As I have noted before, this past week has been a bit challenging for me in the Internet access department. A week ago Friday, my DSL service died. I called my ISP, who in turn called the telco.

You can guess where this is going. It's called "pointing the finger of blame at the other party", and it is a royal pain in the butt.

Well, earlier this week, the ISP finally convinced the telco that, since they had 3 customers on the same DSLAM that had the exact same problem, maybe the fault did in fact lie with their equipment. The telco sent a rep out to my place, and after doing some diagnostic stuff, he pronounced the verdict: the modem more than likely was the culprit, and they would have a new one overnighted to the ISP's office in Stafford.

That was Wednesday.

When I called back yesterday to find out (1) where the modem was, and (2) why their tech support wasn't calling me back when they promised me they would, I ran into their Tech Support Customer Service Rep from HELL. After expressing disdain for my use of the NATO phonetic spelling (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) for the letters of my member name, when I explained that I was still waiting for a call back from my last call, he responded "Well, if he said he was going to call back when the modem comes in, he will call back when the modem comes in. (So just hang up and wait for him to call you back, OK?)"

Just who does that fckr think he works for, anyway - Comcast?

Actually, he didn't say that last sentence - but it sure sounded to me like he thought it. And, he doesn't for Comcast. I can't get Comcast where I live, but apparently I have found someone who takes their tech support rejects: Internet America.

After my blood pressure came down out of low earth orbit (deep breath...), I did about the only thing I could do. I called my cable provider, and asked them how fast they could set me up with high speed Internet. I have an appointment to get 'hooked up' next Friday. The only downside - no P2P, though I suspect the occasional download of software updates (Linux/FreeBSD ISOs) via BitTorrent won't be frowned on, so long as it isn't during peak usage hours.

So now, the question is, what will get there first - the DSL modem, or the new cable modem?

Actually, I will probably keep both services - after all, for some folks, Internet access isn't a luxury - it has become as much a necessity as a telephone. While 3G cell networks are good for some things, downloading lots of podcasts isn't one of them. Besides, this will allow me to segregate some of my activites from the rest of the family, and will also allow me to experiment with new and even more bizarre WiFi network setups.

I just wish the original owner of the ISP hadn't sold out. Or, that the tech support rep had been a bit more, ummm, civilized.