Young whippersnapper: It's your router that's the problem.
Me: No, it isn't.
(He argues. I prove that it's not the router.)
Young whippersnapper: It's your computer that's the problem.
Me: No, it isn't.
(I contend that it is statistically impossible for all three computers to fail in the exact same manner at the same time.)
Young whippersnapper: I don't know how to fix this, so I will call in someone smarter, on the pretext that he has a laptop and I don't. And since you have argued with me, I will erase the dial-up program from your computer.
He didn't really say either of those last two sentences, but that's what he did.
Various Otelco DSL repair guys were here for five hours yesterday. It's only partially fixed. What that means is, if we want high-speed internet, we have to go sit in the junk room and hook directly into their cable. Guy #2 said our router was fried, but then he couldn't get the new router (that he was trying to sell us) to work either.
He said they'll be back "probably Tuesday or Wednesday".
Oh please report the answer. I have the same problem after a lighting strike. I can't download any large file above 4 megs. (3 computers) It hangs up. The SP has been out several times and still no answer. I think it may be the coax cable underground is fried.
ReplyDeleteHow frustrating. I do so hate to be at the mercy of those guys, helpless to do anything else. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI hate to hear problems like this. No one is so condescend-
ReplyDeleteing as a computer geek who isn't really as geeky as he thinks he is. I get frustrated waiting for an answer from my son-in[law who lives in CA, but at least he's nice to me, and patient with me too.
I have been dealing with "young whippersnappers for a long time. I just had to comment on this. Most of the time when I say that I have been working with computers for 40+ years, they find that incomprehensible.
ReplyDeleteAll I have to say about your problem is Grrrr.
I try to visit regularily,
but don't always leave comments.
Too many good blogs,
so little time.
Alaska Sunday is posted.
Come visit,
Troy and Martha
You're funny! I'm sorry I can't EXACTLY empathize with your problem since I live in suburbia, but I grew up in a rural area and enjoy reading your blog. :)
ReplyDeleteSo why can't the internet work like you pay for it to work? I have similar problems with tech people!
ReplyDeleteWhen my son comes by the house, he prefers to plug directly into the box rather than use the wireless connection. He insists plugging in leads to a faster connection. (He's young. And he's smart as a whip, so maybe he's a young whippersnapper too. But I've considered you young, so I'm really having a hard time sorting all of this out in my little head!)
ReplyDeleteI wish I had some words of wisdom about how to solve this. I don't. I'm not a techie, and I'm certainly too old to be a whippersnapper.
ReplyDeleteThe little guest cottage we are staying in at the moment has high speed internet, but not wifi. So, Roger plugs his mac directly into the ethernet high speed connection, and it acts as a wireless modem. That way I can connect wirelessly, and two of us can use the connection. Are you using a mac or PC? He tried to get the PC to act as the wireless modem, but it wouldn't.
Hey, have you thought about contacting the guys over at O'Gosh computers? Karl and the whole family are really nice and sharp and may at least be able to narrow it down even if they can't fix it due to it really being Otelco's problem. I don't know, maybe that's not worth it but I had them build my computer and have been really happy with it.
ReplyDeleteOh boy. Been here too. My battle, duly chronicled on my blog, was with Hughesnet. I learned that folks in India don't speak hillbilly, and I sure didn't speak their language. It took a month to get it resolved--but even so, the slow speed is not worth what I pay.
ReplyDeleteThat's a bummer that you have to put up with that crap! At least if it's your PC, you can usually just call customer service over and over until you get somebody "smart" (I used to do that with Gateway all the time :) Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThanks everybody. I still don't know exactly what the problem was, only that it was their equipment at the road that was causing problems. The repair guys, excepting the first one, were very nice. I did learn the following procedure works best, at least for Otelco.
ReplyDelete1. Call internet trouble line. They're out of Missouri apparently. They will take an hour to figure out that it's Otelco's problem instead of yours. But you have to do this, so that there's a trouble ticket issued.
2. Call the telephone trouble report line. You have to leave a message -- no real person will answer the phone. They will never return messages either. But you need to leave one, so there's a record.
3. Next, call the business office. There, you get a real person. And they are all pretty nice. They will put prod to the techs that you left the message with, and someone will come fix your problem.