Before Seattle - DSL Wars

Thursday I came home to find that the computer was off because the power had gone off, and Jennifer had switched off the power switch tot he surge protectors. She has been taught well, but unfortunately that wasn't enough. She said the power had died, come back, and gone off completely. Apparently this was enough to kill the modem capabilities of the modem. It could still detect the computer, but it had lost it's ability to see the phone line and the DSL signal.

Of course this was not immediately apparent to me, and I called AT&T angry as usual with them, and got someone who sounded like they were from India. No service people could come out until Monday, but they said they would try to escalate.

Friday morning I got a computer call saying that the escalation had been denied. I called AT&T again and got suggestions from a hick sounding redneck from St. Louis. The primary suggestion was that the modem could have been fried by the power surge, and to try Best Buy for a new modem. Eventually, I rolled out and checked Best Buy. As it turned out, Best Buy as sold out of DSL modems. Apparently the old modems have been dropping like flies, and even their warehouse was empty of back stock.

The part I like was when I left and he called after me, "They are available online at BestBuy.com." I was halfway to my car when it hit me how absolutely stupid this final advice was.

I got home, and called AT&T again this time getting a much nicer (and better spoken) man in St. Louis, told him about Best Buy being sold out and he asked if I had tried an AT&T store. I admitted I had not thinking them only for cell phones, but he pointed me to the one in Concord, on Monument, and I ran to get a modem. Jennifer is at this time coming back from working, and I was racing to get the system back up and running for the weekend before I left.

Finally, I got it all hooked up, with user name and password inserted, and low and behold there was the internet...

Thirty minutes before I needed to be on the road for the airport. I was wiped even before I started traveling.