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Sometimes it Pays to Procrastinate
May 28th, 2010 by Babs

<div class=\"pavatar\">Sometimes it Pays to Procrastinate</div>

Last month, without warning, I lost my internet connection. Since RCN used to have outages all the time I assumed that’s what it was, however, after two hours I started to get worried. I called Comcast CS. While on eternal hold I started reading the latest statement and discovered that they had been charging me $45 the last two months for not returning a router that I had received from them a month prior to the billing. So now I had two problems.

When I finally got someone they looked up my account, couldn’t understand why I was being billed, but insisted that I wasn’t actually being charged. Never mind that my bill was $90 more than it should be for two months of services. She said she would fix it and then transferred me over to tech support to fix my internet problem.

The woman from tech support was very nice. She quickly checked my connection and isolated the to somewhere in my house. I was about to ask how much it would cost me to have a service call when she asked if I had a Comcast router. I told her “yes” and she said, “I know exactly what your problem is.”

Turns out I ordered my router at the wrong time. Comcast was starting up its whole Xfinity thing and, apparently, a lot of routers ordered during that time were entered as “due to be returned” instead of “shipped out”. And since no notices were sent out no one knew about the problem until they started getting billed or, in my case, when their routers got de-authorized because they hadn’t been returned. I was the fifth customer she had helped with that problem that day. *rolls eyes*

My latest bill arrived today. I noticed there was no $45 charge this time. I also noticed there was no credit given for the previous overcharges. However, the amount due magically went down to what it should be. Makes me wonder if I would’ve received a credit, had I paid my bill on time.

While Comcast did fuck up, and this fuck up is a mere drop in the bucket compared to their other fuck ups, I will say it appears their CS isn’t outsourced. It was nice being able to talk to people about a problem and actually understand them when they gave the solution. 🙂

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We Are Wireless, Again!
Jan 18th, 2010 by Babs

<div class=\"pavatar\">We Are Wireless, Again!</div>

The router from Comcast finally arrived. Actually it arrived on Friday, according to UPS’ handy dandy tracking doohickey. It just sat on the porch on the other side of the house for a couple of days because UPS’ drivers cannot tell the difference between a vacant, in-the-middle-of-being-renovated apartment and one with people actually living in it. 😛

It didn’t take too long to hook it up. I am glad I didn’t get sucked into ordering a wireless adapter for my computer. I have yet to find a router without a LAN connection. The tough part came when I tried getting the Nintendo DS and the PSP working. After an hour or so of switching between security settings I realized the problem was that, even though the router is backwards compatible, it’s not set that way by default. And the only way to change the settings is through the router’s “web page”. You can’t do it via the software on the CD. 😛

So now everything can access the internet. Ben is ecstatic because he can finally use his PS3 online. I’m happy because he can now use his PS3 to watch Netflix’s Instant Viewing movies instead of using my computer and the teen can use his Wii to surf online.

Yay!

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WTF?
Feb 15th, 2009 by Babs

<div class=\"pavatar\">WTF?</div>

Okay. If you read my last post you’ll recall I mentioned that I couldn’t watch “That ’70s Show” because it wouldn’t play on my computer. Well I had a similar problem today with another disk. The disk was recognized (unlike the other disk, which kept giving me a no disk in drive D error) but still wouldn’t play.

Anyway, I was busy moving stuff around my room when I came across the DVD/CD RW drive that Dell had sent me back when I first acquired this piece of crap and was having trouble with the drive. Long story short: I wasted three weeks swapping out drives, backing up my computer, and reinstalling the OS  when the problem was the frickin’ Roxio software Dell installed on it. I figured after all that they owed me, and I never returned the third drive.

So for shits and grins I decided to swap the drives. I don’t know what the problem is with the old drive, as 90% of the stuff I use it for works fine (I spent the last week ripping CDs and Simming with no issues), but the previously troublesome disks are playing problem-free, now. *headdesk*

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Gah!
Dec 6th, 2008 by Babs

I was having computer problems. Often, when I would turn my computer back on after either shutting it down, or it going into hibernation, all I’d get was a prompt about the BIOS. Because the computer’s diagnostic lights were indicating a mystery failure I called my uncle for assistance. It turned out to be my graphics card, which I had popped out of place when I hooked up the digital connection to my monitor and thought I had popped back. Obviously not. It took me about 15 minutes to figure out how to open the doo-hickey that Dell uses to hold the cards in place but once I did, and fully removed and replaced the card, everything started working again.

After my uncle and I fixed the damn thing, we chatted for a bit. He asked me if I had received an email from our friends, “the Fluffys,” inviting me to their XMas Eve Dinner, and Holiday Party. I had not, and wasn’t really put off by it… until I learned that the Holiday Party is to be held on the 20th. This is the date I am hosting my Yule gathering. A gathering I invtied everyone who was present at Thanksgiving Dinner (including the Fluffys) to. So yeah, I’m not a happy camper.

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Score!
Nov 10th, 2008 by Babs

Last night I found a program called “Webserver on a Stick.” It’s not quite as dummyproof as WAMP, in fact if I hadn’t already worked with WAMP I wouldn’t have known how important it was to include myphpadmin into the package. Either WSoaS is faster than WAMP or they doctored WP not to timeout during install. Either way, I now have WordPress on my thumb drive. And it, along with the formatting and software that came with the thumb drive, only took up 141MB of space, leaving me plenty of space for my entries. Woot!

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