More delay!
Dec. 27th, 2006 05:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothSo, somewhat to my surprise, the technician came by my apartment on schedule and was able to fix the DSL connection problem. Basically, the apartment's wires suck because of the buzzer that makes it difficult to order pizza or have people over (or, rather, would make it difficult if enterprising neighbors didn't continually wedge the door open and/or break the lock), but by futzing around with the phone box and dialing the speed down to 384 kbps, she was able to get a stable signal. So, in theory, I can get (very very slow) DSL in my apartment.
But I still couldn't connect to the internet, because the 'ATM (somethingorother) loopback test' failed. The technician from the phone company said that that was a problem on Earthlink's end -- since the DSL light on the modem was stable and all her diagnostics were good, her work was done. It looked like an authentication problem, she said, like they'd forgotten to enable DSL on my account and so it was refusing me access.
So I called earthlink's support line. Somehow, it was even worse than before -- not only were the wait times longer, but I kept getting bounced around randomly between departments because the DSL chirp in the background from the now-active DSL line interfered with the touch-tone menus. After THREE fifteen minute waits (during which I was able to make and eat dinner) I finally got to someone who, in theory, would be able to help me.
...and the first thing he had me do was reset the modem EXPLICITLY to erase all the settings the technician had made to make the DSL signal stable. Unsurprisingly, this was useless. The second thing he did was tell me that it was all the vendor's fault, and that he'd have to refer the problem back to her -- and that I should call back in four hours for more information.
If this isn't resolved tonight I am cancelling this service. Even if it is, I might still cancel it, because 384 kbps is really sucky.
(needless to say, I'm currently connecting through dialup STILL)
But I still couldn't connect to the internet, because the 'ATM (somethingorother) loopback test' failed. The technician from the phone company said that that was a problem on Earthlink's end -- since the DSL light on the modem was stable and all her diagnostics were good, her work was done. It looked like an authentication problem, she said, like they'd forgotten to enable DSL on my account and so it was refusing me access.
So I called earthlink's support line. Somehow, it was even worse than before -- not only were the wait times longer, but I kept getting bounced around randomly between departments because the DSL chirp in the background from the now-active DSL line interfered with the touch-tone menus. After THREE fifteen minute waits (during which I was able to make and eat dinner) I finally got to someone who, in theory, would be able to help me.
...and the first thing he had me do was reset the modem EXPLICITLY to erase all the settings the technician had made to make the DSL signal stable. Unsurprisingly, this was useless. The second thing he did was tell me that it was all the vendor's fault, and that he'd have to refer the problem back to her -- and that I should call back in four hours for more information.
If this isn't resolved tonight I am cancelling this service. Even if it is, I might still cancel it, because 384 kbps is really sucky.
(needless to say, I'm currently connecting through dialup STILL)
