DSL Hassles
- September 21, 2003
- 5 comments
Well, the day I have been waiting for, for a long time, came on Friday. Our DSL was supposed to be turned on and I would experience the joy of broadband! But nooooo! This is Lockesburg, Arkansas we’re talking about here, so fancy, new-fangled gizmos like this here DSL can’t possibly work right! (Image and sound of a chaw lugee hitting a spittoon)
My friend down the road just a few miles had DSL already for several months, and he had no headaches whatsoever with it. The day it was supposed to be turned on, the light DSL modem blinked for a few seconds and then, BAM, he had broadband. This is what I expected my experience to be like.
Our DSL modem started steadily blinking at 11:30 am, Friday morning. It kept blinking for 30 minutes. I thought this was odd, so I called tech support and they told me that they were still working on getting all the new DSL subscribers going, so it’s not a bad thing that our light is blinking.
Three hours later, it’s STILL blinking. I called tech support again, a little miffed, and asked them how long they expected to take. The tech guy told me it should be ready by 7pm, and if it isn’t, then call them again.
7pm rolls in and it’s STILL FREAKIN’ BLINKING! I call tech support and this time I could barely hold back my anger. I explain to them what’s been going on and the tech guy tells me that the deadline is actually midnight. GREAT!
So I wait… and wait… and wait. Suddenly the light goes solid green at 10:30pm! I have to disconnect and unplug the modem to move it so that our computers can use it now. (It’s a long story to explain why we did this, so just forget asking about it.) When I plug the modem back in, the light is blinking again! And continues blinking for another hour before going solid green again!
When it does go solid green, I get the modem connected to my router, check to make sure my computer has been given an IP address by the router, open my browser and get… nothing. The router had crapped out on me! GOOD GRIEF! Still not giving up, I connect my computer directly to the modem and try again. I go to my homepage and the data pours in at a whopping 6.5k!!! That’s barely better than dial-up!!
By this time, I could’ve kicked Mike Tyson’s ass I was so ticked. I call tech support AGAIN, tell them what’s going on and they have me go to their DSL test server and try downloading something. Sure enough, I get 6.5k at best. FINALLY, tech support realizes something isn’t quite right with my DSL! Duh! I’ve been telling you since noon! They tell me they’re putting a ticket on my account, but that it probably won’t be fixed until Monday or Tuesday. Lovely.
Disgusted and completely pissed, I go to bed.
This morning I checked into my router crapping out, and it turns out the instructions that come with it are incorrect! What a professional company! I find the correct instructions on their Web site. I follow them, and now I’ve got my router working with all our computers.
While fixing the router, I had to restart my modem. It took about 90 minutes to reconnect! Once again, I call tech support and tell them what’s happened. The tech support guy checks some stuff, and tells me my connection is the worst he’s ever seen! You gotta love the backwoods and the great care they take in setting up their phone lines, huh? He tells me the same thing the last tech did. It’ll be fixed by Monday or Tuesday.
So… here I am with a blazing fast 6.5k DSL connection, waiting until next week to get real DSL. I hope things go smoothly and I have no more headaches with it.
Chris
September 22, 2003
They don’t even have cable out here. Actually, they do, but it’s not set up for Internet connections, just TV. I don’t like the idea of sharing a connection with people, as you do with cable. If you’ve got 205k downloads, then you must have a connection almost to yourself. That’s pretty sweet, and kind of an exception, or so I read.
Russ
September 22, 2003
205k is not normal at all, but it does happen on occasion. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 90k to 100k is about what I am used to. Also, the cable infrastructure is advancing fast enough (no joke, I’m serious….) so that, “sharing a connection with other people” really isn’t an issue.
I’ve had cable for well over 2 years now, and it is much more dependable now, than it was back when I first got hooked up.
6.5k…. wow… your DSL line must be cherry red from forcing that much data through so fast.
I have just a regular old cable connection. It’s ok I guess. Yesterday, I downloaded a 73.4MB file, and the download speed topped out at a miserable 205.7k. I’ll just have to live with that until I can get DSL.
Good luck getting it all straightened out.