Monday, April 14, 2008

DSL _AND_ CABLE


Written 10 April, 2008

DSL AND Cable

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Yeah, yeah, I know. The following was supposed to go after my post about the new viewer. So sue me. I can't help it if the Flight of the Bumblebee inspired me to go all out of sequence now, can I? Huh? Huh?

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Wait a minute, you ask. Why does Cheyenne have both Cable and DSL access?

My DSL performs flawlessly most of the time—but whenever a frog farts in Alabama, I lose my signal for a microsecond and I get redlined in Second Life. Any thunder, even a low rumble on the horizon, will knock me off line. I have come to dread the rain Georgia so desperately needs.

It’s been going on for nearly a year with no resolution. I’ve had Bell South (now AT&T again, grrr!) techs to the house five times. They told me it was my phone equipment. I tried to systematically unplug my phone equipment while the problem was ongoing, but for an entire year we had so little rain I didn’t get a chance. The storm would come and pass within a few minutes. By the time I got back to the computer after unplugging phones, it would be sunny again.

Finally it did thunder, and for an entire evening. I unplugged every single phone in the house one by one, and then unplugged them all together, and still lost the signal.

I called AT&T, and they sent me a new DSL modem, which I’ve not yet tried. It’s the last link. If, when it eventually thunders, I still lose the signal, it will absolutely positively HAVE to be in the phone line.

Georgia’s horrible drought made this problem bearable for months and months, but I eventually ordered cable. I put the computer on cable two weeks ago, and it seems to work fine, although, despite all I’ve heard about cable’s blazing speed, it doesn’t seem to be any faster than my DSL.

Tonight, or maybe this weekend, I’ll be putting DSL back on line with the new modem AT&T was kind enough to send me. Then I’ll wait for a frog to fart in Alabama. When that happens, I’ll know whether my future lies in cable or DSL.

1 comment:

Frau A. S. Lowey said...

If a Frog flatulates in Alabama, and no one is there to complain about it, does it make a sound?