Normal service should resume Monday......
So - I had a lovely new V+ box installed on Thursday which for my US friends is like a Tivo. I can record two different channels while watching a third, I can watch High Definition programmes on my Hi-def TV, I can pause, rewind and fast forward 'live' TV.... yay! It's fun!
I was really enjoying Greys Anatomy Season 1 which somewhere along the way we didn't see (probably because it clashed with something else), and I'd started watching it on the VirginMedia 'On Demand' TV option before last week on our old cable box. I have to enter a PIN number to watch it.
So the new box went in on Thursday, and all of a sudden it won't accept my PIN number. I didn't do anything about it until Saturday late afternoon when I rang up the cable company to ask them to unlock the PIN.
So a nice young man said he could do that, and started to sort it out and then said there were some other problems, so he'd sort those out at the same time. He asked about the modem we had etc, and lo and behold the PIN worked and we were able to continue watching Season 1.
Saturday evening we went to my cousin's 50th birthday party which was fun. I got to dance and catch up with family, and a good time was had by all. I came home to turn off the computer before going to bed to find the Internet wasn't working. No problem - sometimes that happens, and by the morning it's OK, and I went to bed.
I woke up this morning to find that it still wasn't working. I reset the router, then tried resetting the modem, then the router, then the computer... nope no luck. Of course today was the day I'd set aside to answer some work emails from students. A couple had sent me work on Friday and I wanted to reply to them before I see them again.
I rang up the technical helpline. No, there's no engineering work and it looks fine this end. It must be a problem with your computer. Now my husband knows quite a lot about computers - he's built them, set up networks and works with them extensively in his job, and at this point he's getting suspicious of the 'suggestions' we're getting from the technical helpline lady. She's now suggesting that we call the premium rate line number to ask what to do about the computer....hmmm I don't think so.
So instead we say goodbye and have another look at the other computers in the house. My sons have a computer each and theirs can't connect to the Internet. An old laptop can't connect (and that's got a completely different set up to all the other computers), my new laptop can't connect either and has a different set up again...
So this time we ring up talk to a very nice gentleman and ask if anything could have happened when the nice young man sorted out our PIN number on Saturday evening. Ah - yes! Turns out the nice young man took our modem off our system, so no wonder we don't have Internet connection!! We're not sure why the nice lady couldn't tell us that... the nice gentleman knew straight away when he looked at our set up. I think nice lady didn't know what she was talking about considering we'd given her the same answers to the same questions (let's hear it for prompt screens!!) as the nice gentleman!
Fortunately we still have our old cable box, and on a hunch we connected a very old laptop to our old cable box and found that we have Internet access, but only through a cable connection.
They are going to be able to restore the modem connection on Monday, but in the meantime I am using a very, very old laptop that just can't cut it on Lj *pets*. So this is just to warn you that I am reading but I can't comment or reply to comments as it takes (what seems like) hours to connect to each page - honestly I could go out, warm a teapot, boil some water brew a cup of tea and come back and it STILL wouldn't have loaded a picture!!. I'll have my fingers crossed that Monday I'll be back online properly.
Needless to say we'll be complaining about the 'customer care' line and the fact they effectively cut us off!!! Grrrrr!
I am enjoying Greys Anatomy though *g*
I was really enjoying Greys Anatomy Season 1 which somewhere along the way we didn't see (probably because it clashed with something else), and I'd started watching it on the VirginMedia 'On Demand' TV option before last week on our old cable box. I have to enter a PIN number to watch it.
So the new box went in on Thursday, and all of a sudden it won't accept my PIN number. I didn't do anything about it until Saturday late afternoon when I rang up the cable company to ask them to unlock the PIN.
So a nice young man said he could do that, and started to sort it out and then said there were some other problems, so he'd sort those out at the same time. He asked about the modem we had etc, and lo and behold the PIN worked and we were able to continue watching Season 1.
Saturday evening we went to my cousin's 50th birthday party which was fun. I got to dance and catch up with family, and a good time was had by all. I came home to turn off the computer before going to bed to find the Internet wasn't working. No problem - sometimes that happens, and by the morning it's OK, and I went to bed.
I woke up this morning to find that it still wasn't working. I reset the router, then tried resetting the modem, then the router, then the computer... nope no luck. Of course today was the day I'd set aside to answer some work emails from students. A couple had sent me work on Friday and I wanted to reply to them before I see them again.
I rang up the technical helpline. No, there's no engineering work and it looks fine this end. It must be a problem with your computer. Now my husband knows quite a lot about computers - he's built them, set up networks and works with them extensively in his job, and at this point he's getting suspicious of the 'suggestions' we're getting from the technical helpline lady. She's now suggesting that we call the premium rate line number to ask what to do about the computer....hmmm I don't think so.
So instead we say goodbye and have another look at the other computers in the house. My sons have a computer each and theirs can't connect to the Internet. An old laptop can't connect (and that's got a completely different set up to all the other computers), my new laptop can't connect either and has a different set up again...
So this time we ring up talk to a very nice gentleman and ask if anything could have happened when the nice young man sorted out our PIN number on Saturday evening. Ah - yes! Turns out the nice young man took our modem off our system, so no wonder we don't have Internet connection!! We're not sure why the nice lady couldn't tell us that... the nice gentleman knew straight away when he looked at our set up. I think nice lady didn't know what she was talking about considering we'd given her the same answers to the same questions (let's hear it for prompt screens!!) as the nice gentleman!
Fortunately we still have our old cable box, and on a hunch we connected a very old laptop to our old cable box and found that we have Internet access, but only through a cable connection.
They are going to be able to restore the modem connection on Monday, but in the meantime I am using a very, very old laptop that just can't cut it on Lj *pets*. So this is just to warn you that I am reading but I can't comment or reply to comments as it takes (what seems like) hours to connect to each page - honestly I could go out, warm a teapot, boil some water brew a cup of tea and come back and it STILL wouldn't have loaded a picture!!. I'll have my fingers crossed that Monday I'll be back online properly.
Needless to say we'll be complaining about the 'customer care' line and the fact they effectively cut us off!!! Grrrrr!
I am enjoying Greys Anatomy though *g*