So our internet connection has been flakey for the last week. We’ve seen this once in a while: we’ll have problems for a day and then it will go away again for a long time. I’ve always figured that it’s the provider’s fault; they are doing something to the line that’s screwing up the DSL connection. Once, about six months ago, it definitely was the phone company’s fault; the phone line got so noisy that you couldn’t use it for voice calls. We complained, they did something, and all was well.

This time, though, the phone line sounded fine; and we had the internet coming and going every few minutes for 24 hours. I called our provider, and talked to a kind gentleman from India, who after a time concluded that it must be our DSL modem, which had been in service since 2004, and which certainly needed to be replaced. He’d send us a new (refurbished) one for free, plus enough shipping to cover the cost of a new one.

OK; so I had him send it. And the next day, the ‘net was working perfectly, and when it showed up I left it in its box.

Since then, though, we’ve had five or six days when the ‘net has been unreliably flakey. That is, we’ve had hours when it works fine followed by hours when it’s completely gone, followed by erratic ups and downs. So tonight, I did the deed and replaced the old one.

This is the point where I talk about how the kind Indian gentleman was all wet, and how it still doesn’t work, and how I’m going to switch providers, and like that.

Except…it seems to be working just fine. Not only that, web pages are loading a lot faster. We’ll see how it goes over the next couple of days.

Our phone service went out this morning, along with our Internet service. AT&T is going to send a technician on Tuesday. (!) Things will be quiet around here until all is resolved.