Finally, Broadband Has Been Restored »
A bit over two weeks ago, my cable connection went out. A bit over a week ago, I mentioned that it was still out. I'm happy to report that the problem seems to be fixed. Finally. I've had broadband cable for more than seven years, and this was - by far - the longest outage I've experienced. There were just two times prior to this that I had problems, and both were fixed with relative ease (one with a replaced fitting on the end and one with a replacement modem).
This time, the first week went by with promises of a node fixing the problem. When that was replaced, the problem went away for a day, and then came back with a vengeance. The modem was then replaced and then I lost connectivity entirely. I decided that I'd take matters into my own hands and at least got back to a bad connection, instead of no connection at all - but it took another several days to get someone back out to check things. When h e arrived, of course, everything worked. Until he left, at which point I reported that it was down again, and another visit was scheduled.
This was with what Time Warner calls a lead tech - I guess that they were getting tired of me calling by then. So I waited and met with the lead tech, and of course everything seemed to work okay for him, despite the modem not even connecting for a few days prior to that. And within two hours of him leaving, it was out again. Another call, and I had a promise of a complete rewire (a complimentary one, no less). Unfortunately, I had to wait another couple of days to make it happen.
I am not really a terribly patient person, and I figured that the problem had to be down to the modem and the cable line by this point, so I simply disconnected everything from the modem (as they don't want to support routers, even though they've been hooked up forever), reset the modem, and within a short while, the modem had lost connection again - with nothing connected. Since I couldn't do anything about the cable, I decided I'd swap the modem again. For those keeping track, this would be my third replacement in the last week: My first had been replaced for the faulty one, which was in turn replaced for another that seemed to work okay, but perhaps I was simply having really bad luck. So I hauled myself downtown and swapped again.
Upon arriving home, I found that I had a connection again. Un-freaking-believable. This means that my original modem had gone bad, the replacement was bad and the replacement for the replacement was bad. I really don't mind that Time Warner recycles modems - but good grief. That's some horrible luck, that the tech actually brings me a bad one and then I swap it for a bad one at a payment center. I'm just glad that I scored a decent one when I tried for the third time.
Then I had to decide if I wanted the rewire. Normally I'm up for getting things for free, but I really didn't want to lose my connection so soon after getting it. When the contractor for Time Warner arrived, we discussed it, and felt that there wasn't really a downside (plus it was a fairly quick procedure), so we went for it. In the end, the signal improved somewhat, and I'm back, baby. Finally. Just two-and-a-half weeks later. What a nightmare. I guess it just pays to be persistent. And have a wireless card so you can bogart your neighbor's signal. And a Bluetooth modem so you can use your phone as a modem. And lots of patience, because you won't be getting much satisfaction.
Anyway, thanks to everyone for the help they gave along the way - Lewis, Octavia, Sheree, Kiki, Elena, Lynn, Michael, Mike, Jennifer, Billy (#1), Trace, Janny (#1), Tasia, Anna, Telethia, Kelly, Rob, David, Kara, Billy (#2), Jenny (#2) and James, as well as anyone who's name I didn't write down. I'm sorry for anyone I blasted in getting back online (or if I spelled your name wrong).
