* * * * *
… and then the router broke
The badness kept going yesterday [1].
As I was getting ready for work, Bunny informed me that she had to reboot
both the DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) modem and the router. When I checked
them, the lights on the router were off. Not a good sign. I pulled the power
cord and plugged it back in, the lights started operating normally, then they
went out, back on, went out, back on, and well, it's not supposed to be
blinking Christmas lights. Bunny mentioned that on Tuesday there were a few
power fluctuations and maybe that fried the electroncs.
It was then that the past month of computer aggrivation hit me and I'm afraid
I took it out on the malfunctioning router (well, I assume it was
malfunctioning; it certainly was malfunctioning after I was done with it).
Bunny then asked if I was okay to drive to work, I said no, so she offered to
drive. Only I couldn't engage the seat belt.
I took it as a sign that “the Universe” was telling me it was a bad week to
stop taking meth [2], called in sick, and went back to bed.
At 5:00 pm, I awoke, and Bunny and I headed out to get a new router and UPS.
A couple of hours, several hundred dollars, a few stores, and many many miles
later I was trying configure the new router and was not having luck. It
wanted an Internet connection (I'm trying to set you up first before placing
you on the live Internet you incalcitrant piece of consumer electronics!) It
then started asking for a password I didn't have!
There was this CD (Compact Disc) included with the router—perhaps it had the
instruction manual? Sure enough, it did. The only file on the disk, a large
PDF of the manual.
In Arabic!
It was at that point that Bunny sent me to bed before I caused any more
collateral damage.
I awoke at 2:00 am this morning. Bunny had tried quite a bit to get the
router working. Using the “hot spot” feature of her iPhone, she was able to
surf the Intarwebs for an English version of the manual but quickly got to a
point she didn't feel comfortable with. I started poking with it again and
well … bless her heart, Bunny had the patience to deal with our ISP (Internet
Service Provider) technical support to get us up and running again. That
email we received on the first [3]? Yeah, more than just the email server
changed. Turned out we needed a new password to log onto the Internet but it
took an hour long phone call to figure that out.
So I have my iPhone restored [4], my Mac upgraded [5], and our Internet
connection restored. Synergy [6] isn't working, but I think at this point, I
should stop complaining.
[1]
gopher://gopher.conman.org/1Phlog:2015/10/14
[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methamphetamine
[3]
gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2015/10/01.1
[4]
gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2015/10/05.1
[5]
gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2015/10/14.1
[6]
http://synergy-project.org/
Email author at
[email protected]
