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More Amusement
Last night, we had a thunderstorm come through the area, as has been usual for the past week or so. The rain (however much or little) is very welcome, since we're teetering on the edge of a drought down here and my parents, to the north, are actually under drought and fire ban conditions.
However, after the storm passed, I attempted to dial in to my ISP in order to check my email and was unable to do so. A phone call to my dad produced some troubleshooting that didn't, unfortunately, produce any results, but did at least narrow things down a bit. We concluded that the modem was dialing normally, but it was unable somehow to detect a dial tone. My phone could detect dial tones both from the bedroom and when plugged into the kitchen jack (the one I use for my computer). This didn't put the jack completely in the clear, however, since phones don't use all the wires in the jack while computers do.
Variations of unplugging and reseating cords, and turning the computer off and on also failed to have an effect, but did prove that it was likely not a software failure (as the computer was listing the modem as functioning correctly) and not likely to be a misconnection of the cords. The storm was immediately suspect as having possibly knocked something loose in the phone jack, but that was untestable at the time, due to it being Sunday night.
This morning, being a "weekend" for me (I work Tues.-Sat.), I got up and called the maintenance line, requesting someone come out and test the jack, just to be on the safe side. I actually have no idea if they did or not, but it turned out not to matter. Another call (or series of them, since I had to keep hanging up to move phone connections around) with my dad had me opening up the case and reseating the modem card, with no effect. We also conclusively ruled out the cord from the jack to the computer. So it was either something in the phone jack, or something in the data port on my modem.
I called a local place that I've found fairly reliable, and they agreed to look at it, so I unplugged my tower and headed over to Longview. A very nice guy at the computer place plugged in my CPU and attempted to dial out. No luck, so that ruled out the phone jack as being the problem. So, $6.99, a new modem card, and some new drivers later, I'm back to being online. Yay!
This is all the more important, because to the incomprehension and dismay of my friends, I don't have a TV, and I rely on the internet as my link to the outside world. News, webcomics, email, and IM are all part of what keeps me informed, amused, and sane. I don't necessarily consider myself addicted--I just figure it's the way the world is at a certain level of technology nowadays. Being without my internet connection for a night was not unbearable. Being without it permanently, however, would be problematic. Still, all's well that ends well, as the Bard said.
However, after the storm passed, I attempted to dial in to my ISP in order to check my email and was unable to do so. A phone call to my dad produced some troubleshooting that didn't, unfortunately, produce any results, but did at least narrow things down a bit. We concluded that the modem was dialing normally, but it was unable somehow to detect a dial tone. My phone could detect dial tones both from the bedroom and when plugged into the kitchen jack (the one I use for my computer). This didn't put the jack completely in the clear, however, since phones don't use all the wires in the jack while computers do.
Variations of unplugging and reseating cords, and turning the computer off and on also failed to have an effect, but did prove that it was likely not a software failure (as the computer was listing the modem as functioning correctly) and not likely to be a misconnection of the cords. The storm was immediately suspect as having possibly knocked something loose in the phone jack, but that was untestable at the time, due to it being Sunday night.
This morning, being a "weekend" for me (I work Tues.-Sat.), I got up and called the maintenance line, requesting someone come out and test the jack, just to be on the safe side. I actually have no idea if they did or not, but it turned out not to matter. Another call (or series of them, since I had to keep hanging up to move phone connections around) with my dad had me opening up the case and reseating the modem card, with no effect. We also conclusively ruled out the cord from the jack to the computer. So it was either something in the phone jack, or something in the data port on my modem.
I called a local place that I've found fairly reliable, and they agreed to look at it, so I unplugged my tower and headed over to Longview. A very nice guy at the computer place plugged in my CPU and attempted to dial out. No luck, so that ruled out the phone jack as being the problem. So, $6.99, a new modem card, and some new drivers later, I'm back to being online. Yay!
This is all the more important, because to the incomprehension and dismay of my friends, I don't have a TV, and I rely on the internet as my link to the outside world. News, webcomics, email, and IM are all part of what keeps me informed, amused, and sane. I don't necessarily consider myself addicted--I just figure it's the way the world is at a certain level of technology nowadays. Being without my internet connection for a night was not unbearable. Being without it permanently, however, would be problematic. Still, all's well that ends well, as the Bard said.
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