread in oven, and internet still down, I finally put two and two together to realize that I wasn't tethered to Verizon. My iPhone is AT&T. I'd give that a shot. Called the 800 V number. Got through. Found out, after plugging in all the appropriate choices, that service was down for my area. I was reminded I would need to restart both the modem and my computer when all was well.

Unusual and not welcome. But not my fault. Found out on the local news several hours later that a highway department crew had cut a fiber-optic line. It was repaired and I was happily back in business after rerouting the power and my computer once again.

Then, I realized that while I'm mainly dependent on V for my communications, my subscriptions to unrelated services is for the best. With V out, AT&T still works, as does my cable TV. Had I all with the same carrier yesterday, I'd have been left to reading or working outside or talking with the neighbors...

Whew! I'll not complain about three separate bills again!

World Wide Wireless

Last weekend was a girls' road trip, about which I will elaborate more in another posting, but it started with antiquing in the Tulsa OK area. We had reservations at a Hampton Inn, my personal choice of lodging. Not only are the rates reasonable, but there's a breakfast beyond yogurt and a prepackaged cinnamon roll, the coffee is quite good (I'm an expert, remember?), and there's wireless internet.

FREE wireless internet.

Of course, as you well know if you travel any, all the lower-end chains offer free wireless internet. Unlike the big boys, Hilton and Sheraton, if I must name two (ahem!), which charge and may not even be wireless (the horror of it), the little guys are generous with their services. I am so fond of them, that when forced to stay elsewhere, say for a business meeting, I can get grouchy.

I wasn't grouchy in Tulsa. We wanted to go to a movie and it was far easier to flip open the MacBook Pro, type in the code, and search the local theatre scene.

Except it didn't happen that way. My smart little computer wanted me to join the Comfort Inn's site.

I looked out on the parking lot. This particular Hampton was sitting in the middle of about a dozen of its ilk. And guess who across the large parking lot had a very strong wireless signal? The Comfort Inn. Alas, they weren't going to give me the codes if I called over and explained the situation. Why wasn't the Hampton's stronger?

I fired up the Airport Signal Widget and looked. Hampton, or hhonors, as it's known to those of us familiar with it, was there, just not strong enough to kick the Comfort off the deck. This meant a call to the Help line.

I gave the customer service rep her laugh for the day, perhaps the weekend. "So," I explained, "I'm here at the Hampton and the Comfort is horning in."

"Say what?"

It took a verification that I was indeed booked into the Hampton and my reading her my Internet Connect codes (which she could see from wherever she was--computers are scary) and the hint to look under my wireless signal icon to finally switch me over to hhonors.

I'd love to say it behaved flawlessly, but every time I let the computer sleep, Comfort came back in demanding a code. I've explored around a little with it now and think I can handle that the next time it comes up.

Our next stay somewhere is at another Hilton family hotel, a Doubletree. I'm sure it's a very nice place, but their website isn't declaring free internet.

I feel a bout of grouchy coming on.