Show of Hands

For a long time, I had a slow, spotty connection - to the point where I almost accepted it as normal. I would frequently have to restart my modem or router or both, to get back online.

So, two weeks ago, when it suddenly got a lot worse, I didn't do anything right away. The next evening (Saturday), I couldn't get on at all, so I called my provider.

I'll digress to say that way back when I first got on the Internet, I found a small local ISP. It was the early 1990's and as you know, things weren't like they are now. They served me well for many years and I had no reason to change to one of the "giants" like Verizon, etc.

A few months ago, the small local company was bought out by another company, based in California, named Succeed.Net. So, getting back to my saga ...

I called them 2 weeks ago on a Saturday evening. I reported that I had no Internet access. The support tech walked me through some basic troubleshooting.

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He couldn't find anything wrong, either on my end or theirs, so he said he would escalate it to a more advanced tech. Okay, great! Well ... not so great, as it turns out!

The advanced technicians don't work after business hours (what?!), so I would get a call back. The call back finally came Monday evening. (They are on the west coast, so it was evening for me, afternoon for him.)

The new person again walked me through the basic troubleshooting. Then, we talked about options. He suggested that I might need a new modem or it might be trouble on the phone line. If they did a "line check," but didn't find anything, I would be charged. So, we agreed that I would try a new modem first.

He gave me specs to look for. That same evening, I went to MicroCenter. It turns out that the whole world is on cable and they sell very few ADSL modems. I found one that fit the specs and bought it.

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To my dismay, when I got home, I couldn't get it to connect. So, I tried to call right back. That's when I realized that there's no way to call the advanced team directly. You have to go through the main number and ask for a call back.

I got my return call Tuesday afternoon. He tried to walk me through the installation. The standard installation didn't work, so then we tried all sorts of workarounds and manipulations. None of it worked.

In retrospect, I realize that I probably didn't need a new modem. (It was, however, about 15-20 years old.) The problem turned out to be phone line issues. However, I guess he really didn't want to go that route, so he finally said maybe, this modem was incompatible with their system!

So, what model should I buy, I asked. He named a specific brand and model number. I went on Amazon to look for it and used my daughter's Prime account, to get it faster.

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It came in the mail, late Friday afternoon. I was so excited. I went to install it right away ... and again, it didn't work! This time, there was a very specific error message, saying that my ISP had saved my old MAC address in their system. (Turned out to be not true.)

By this time, I had been without wifi for a full week and I was beyond frustrated. I called them and got the same annoying deal, where I had to go through a basic tech first, then wait for a call back from an advanced tech. What a dumb system!

It was still business hours on the west coast, so I hoped somebody would call me back that evening. But, they didn't.

On Monday, I was out of the house most of the day, but nobody tried to reach me. Finally, I called again in the evening. The basic tech who answered the phone said they had contacted the advanced tech with my question from Friday, about the MAC address being saved. He said, no, they don't do this.

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He had me unplug things and plug them back in ... steps I had done numerous times, throughout this process, on all the various calls and even on my own. Then, he suggested I call the modem manufacturer.

So, I did that. I was on a long call with somebody there, when the call dropped for some reason. I called back and the new rep refused to get me back to the first guy, so we had to start all over. We did the same stuff I had been doing all week and of course, it STILL didn't work.

Insanity is doing the same thing you have always done and expecting different results. But, I felt like I was going insane! 😊

So, of course, I called Succeed (the ISP) again, after all of this was done. Would you believe, he insisted that I do the SAME troubleshooting steps AGAIN?

Finally, after we were all done ... They agreed to open a ticket with the line carrier, to check the phone lines. This was very late Monday evening! That evening, I spent 4 hours, on the whole series of calls (including hold time, of course). First Succeed, then Netgear twice, then Succeed again.

I called them Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, each time to ask for a status. "We are still waiting to hear from the carrier."

Finally, on Friday evening, I had a callback from the advanced tech. The carrier had found problems and made some changes. He walked me through some small changes in the connections and I was up and running!

Wow! That was probably TLDR for you, but it was strangely therapeutic for me to write it all out.


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WOW. That is truly insane. I'm amazed that you are still using equipment that old, for one thing. And that you were put through so very many iterations of the same procedures, for another - not to mention the agony of purchasing not one but two new modems that wouldn't work with their system.

I would have lost my patience - and my mind.

So in the end, it was just a matter of some little changes? After they fixed something on their end? Let's hope it *never* happens again!

Sorry it took me a day and a half to get back to you. My power of concentration hasn't been very good lately!

Thanks for reading all of that! 😊

After it was all over, I was straightening up some stuff in my computer room. I found (believe it or not!) the original mailing box for my old modem.

It was postmarked 2004, so it was 12 years old. Old, but not quite as old as I thought. Then, I remembered. That's when we switched from dialup to DSL, so they sent me a modem.

"I would have lost my patience - and my mind." I lost both, but I felt trapped & helpless. I think I may change providers now, but at the time, I just wanted to get connected again, not start all over.

"So in the end, it was just a matter of some little changes? After they fixed something on their end?"

Yes! And the changes on my end wouldn't have been necessary, if they had fixed their end right away. It was a matter of getting my new modem (the second one) installed correctly & connected to my router.

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You're probably right. 😂

I'm so sorry!

Thanks.

Yes it is! After the 94 quake in LA we were out for a while and no hot water for 2 weeks either. Whole new appreciation after that!

When we have a power outage, I hate it. When that happens, I always think, I wouldn't have made a very good pioneer. Of course, they didn't know what they were missing. We're spoiled, aren't we?

In 1994 we has an ice storm and we loss power for 22 days. Our daughter had strep, my husband had a city to help protect (also no power but only for 3 days) and I had 118 head of cattle to feed and water. Finally got the generator running to pump some water. That's when I learned to run a chainsaw. Had to cut a path to the road 1/2 mile. No cell phones, wouldn't have worked anyway. The county had 6 towers fall. I grew up in Chicago with mega snow. I'll take snow storm over ICE any day.

I remember that. I was the only person to show up at work besides the supervisors. And I worked a double. I was annoyed

Yes! Especially with the children, it must have been hard.

Exactly. I don't know what to get for my dad that's a problem 😂

Oops! 😊

Thanks!

What candle?

I wasn't far from it! 😂

I got some Internet time by using data on my phone, rather than wifi. I have 3 gigs of data a month. That's pretty good, but not very unlimited. I didn't want to risk using it all up, so I budgeted my data use.

I also got some Internet time, by grabbing free wifi, wherever I could - the library, the nearby shopping mall and other places I go that offer it. However, that's not as convenient as being able to do stuff at home.

So, I did get some SOH time, but I couldn't spend hours on the app.


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This is a first world problem.

Good point!

I do terrible in the snow! I feel for your poor Mustang. 😊

Lucky you got it!

It turned out to be a problem on the telephone line. It sure took them long enough to figure that out!