Internet Blues

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Our Sympatico connection in Montreal is not working. It has been flaky for a while and now it is mostly not working.

The problem is a connection one, not software or setup. Unfortunately, getting that through tot he first line of tech support is very, very hard to do. They assume it is a software problem and ask you to uninstall an reinstall various bits of software. Unfortunately, as Sofia found out last night, this left the computer even less functional. There solution, contact Microsoft to fix the OS setup and then call them back. Bah!

How do I know it is a connection problem and not a software problem? Simple, my laptop has problems connecting in Montreal, but when I connect to a Sympatico service in Ottawa, it has absolutely no problem. Aside form that, the DSL lamp on the modem keeps going out.

The past weekend was absolutely brutal, we hardly had any service at all.

It will have to wait until I am back in Montreal Thursday night for me to start addressing it. sigh.

I have to confess being very disappointed with the Sympatico service in Montreal. We had it in Ottawa (it is provided by Bell Canada, the national carrier) and worked great. The reason I chose Sympatico was so that I could keep my e-mail address where ever I moved in Canada. Guess what? I couldn't. Apparently, for "technical" reasons, Bell was not able to move our Ontario account to Quebec (it moves across provincial borders). This was pure hogwash, because I was perfectly able to log in and use my Ottawa, Ontario Sympatico account while in Montreal, Quebec. For a time we had two accounts, one in Ottawa and one in Montreal. I had the Ottawa account disconnected two years ago when I took a 6 month sabbatical.

Comments

KayMac said…
frustrating, indeed!
March 20, 2007 12:44 PM
Barbara said…
Maybe it's time to switch to another Internet provider. BTW, I'm just about as fed up with Blogger, which just ate my comment as it seems to do at least once a day. Anyone else have that problem?
March 20, 2007 4:29 PM
Richard said…
kaymac: yep.

barbara: my choices are either DSL or cable. If I go with another DSL provider, they will use the same wires Bell does, so I won't be any further ahead - probably layer of bureaucracy behind.

I haven't had blogger eat a comment in a while. Since everyone has moved to New Blogger, it seems significantly more stable.
March 20, 2007 5:35 PM
Mother of Invention said…
Hope you get it sorted out! That's a drag and one thing I hate about computers and the whole tech thing. I have no patience for it!
March 20, 2007 11:11 PM
Richard said…
MOI: the principal problem is convincing them it is a hardware problem with their lines and not a software problem with my computer. I know it is not a software problem because the computer connects fine if I hook it up to another DSL connection.

The problem is that the firs tlevel of tech support is not interested in escalating the call to someone who can help because tha tis not part of the process. They will make you go through the whole uninstall / install procedure for your software first.
March 22, 2007 9:10 AM
Anonymous said…
i hope the internet connection goes well with you now,Richard :)
March 24, 2007 11:41 AM
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