Internet blues

Running late here. The COMCAST Internet connection which is normally rock solid here at the Rising ranch was doa upon first light today.

We had big weather last night so I assumed it was problems with my cable modem. Several attempts at rebooting convinced me otherwise. I always assume it’s me and not the provider but my linksys was fat dumb and happy, the cable TV (and phone, Comcast owns us here) was 5×5 so…

I hate calling any help line. Comcast is particularly annoying. One of the biggest objections is the “music” on hold. It’s a clumsy loop edit of some very generic new age sounding thing. It repeats every thirty seconds. It’s annoying after about once. I have been on hold for 45 minutes at a time. I will gladly kill the musicians if I ever find out who they are.

Today the opening menu has become one of those cheerful women who ask and then misunderstand your responses. No matter how carefully you over-pronounce the words, she is “sorry, I didn’t understand that. Did you say…?”

Today the menu was asking about installation. Was I self-installing? This conversation (can you call it that?) was taking place on a speaker phone. The question was not one I wanted to hear. I was not installing. The freaking thing wasn’t working. I relayed as much to the robo-attendant. The long-suffering wife left the room.

After an interminable wade thru unrelated questions (is there a red box on your computer screen?) and stupid suggestions (maybe it’s our free Norton security you want to know more about? go to www.norton.com. Um..I would if I could but I can’t) I get to the final destination. A brief moment of the killer on-hold music and then “We are sorry we are unable to help you at this time. Try again fatso.”

Well they didn’t say fatso.

Lather, rinse and repeat three times. While on my fourth go round (LSW had left the house and was on the porch away from the ozone tainted air around me) the dns resolved and I was up.

I need the Internet to work to earn money. My options, if Comcast flakes out are:

Get an air card. Nope-not gonna pay the freight.

Steal from a neighbor. There are about three wi-fi’s in shouting distance here. Last time I tried them two were unsecured. Not a real good option. Not one I feel good about. In a pinch? Maybe.

Go someplace where they have free wi-fi. Hmm…a day at Panera bread?

Maybe.

I will worry about that next time.

The Rant D’Jour is about ‘whoopee’ in the sky.

The Airbus A380 is a big plane. How big? If it’s configured with all economy sized seats it can hold 853…Rant D’Jour