SomeGuy
Veteran Member
So, my DSL conked out the other day. I've this DSL service for a very long time. Over the years there were a few times when it would go "down" for a while, but always came back after a few hours or at most not much more than a day or so. But this time it appears completely dead.
But after a day I was REALLY needing to get some things done, so for the first time I called their support number. Of course, it was some Indian in a remote call center, but surprisingly they didn't insist I reboot my computer and let me skip directly to the router, which was clearly showing it would not connect.
Anyway, they insisted the problem was with my DSL "modem" (bridge, whatever). I don't know, it turns on but the DSL indicator light never comes on. But it is old and not supported. So they helpfully said they would ship me a new "approved" one for $75 in 1-3 business days. This was Friday evening, so probably Wednesday.
In the mean time, I went down to Microcenter and picked up a DSL "modem" there. It is supposed to work with my ISP. I had been meaning to get a spare but never got around to it.
Gotta love Microcenter. I can still read their advertisements because it is printed on PAPER!!! And I can just walk in, grab it, and pay with American cash - no internet needed!
Anyway, bring it home, plug it in and its DSL light just blinks. So still no DSL for me! Called support back, and NOW they say there is a line problem. Tech will allegedly be out here on Wednesday...
My ISP also provides a "backup" dial-up system. I've had that set up on my Windows 95 computer since the beginning and have tested that periodically, but never really tried to do anything on it.
To summarize: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRAAGGGGGGG
First of all, I needed to load a web site that demands a newer browser than what I can run on my 95 system. I might have some proxy software buried somewhere, but the "easiest" thing should be just setting up dial-up on another computer, right?!
Well, load up dial up on my more powerful Windows XP machine (I mainly use it for running VMs). It connects, but pages only load a few K bytes and then the connection just hangs... no transfer occurring at all. I suspect it is a networking software issue, but testing that would mean uninstalling software I don't want to mess with that right now.
So... load dial up on my Windows 10 test computer. Why not? It's teh latest and greatest, right?
Well, first, I don't use Windows 10 much so finding things in there is a hassle. If you have to type something in to a search box to find a section then your GUI is GARBAGE! Ok, muddled around and got a dial up connection set up. But clicking the "connect" button in the control panel seemed to do nothing. Click, click, click, click? Eventually I figured out it had opened 100 "connect" dialogs BEHIND the control panel window. BRILLIANT! Oh, and of course clicking any of the help options helpfully informs me that I'm not connected to the Internet so I cant read help on connecting to the Internet. REALLY!??? [Insert scream tag here]PRIMARY HELP FILES SHOULD BE LOCAL TO THE COMPUTER[close scream tag].
Ok, finally got it dialing up.... but of course, it starts to DOWNLOAD UPDATES (or whatever), rendering the connection unusable!
Ohkay, cant turn off updates, so wasn't there an option to delay updates? Yes, in the updates control panel there is an option next to some slider switch control that looks like "(O ) Off".
First of all, does "Off" mean updates are off or that pausing is off? Apparently "on" means it will pause. So I click it. And nothing happens. Must have missed, clicked again. Nothing. Click, click, click? A minute later it switches on.. and then right off again. Except now it shows me a message that I CANT TURN IT ON AGAIN until it somehow checks to see if there are critical updates. WTF!?!
Hmm... there is some option to treat some forms of connectivity as "metered", and that can restrict updates and junk... but it seems to only apply to Ethernet, not dialup?! WTF?
Whatever marketing executive designed the Windows 10 UI needs to be taken out back and flogged for 9000 years non stop.
Might have had better luck with Linux, but didn't have anything loaded up with a recent enough Firefox.
So, to a different XP computer. Finally it seems to technically work on this one. The only problem is every "modern" web sites takes a few years to load! Not really surprised by that.
A few more or less lightweight sites like VCFED or Soylentnews actually load in a reasonable amount of time.
You would really think that, especially with mobile devices or just heavy traffic, that people would want to keep the critical content minimal. Let people read a page while graphics or dumb animations load. But there are too many pages that won't display at all until almost all 10 megabytes of scripting have loaded - and those can be a pain even using DSL.
With dial up, some scripts will actually fail and time out because things take "too long".
So anyway, I'm almost without Internet access right now. At least I'm not as addicted to it a some people are. They would probably have a meltdown if they couldn't check or post on twatter for more than 5 minutes. (cant... see... eBasay... [shivers] )
Sell phone? Meh, most of the stuff I do would never work with a toy cell phone. Heck, often even DSL is not enough. But fiber? Around here the only fiber is in cereal boxes! I did check around to see if anyone had open wireless connections, but no-go there.
I'll probably go down to the local library again and use one of their machines, but they don't have all the software tools I need, and all of my important data is on my home file server. So, yet even more headache.
Posted via dialup!
But after a day I was REALLY needing to get some things done, so for the first time I called their support number. Of course, it was some Indian in a remote call center, but surprisingly they didn't insist I reboot my computer and let me skip directly to the router, which was clearly showing it would not connect.
Anyway, they insisted the problem was with my DSL "modem" (bridge, whatever). I don't know, it turns on but the DSL indicator light never comes on. But it is old and not supported. So they helpfully said they would ship me a new "approved" one for $75 in 1-3 business days. This was Friday evening, so probably Wednesday.
In the mean time, I went down to Microcenter and picked up a DSL "modem" there. It is supposed to work with my ISP. I had been meaning to get a spare but never got around to it.
Gotta love Microcenter. I can still read their advertisements because it is printed on PAPER!!! And I can just walk in, grab it, and pay with American cash - no internet needed!
Anyway, bring it home, plug it in and its DSL light just blinks. So still no DSL for me! Called support back, and NOW they say there is a line problem. Tech will allegedly be out here on Wednesday...
My ISP also provides a "backup" dial-up system. I've had that set up on my Windows 95 computer since the beginning and have tested that periodically, but never really tried to do anything on it.
To summarize: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRAAGGGGGGG
First of all, I needed to load a web site that demands a newer browser than what I can run on my 95 system. I might have some proxy software buried somewhere, but the "easiest" thing should be just setting up dial-up on another computer, right?!
Well, load up dial up on my more powerful Windows XP machine (I mainly use it for running VMs). It connects, but pages only load a few K bytes and then the connection just hangs... no transfer occurring at all. I suspect it is a networking software issue, but testing that would mean uninstalling software I don't want to mess with that right now.
So... load dial up on my Windows 10 test computer. Why not? It's teh latest and greatest, right?
Well, first, I don't use Windows 10 much so finding things in there is a hassle. If you have to type something in to a search box to find a section then your GUI is GARBAGE! Ok, muddled around and got a dial up connection set up. But clicking the "connect" button in the control panel seemed to do nothing. Click, click, click, click? Eventually I figured out it had opened 100 "connect" dialogs BEHIND the control panel window. BRILLIANT! Oh, and of course clicking any of the help options helpfully informs me that I'm not connected to the Internet so I cant read help on connecting to the Internet. REALLY!??? [Insert scream tag here]PRIMARY HELP FILES SHOULD BE LOCAL TO THE COMPUTER[close scream tag].
Ok, finally got it dialing up.... but of course, it starts to DOWNLOAD UPDATES (or whatever), rendering the connection unusable!
Ohkay, cant turn off updates, so wasn't there an option to delay updates? Yes, in the updates control panel there is an option next to some slider switch control that looks like "(O ) Off".
First of all, does "Off" mean updates are off or that pausing is off? Apparently "on" means it will pause. So I click it. And nothing happens. Must have missed, clicked again. Nothing. Click, click, click? A minute later it switches on.. and then right off again. Except now it shows me a message that I CANT TURN IT ON AGAIN until it somehow checks to see if there are critical updates. WTF!?!
Hmm... there is some option to treat some forms of connectivity as "metered", and that can restrict updates and junk... but it seems to only apply to Ethernet, not dialup?! WTF?
Whatever marketing executive designed the Windows 10 UI needs to be taken out back and flogged for 9000 years non stop.
Might have had better luck with Linux, but didn't have anything loaded up with a recent enough Firefox.
So, to a different XP computer. Finally it seems to technically work on this one. The only problem is every "modern" web sites takes a few years to load! Not really surprised by that.
A few more or less lightweight sites like VCFED or Soylentnews actually load in a reasonable amount of time.
You would really think that, especially with mobile devices or just heavy traffic, that people would want to keep the critical content minimal. Let people read a page while graphics or dumb animations load. But there are too many pages that won't display at all until almost all 10 megabytes of scripting have loaded - and those can be a pain even using DSL.
With dial up, some scripts will actually fail and time out because things take "too long".
So anyway, I'm almost without Internet access right now. At least I'm not as addicted to it a some people are. They would probably have a meltdown if they couldn't check or post on twatter for more than 5 minutes. (cant... see... eBasay... [shivers] )
Sell phone? Meh, most of the stuff I do would never work with a toy cell phone. Heck, often even DSL is not enough. But fiber? Around here the only fiber is in cereal boxes! I did check around to see if anyone had open wireless connections, but no-go there.
I'll probably go down to the local library again and use one of their machines, but they don't have all the software tools I need, and all of my important data is on my home file server. So, yet even more headache.
Posted via dialup!