By Debi Harris
If you don't see my column in next week's paper, you'll know the reason why. My mind (what little I have left) (I heard that.) will have been blown away by our new Internet provider's router not playing nice with our old electronics.
I was happy to finally be able to ditch our old internet provider after four or five years. What's the problem, you ask? Well, I'll tell ya. This company has got to be the SLOWEST in the entire United States of America. I'll give them props for never going down. We just had to have the patience of Job anytime we wanted to bring up a webpage, or Heaven forbid we dared to try to download an update before two o'clock in the morning when no one else in the neighborhood would likely be using their internet. I tried to update my computer once and it took TWO DAYS. I'm not kidding. That's how bad it's been.
A new company came into the neighborhood a couple of years ago but something kept holding me back from signing on despite David's pleas to do so. It turns out I was right not to take them on. This new company must have taken on more customers than they could service and was down more than they were up and working. They also, from what I've read on our neighborhood chat site, did shoddy work while installing. They apparently couldn't be bothered to bury the lines.
Anyway, as soon as I heard we were getting a company that was burying fiber optic lines I hopped on board immediately. The technicians came yesterday, buried the line, and installed it in the house. I guess I should have been more interactive during the installation instead of pushing it all on David but I was busy doing some deep cleaning. (Don't laugh. Even I have my moments.)
All our previous Internet service equipment was installed on the north side of our house in my office but, for some reason, these people set their lines up to go to the south side. Again, I should have gotten more involved and questioned this but I didn't. My bad. I did end up vetoing the technician installing the router in our bedroom, right next to the bed. I insisted it was to be brought in through the breakfast nook that is adjacent to our bedroom and the kitchen. I thought this was ideal since I figured it'd be closer to all our devices.
The only problem with this was he installed it close to the floor. What the heck? Everyone knows the higher up it's installed the better, right? Anyway, off to the local hobby store we went to find a shelf we could hang on the wall to hold the router. It's right next to one of my China cabinets but I don't think there's too much interference.
The speed is great and I was able to update all the phones in the house in the middle of the day in just a few minutes! A miracle for sure after the last few years. I also clicked on one of the streaming television services we've never been able to access unless it's nearly the middle of the night and all I can say is 'Hallelujah' it worked. I watched the whole program in awe as it never once stopped to buffer. I didn't know how to react.
The technician assured me that if I used the same log-on for the new internet that I was already using my devices would automatically work with it–no muss, no fuss, right? Wrong. Most of the devices in the house did just that but I have a couple of stubborn ones that are bound to give me an ulcer. Hopefully, by the time you read this, the issue will have been resolved. Unfortunately, the two devices fighting me are my security doorbell and my garage door opener. They both work as they are supposed to but they are not 'talking' to my phone.
I absolutely cannot live without them on my phone. Every time I leave the house my paranoia kicks in and I just know I forgot to shut the garage door. I have to check my phone for confirmation.
The doorbell company is sending me a new one in case that is the issue but I'm still fighting with the garage door. I assume I'll be calling my new Internet provider and/or the garage door opener people for assistance on this one. I HATE talking to customer service. I try to use chat as much as I can but in this instance, I think I'd better call.
So if you don't hear from me next week you'll know I've blown my top.