I'm Back!

It really is quite good to be back! I came home from work on Monday to find that I had no internet access. For some odd reason, there was no cable signal running into my modem. I did all the appropriate things: check the connections, reboot the computer, reboot the modem, reboot the wireless router. No go!

I called Time-Warner and got a computer that told me how to reboot my modem and then to call them back. Although I had done that and more before I placed the initial call, I disconnected the call. I was pretty sure that when I called back, their lovely computer could tell I had called before and would put me through to a human being. I was right, and soon I was conversing with Matt, a nice techie guy who checked all the bells and whistles before the pronouncement that the cable signal was definitely NOT getting into the modem (which is only a month old, by the way). His other pronouncement was that they couldn’t get service call out to the house until Wednesday afternoon.

So Monday night, I added a chapter I had been thinking about to the manuscript. I did some other writing I had been putting off for a while. What I really wanted to do was to read my e-mail and check my on-line sites. I clicked on network connections and found a 1-bar, unsecured avenue onto the net and I jumped all over it.

I have no idea which of my neighbors I have to thank for that opportunity, but I do indeed thank them! It was a life saver! Of course, I didn’t do this until the wee hours, so I don’t think my incursion into their internet connection caused them any issues. And I didn’t stay on the connection for very long. I did discover that their server was NOT Time-Warner, because although my e-mail came in without issue, my outgoing mail just did a “sit-and-spin” in the outbox!

The service call tech showed up a few minutes earlier than the scheduled time, which is good. He came into my office, checked all the connections, rebooted the computer, rebooted the modem, rebooted the wireless router. No go!

Then into the basement to check the incoming connections (which we had already checked on Monday). Turns out the problem was out at the street on the telephone pole! We are now online, and it is such a relief. So my many thanks go out to Matt on the Time-Warner help line and to the nameless tech who got us back up and running.

Life is good!