Internet Interruption
My wife and
I watch a lot of TV, and we both are on our PC’s a lot. Oh, we can multitask baby!
We do this
in the bedroom.
The bedroom
is on the second floor of our town-home.
We get our TV reception from cable, our land phone line from cable, and
our internet access from cable. We have
the cable “Triple play.”
If cable is
out, we lose TV, the internet, and our phone.
We do have cell phones also.
Why, you ask,
do we also have a phone landline?
Because we are old.
The cable
connection comes into our basement computer area, and the internet router also is in this area.
Suffice it
to say, the corner of the basement where all these connections take place is a
confusion of wires and boxes.
Anyway.
Sometimes we
lose connection to the internet. Usually
if I just disconnect from our network on my PC, then reconnect, and it comes
back. Occasionally that does not work
and the solution is to go two floors down to the basement and unplug the router
for a count of ten (Probably
don’t need to count, but what the heck) re-plug, the internet resets and we are good. Needless to say, this is a pain, especially
when comfortably ensconced in bed.
The other
night the internet was down again. The basement
connections needed to be reset. Now
there are two boxes with power and even though I only need to cut power from one,
I never know for sure which box. Mrs. C
says she knows but it seems to me, she keeps changing her direction on which
box to cut power. Being pragmatic, I
simply pull both power cords and do the ten second thing.
When I
returned upstairs, we had power again.
“Did you
pull the cord from the router?”
“I pulled
cords from both boxes.”
“Just don’t
pull the cord from the one with the antennas!”
“Last
time you said to pull the cord from the one WITH the antennas.”
“No I
didn’t.”
“Yes, I
even blogged about it.”
“Well you
were wrong.”
“So, I
pull from both boxes, what is the big deal?”
“You
should only have to pull from one!”
“Here is
a great idea. The circuit breaker box is
in the hall upstairs. If we figure which
breaker controls the cable/router box circuit, when we have an issue instead of
going to the basement, I can just cut off that circuit for a count of ten.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“They
both may not be on the same circuit.”
“What! There
is only one outlet in that corner of the basement.”
“I don’t like
messing with the circuit breakers.”
That whooshing
sound you just heard was the “logic train” roaring past our house. I’ve learned to not expect it to make any
stops at our house.
I suppose I
could figure out which switch works which circuit by myself, but that would
entail about a dozen trips up and down two flights of stairs.
I think I’ll
just leave it alone.
The next
time I’ll still unplug both boxes, but when Mrs. C asks which one I unplugged I’ll
just tell her,
“The one
you always tell me to unplug.”
Good answer! We have a landline too. It only seems to be used for robocalls, but I like having that number to give to banks, etc rather than my cell.
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly me. I just unplug everything! I don't have the patience or the eyesight to figure out which is which so they all go!
ReplyDeleteAnd that my friend is the right answer.
ReplyDeleteYou and Mrs C cracks me up, I have the same all with the same internet, but I don't have to do anything but unplug the modem are just call them and they will reset it for me.The modem and router is the same. I'm afraid if I had to go up and down two stairs to fix it, it wouldn't get fixed. It doesn't happen often here I guess because it's a small town.
ReplyDeleteI think you are finally learning how to respond to Mrs. C! We used to bundle until cable went up so much so we dropped the TV and got an antenna and Amazon Prime and Netflix and came out cheaper with okay options to watch. I have to have a landline for work (which makes no sense but one has to do what one has to do). When I quit/retire I'll dump that. I rarely give out the number but do get lots of calls for it. I hate when the Internet goes out especially when I'm working as I'm paid on production. I'm always desperate to get it going again and hate when there is an outage in the neighborhood.
ReplyDeletebetty
Don't argue with a woman. Ever. We are right even when we are wrong. We no nothing about cables and circuit breakers but that does not stop us from having an opinion that supercedes your actual knowledge. When the internet goes off, it's usually because someone forgot to feed the hamster that operates the wheel that powers the entire web'o'sphere.
ReplyDeleteHow about Mrs C goes down and does the unplugging? That way she gets to know which box was unplugged and has the satisfaction of getting it right. The circuit breaker box is easy, when a circuit is broken, open up the box and whichever circuit is off will have the switch in a different position than all the others. If they are all down except one, that one is off. If they are all up except one, that one is off. of course in a total blackout where everything is off, you're probably better off staying in bed and hoping your torch batteries are new.
ReplyDeleteI have absolutely no idea what I would do if things went wrong with the internet, but I know a man who does know!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhy not move the bedroom in the basement? Or the router in the bedroom? Or ... this is a cunning plan ... or ... plug the router in an extension cable, run the extension cable all the way up to the bedroom and plug it in a socket there .... then when the problem occurs pull the plug out the socket for a count of ten. Gosh ... I am so clever I sometimes surprise myself.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Love that diplomatic answer. Like the idea of finding out which breaker will solve the problem. No need to tell her, just do it. Everybody happy.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me feel better that "the logic train" passes by the houses of smart people like you, too - not just us!
ReplyDeleteoh so either you have the same problem dear Joe !
ReplyDeletewe do the same when internet go off and that was told by my son otherwise we did not have idea what to do
so you learnt to play eventually with her psyche :)
Good answer!! :-)
ReplyDeleteI am not certain I could deal with all of this. we had cable internet (comcast) and it didn't work well for us at all. Always down times So went to FIOS and it seems more stable and lighting fast. you can get geeks to come to your home and set all this up efficiently you know. I don't know cost but it's a thought for you and the Mrs. They may share some good tips and stream line you guys.
You have learned to ride the logic train that stops at the house of C's. I, too, unplug two box thingies, because I don't know which is which. It works.
ReplyDeleteLol, I love these posts....I can almost hear the banter going back and forth :-)
ReplyDeleteWe have no basement, but the router and other things are plugged into a surge protector....to reset all I have to do is hit the button sending power to the plugs. I don't count to ten, but I give it just enough time before I lose my patience, then turn it back on.
Yeah, why doesn't Ms. C go down to the basement so she can do it "right"? Lol
I love your conversations and I laughed out loud about the logic train passing your house. You two never have a dull moment.
ReplyDeleteHave a fabulous day and weekend, Joe. ♪♫♪♫
Smart, very smart.
ReplyDeleteI hate making those calls. It's been a while since I've had to.
ReplyDeleteBut here's something interesting. We have two landlines and they are phone company lines. Someone asked me once: doesn't that cost a fortune? Nope. I retired from Ma Bell. I have two lines with long distance that cost me $4.30 a month.
I love America.
What a trial — going to the basementI — I’m annoyed if I have to go to another room where my phone line/internet jack is located. How about marking the box that needs to be unplugged??? But that would remove a conversation topic and what would you talk about then? I kept my landline too, cause can get faster emergency service if needed, but the sales pitches, other solicitors, scammers use it mostly, so I let them talk to my answering machine. I then delete their message with out listenting to the spiel.
ReplyDeleteThank heavens I don’t have cable TV as antenna gets me all the stations I want.
We used to have that triple thing through the cable company. About four or five years ago, we cut the cable. About two years ago, we cut the landline phone. We still have a home phone, but it's an internet based phone so I really shouldn't call it a landline. We still have our internet service through our cable company.
ReplyDeleteFloridians don't have basements.