Electronic Communication Problems

Yesterday morning I woke up with nothing planned. That is usual. Usually we have several things lined up every day. But yesterday morning, there were no plans. I wondered what we would do. Surely we wouldn't just sit around and look at the ceiling.

Then I read my email. Then, I responded to one email and pressed “sent”. It didn’t go anywhere.

After several tries sending an email and failing to get on the “net” as well, I decided my modem or something was down. Normally when this happens I can unplug everything and it fixes itself. Not so this time.

A couple of weeks ago Anna’s computer crashed, so we hooked up the lap top and she has been using that. I tried the lap top and I got on-line fine. Since we use the same modem I decided it was not the modem. But something was wrong.

Then I tried resetting the modem. I knocked the laptop off also. We could not go on-line. We were without email or internet connections. How were we to survive?

I thought of all the things we do on the internet every day and decided we could do without electronically communicating for a while if need be. I would just have to put my blog stuff on hold. No problem.

Then I thought of on-line banking. Recently, we signed up for a form of on-line banking. We will not get statements any more. Our statements will be on-line. Oh me. Now what?

Then I felt sick at my stomach.

Anna and I got on the phone can called the AT&T Help Desk and got to know several AT&T help desk employees fairly well over the next several hours. Then we decided we had to buy a new wireless modem/router. We went to Best Buys and bought one.


We went back, called another AT&T help desk person and she walked us through setting up the new modem. By the way, we bought the kind that AT&T authorized. The young lady with an Indian (Far Eastern) accent did very well walking us through the steps. She was very patient.

We had back the Internet and our email by about 7pm. We had being busy trying to correct the problem since about 7am. A twelve hour work day. And I wondered what we were going to do.

Then, I tried to print something on our wireless scanner/printer and realized that the new modem/router did not know of the wireless printer/scanner’s existence. And we could not figure out how to have them “shake hands” so to speak.

We called the AT&T help desk again, about the 5th or 6th time that day, and told them our problem. Another patient person explored every possibility but could not come up with a solution. He transferred us to a “Help Desk Plus”. While we were waiting for the next available help person at Help Desk Plus we heard some music and a few announcements. One of the announcements was to have our credit card ready when they pick up.

We hung up.

So, now I am unable to scan. I may have to slow down on posting the Olympian pictures on the blog or I will run out rather quickly. Also there is Sunday Funnies. And family pictures from time to time.

Oh me.