Friday 19 April 2013

A Change is as good as a ?

Some things sound complicated but turn out to be simple. Others sound so simple but instead turn out to be very complicated, requiring much help from family and the various associated people.

After many years of using a very slow internet package, I finally decided to change.  The major reason for the delay in making a better choice was the inevitable complexity and consequent confusion associated with all this.

I needed help. My younger daughter provided this, and came along to help me through the selection.  Having signed on the dotted line, carefully avoiding consideration of the limitless alternatives and price comparisons, I awaited implementation day. It duly arrived. I had chosen to have a technician come and see to it all, and God only knows how you would cope without a technician.

The Internet Service Provider sent a text message giving me a date for the technician's  arrival. then  another message arrived, and then another. Today was the day. The technician arrived early in the morning.He seemed to think he needed to get under the house, but, post Fernando, the entry to underneath the house could not be opened. Fernando will have to fix this up when he returns to fix the problem of the moving floors. No matter how the technician tugged and yanked, the door to underneath the house remains obdurately closed.

Why do such problems abound?

Despair not.

The technician searched for various cables,  and finally connected this, that and the other thing. He gave me my new security code, and email address and password. With every step my confusion increased. Finally he declared all was set up, and departed.

More fun ensued. The password did not work. Help! Why was this so?

I had yet to cancel the old service provider - it seemed a little foolhardy to rush in and to assume everything would work. This proved to be just as well.

My daughter spent a very long time on the phone to the new ISP and finally it was sorted out. It all involved the Help getting direct access to my computer to get it all sorted out. I sat along side my daughter, freaking out, as quietly as possible. Ai'n't technology wonderful!

Is this what they call hacking? I think so. It was quite weird.

Finally it all seems to be working. I have yet to cancel the previous service. In the meantime I am busy informing the world at large of my new internet address.

All I can say, at this juncture, is, thank goodness for gmail, which seems to work easily and has been an alternative to the aberrant service of the big company's 'service'.

I kept asking myself why it took me so long to get all this organised and done, and of course the answer is not being able to face the inevitable trauma and puzzles such changed inevitably provoke. For years I have put up with slow, inefficient and costly service, culminating in almost total dropout of the connection with no one being able to say why this was happening, or to be able to fix it.

I hope all is well now. I am in the process of going through my addresses and notifying everyone of my new email address. And I remain as puzzled as ever about how it all happens and why it is so.

I feel as though the Great ISP in The Sky is writing on my report 'Lacks Application. Should Try Harder!'

They are not wrong.


3 comments:

Elephant's Child said...

The weekend before last I had to allow 'remote access' to our computer. Panic doesn't begin to describe how I felt. And they fixed the problem. And then I rebooted and it was back. Another phone call. Remote access again. Aaaargh. Finally fixed - and still working like a charm. It used up a significant proportion of our monthly download limit though...

Pam said...

Oh, I sympathise. I can work a computer as long as nothing out of the way is required. Then I can't.

Unknown said...

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