DIGITAL DEPENDENCY

About two weeks ago we lost internet access.  I made two calls to Technical Support.  On the first call I couldn’t understand the technician and I know that he wasn’t understanding me.  On the second call the technician determined that I had a short in my modem/router.  I thought that it would be a simple matter to go to the Big W and buy a new modem/router.  The desktop computer that the modem/router was connected to was over ten years old.  I decided to replace it at the same time I replaced the modem/router.

I bought a new desktop computer and it came with a 20 inch flat screen monitor.  Before I could install the new computer I had to remove from the old computer the pictures and files I wanted to keep.  That was a task that required hours of work.  Finally, I installed the new computer.  That was fairly easy – at first.  I opened the box to the new “modem/router”, took out the instructions and in the first paragraph read, “Plug your new B….. Router into the existing modem.”  It was only a router, not a modem/router!  I returned it to Big W the next day, talked to the salesman and he said, “Yeah, we used to have modem/routers but now all we have are routers.  Why don’t you try the phone store?”   I thanked him and went across the highway to the phone store and bought a modem/router just like the one which had shorted out (after three years satisfactory service).

Installing the new modem/router should have been easy and it was.  Making it work was another story.  First I tried using the installation/activation scheme on the internet.  I was able to get the host computer on the internet.  However, none of the other computers in the house could find a signal and the installation/activation scheme failed halfway through. I called Technical Support. Here we go again.  After two hours on the phone my laptop and my iPad were able to get a Wi-Fi signal from the router and go on the internet.  The desktop in my study found the signal.  I put in the password but the router rejected it – “invalid IP address”.  I will have to call Technical Support some day if I want my desktop back on the internet.  Frankly, for the time being I’d rather not!

While we are on the subject of Digital Dependency – Our television programs come to us by two satellites.  A dish antenna on the roof captures the signals.  A sweet gum tree in my neighbor’s yard is blocking the signals from one of the satellites and sometimes interferes with the signals from the other satellite.  The technician who came out to the house to fix satellite reception said that we have two options – chop down the neighbor’s tree or wait for winter when the leaves will fall.