Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Days of No Internet

My Internet connection at home is stuffed.

No Internet means no checking emails... no blog surfing... no blogging (at home that is)...no news updates and most importantly of all - No Warcraft.

As I was pretty sure that it wasn't something wrong with my modem. I called Telstra to lodge a line fault. Not able to withstand another day without Internet, I woke up at 7am in the morning to call the Tech Support line.

As a tech support person myself, I hate having to talk with people who are "Techies". It just makes the situation worse. We would usually end up arguing over something rather than actually solving the problem. I would much rather having a "Dumb User" on the other end of the receiver.

So I played the part of a "Dumb User" when I called. Hoping that it would make the Tech's troubleshooting more effective. But I could not be more wrong. He ran through his script asking me if I had tried a different phone line, turned the modem off and back on, if I had changed the filter and if there were other phones in the apartment.

I told him I had changed everything. I even unplugged the only phone in my apartment and connected my modem to the socket without the filter. To which he replied .. "No, you can't do that, you have to use a filter.. without the filter you could make the phone line faulty".

Uh ?!?! This was the first time I've heard someone tell me that.

Anyway, I let it go, and told him it was only to test if there was something wrong with the line and filter.

I also told him that the Internet only works when I am using the phone line. Like when I am talking to him right now. Once I get off the phone however, the Internet will cut off.

To all this he just said.. "Hmmm... Strange... But I can see your modem is out of warranty, it could actually be faulty".

"My modem is not faulty, how could it be faulty when I am able to get Online when I'm talking on the phone ? It has nothing to do with my modem".

"I'm just letting you know first. Because if I lodge a call for someone to go take a look at your line and it turns out you have a faulty filter or phone line, we will charge you $99 for the call out fee".

I had to stop playing my part as the dumb user.

"Look, I have swapped phone lines and filters. I can ping the modem, so there is nothing wrong with my network cable. Also tried directly connecting without the filter. The problem started last friday night and I am 100 % sure nothing has changed on my side. The Internet is only Online when I am using the phone. The phone line LED on my modem flashes amber then disappears, when I hang up. I'm pretty sure there is nothing wrong with the filter or the modem. Can you go ahead and lodge the call please".

The good news is that someone from Telstra is going to go to my place to check the exchange and my line.

Bad news is that I have to be home from 8am till 12pm on that day, and it is a weekday.

Right. If only I didn't have to work during those times...

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