2002-02-12 - 8:15 a.m.

I had every intention of cleaning the house last night. But I had been on the phone with Comcast on my continuing saga to get high speed internet access at home....At least today I didn't have to sit on hold for 45 minutes to talk to a person. I really wish they weren't my only viable option. iDSL isn't worth the money and my neighbors' tree block satellite line-of-sight... See, it has been 5 and a half weeks that I've been trying to hook up my service. I'm computer and network savvy and picked up the equipment and a self-install kit figuring I could call and the minion could take the 2 minutes it takes to add an account and I'd be on my merry little way. (Yeah, I know. Nice delusion....) See, it turns out I hit them right as their conversion from @Home blew up in their faces. Last contact indicated they would complete the cutover on Jan 31 (Like I believed that) and I should call back a few days later. Well, I got busy and figured I'd give them plenty of time... So I finally called back yesterday. I got connected almost immediately (Looking good...) and the sales guy was generally helpful, commenting that my record is apparently slathered with URGENT tags all over it. It appears they've been trying to ping my modem unsuccessfully. I was a little dumbfounded, as I've had it unplugged until they gave me the minimal configuration info.... It works better if you tell folks to turn it on....Issues.... After the guy kindly verifies every little detail is properly filled out in the business side of the house, he forwards me to Tech Support to supposedly finish up. After sitting on hold for 15 minutes (You didn't think I was going to escape Scot free, now did you?) I finally get a rather rude lady who proceeds to tell me I need no information like I'm some moron. It's not like all the documentation I have doesn't say to the contrary. Oh wait...it does....

When I got home, I cycled the power on the modem and after much wrangling finally got it all up and running including my router. Of course, I don't have a user name yet, so I can't access the email or anything. The annoying TechSupport person irritated me so, I didn't think of that until the drive home... So I have yet another round of dealing with these bozos.... At least I can surf from home at a reasonable speed now....One does get spoiled by work connection speeds. Now I just need to acquire the wireless network equipment so Theo can surf from the sewing room while she is playing with the Janome...

I'll have to save this mornings silliness with my wife for another time. Off to meeting land....

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