I have the most rotten luck with computers of anyone I know. It's just a fact. The latest fiasco started at around 3:00 this afternoon, right after hubby got home from work. He grabbed a cup of coffee and came in here to my office to check on some auctions he's been watching. Right in the middle of browsing, the internet went down. Not only that, the little green ""Internet" light on my modem turned glaring red. That's never happened before, so I knew something was up.
I waited for a while to see if it would come back. It didn't, so I called the phone company and followed the recorded instructions. Unplug modem from power source. Turn off computer. Wait two minutes. Plug modem in to power source. Restart computer. I got the green light back, but my computer was still off-line.
So I called the phone company again and spoke to a tech. He checked and told me there was an outage in my area. Okay, fine. So I wait some more.
In a few minutes, my son comes into my room and tells me, his computer, which is wirelessly connected to my modem, is back online and working fine. That was just great because mine still wasn't working.
So, I called the phone company again. For the next hour, a tech is walking me through digging around in the guts of my computer, pinging for this and that. She tells me to disable the firewall. She tells me to disable my connection. Then she tells me to enable again. I do, at least, I try. Nothing happens. The computer tells me I can't make a connection because my computer has no wireless device installed on it.
What! Wireless device? The freakin' modem is plugged directly into my computer. Why would it need a wireless device? The tech is baffled. That was exactly the word she used. We tried more stuff. No dice. My computer would not make a connection. The tech tells me--again--that she's baffled. She asks if she can call me back in 45 minutes, she needs to consult with one of their specialists. I say okay. We hang up. I'm ready to pull my hair out. Or cry.
I do neither. I wait for her to call back. She never does. Fed up now, I start opening a few things myself--like the freakin' Internet Connections folder. DUH! The LAN is disabled. Duh, I say DUH again (I keep saying that because if I wrote what I really said...) So I click (one stinking click) to enable the LAN and VOILA, problem solved.
WHO, someone please tell me WHO, are these techs who are supposed to know more than we do and be able to solve all our problems but are never able to solve ANYthing? Do these people actually get paid money for this?
I apologize for the rant, but I just HAD to get that off my chest. Since you, obviously, own and use a computer, I'm sure you completely understand.
Peace (for a while anyway),
Devon
Devon! Welcome back!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you were able to fix the problem yourself. You're much more techy than I--and evidently more techy than the tech you had on the phone! (Wonder what she really did when she hung up from your call.)
I'm spoiled, because my son, when he's not in school, has a job at a computer shop. He fixes computers people bring in, and he also does tech support by phone. Yeah, I'm EXTREMELY spoiled.
Oh Devon! I know the headache of dealing with internet/computer stuff only too well. I remember there for about a month or so after we got DSL I kept having problems with my connection. They kept shutting it down to do maintenance- only they would do it in the middle of the day or at all hours, shut us down for hours on end and of course, they didn't notify us they would be doing so- so I was trying the turn off computer, disconnect the box, wait 2 minutes and plug/turn on everything again. Drove me CRAZY!
ReplyDeleteGlad you were able to figure it out- without the help of that so-called "tech."
I'm like Magdalena- what did the tech really do when she got off the phone with you? Probably leaned back in her chair and filed her nails.
Hey Magdalena and Taryn,
ReplyDeleteNothing can make me crazy in the blink of an eye quite like a computer. I don't know what happened with the tech, but she assured me she would call back within an hour. NO ONE has called.
I've had this broadband exactly one month. It's much more reliable, and even faster, than the service I had before with the cable company. But next time, I'll check it out myself. By the time I got off the phone with the tech, I had a splitting headache.
Any chance she was Indian, as in in India, a gazillion miles away. That's what drives me nuts. As if you're not confused enough, you then have to speak to someone you can't even understand! That is enough to make you pull your hair out.
ReplyDeleteGlad you figured it out, anyway!
Hi Jennifer! No, this tech was definitely American, she even had a slight Southern accent. She just didn't know what she was doing. And I STILL haven't received a call back, not that I expect to.
ReplyDelete