Intermittent Internet

How many of you reading this are addicted to the Internet? I certainly am. And when my Internet Service Provider goes bonkers, so do I.



These days, the Internet is a necessity of life, both personal and professional. It's how I keep in touch with family and friends. How I find out what is going on in the multiple fiction genres in which I write. How I learn some of the news, and what the weather is going to be like, and what any medical symptoms shown by my pups or other family members, or even myself, might mean.



How I do a heck of a lot of the research I need for my Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mysteries, including locating people who can help me find answers... such as potbellied pig people who were wonderful about helping me research the next Kendra mystery, NEVER SAY STY. I also use it to research supernatural legends and other lore I incorporate into my Silhouette Nocturnes.



So when it¢s not working, my temper rises to boil.



We¢ve tried different providers over the years. Right now, ours is a nice, fast cable-related system. Or at least it's fast when it's working. But lately, it's been ornery enough to work intermittently, much too often.



I¢m the kind of person who hollers at the computer, now and then, when the system is down. My husband is a lot calmer than I... except recently, he, too, has taken to swearing at the computer. We started complaining by calling the customer service number and were routed to some very nice, but unhelpful, people whose accents suggested they were possibly in India or another foreign country. This was after waiting for a while. Then, ascertaining we had followed all of the recorded instructions such as turning things off and rebooting, that customer service person would route us to a technician in the U.S.--who was also very nice but not extremely helpful. However, now and then they would schedule us for a service call--and the problem still wasn't fixed. We did this procedure often over the course of months, keeping a journal about when the Internet went out... usually daily, at least for a while.



Finally, one of the technicians gave us the name and number of a supervisor, who has really taken an interest in our problem. It's not just us, by the way, but at least one other household on our street, and sometimes the whole system goes out area-wide. Anyway, we¢ve seen some trucks with the company's name parked around here lately. And... dare I say it without knocking on wood, or cursing myself--today the system seems to be okay.



But who knows what it¢ll be like tomorrow?



Is anyone else out there as frustrated with their Internet service as I sometimes get? And before you ask, we¢ve looked into other services and, when this one's working, it's the best for our area.





--Linda