Pulled out the relatively s-l-o-w1 router/modem and installed a 100 Mbps router/modem. The up and down speeds more than doubled; if I had a faster computer (I have an HP Laptop 17) I could see greater speeds.
The install was on Wednesday.
On Thursday, another AT&T guy came by and buried the cable.
On Friday everything was fine.
Then Sunday . . .
I AM NOT A COMPUTER TECH nor do I play one on tv. I DO have a CTO – my second born – but he’s on the other side of the state.
What to do?
Contact AT&T, of course.
I look on the back of the modem/router for a telephone number.
What I find is a sticker telling me
OK, but the modem/router is the problem and there is no way I can contact at&t.com/support.
Duh.
I managed to call (on my Consumer Cellular/ZTE phone) and got the IVR (interactive voice response) menu that, to its credit, led me quickly to a desk-bound internet tech who sounded U.S. based.
- I already had tried the usual things: disconnecting power and, later, hitting the unit’s reset button.
The tech had me crawling on the floor to check the box on the wall.
- Power – solid green
Alarm – solid red
Data – solid red
I even walked to the Outside Premise Equipment (OPE) box – the installer did a great job and the guy who came the next day to bury the wire likewise did a commendable job. I didn’t see any loose wires, but then I did not open the connection box.
The tech tried to ping (contact) the modem/router sans success. The problem, given the tech’s test, lies someplace between the AT&T junction box on the property line between the neighbor’s lot and my lot and the box on the wall that was secured on Wednesday.
Magic words: Outside Premise Equipment. Translation: AT&T’s problem.
The modem/router could be faulty – it was made in China, after all -- but it is warrantied, so again, AT&T’s problem.
- The Spouse was ready to blame the malfunction on Comcast. A Comcast truck was parked in front of the next door neighbor’s house. There was zero evidence I could see that the competitor had anything to do with the AT&T failure. In any event, I was given to understand that AT&T now owns Comcast. Given anti-trust laws, that does not sound likely, but . . .
The desk-bound technician told me he could schedule a service call for Tuesday.
At that point I lost my composure “just a bit.”
I explained that since the modem/router was installed on Wednesday, a failure on Sunday was unconscionable.
He said he would schedule the technician for Tuesday, but would mark the service order “Expedite.”
Tuesday became Monday and that eased my pain a little.
I also confirmed that even if this was a CPE (Customer Premise Equipment) problem the service call would be borne by AT&T. Seems fair; the new box was installed only 5 days previously.
Lacking internet connectivity is frustrating. My Spouse’s “smart” phone’s primary use is communication via WhatsApp. Our grandchildren are across the water and that is how she talks to them. Email? Unavailable. Search the WWW for anything? Not a chance. Upload my brilliant prose? Forget it.
Thanks to the magic of USB cables, I will can access my printers – but only from the HP. If the Spouse wants to print anything – unlikely – she will have to sneaker-net it to the HP.
It’s all a true pain in the posterior.
Fortunately the non-AT&T phones work; likewise the tv’s antenna still brings in more channels than we can watch. Worst case, we could go to any one of 100s of wi-fi hot spots in the area, but I’d prefer not to expose myself (you should excuse the expression) to open sites.
So …
While waiting impatiently for an AT&T technician to arrive tomorrow between noon and 2 p.m. I have plenty of time to write blog material. Imagine if I had to wait until Tuesday how much I could write.
- Based on past AT&T performance, I am NOT holding my breath that the technician will arrive as promised. Like a doctor’s office, scheduling is something to be taken with a grain of salt.
A PROMISE KEPT
AT&T’s technician arrived several hours EARLY ! Scheduled between noon and 2 p.m., he called first and showed up at the door by 11:15 a.m.
He tested the CPE side and found everything OK.
Then he tested the OPE box and that, too was OK; no lose wires.
Finally, he tracked the AT&T wire back to the junction box where he discovered that my Spouse was correct in blaming the outage on Comcast.
Seems when Comcast was working on the neighbor’s line the service person cut the AT&T wire.
The AT&T wire was close to the Comcast line. The AT&T wire was buried deeper than Comcast’s and was cut when the Comcast person was working on the neighbor’s service.
The AT&T technician flagged the AT&T line with orange spray paint, but that will disappear after a few south Florida rains.
It should be obvious that the AT&T service is restored (you're reading this) and, while perhaps not so obvious, I am a happy camper.
Meanwhile, I located an Ethernet cable that now connects between the HP notebook (nee' laptop) and the AT&T modem. I still have wi-fi, but the Ethernet connection is noticeably faster, with download speeds of nearly 65 Mbps and upload speeds greater than 114 Mbps (according to BandwidthPlace.com)
Sources
1. I remember 300 bits per second dial up modems and acoustical couplers. That’s 300 bits, not kilobits (1,000) or megabits (1 million) bits per second. To paraphrase an old cigarette ad, we’ve come a long way, baby (in data transmission speeds).
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
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