Arrrrgh!

This morning I have just logged on to have a little gripe. I will make it a short one, as I'm sure you're not all that interested in the finer details of our internet woes. This is how the story goes.

Since the moment our landline ADSL was installed, it has been flaky with finding web addresses. Other programmes like uTorrent work fine, as does the Voip box (except when uTorrent is working overtime and using up all our bandwidth!). In our part of Malaysia, all landline internet contracts are provided by TM, Telecom Malaysia. The download is unlimited, the only thing we needed to specify was the maximum speed, and for a start, we chose the slowest link, at 1 mb/s. In the future we may upgrade to the fastest, 4 mbs. In Kuala Lumpur or Ipoh we saw cable internet advertised, but of course that isn't available in our little town. We were excited to be able to get landline internet, though the reliability of the TM ADSL is frequently brought into question.

Since we first got the internet, the connections have become less and less reliable. At first, a reboot every hour or two was all that was necessary. The last time I tried to use the internet was two days ago, and I spent most of the day trying to connect to websites, rebooting, repairing, in the end to no avail. It was a farcical situation where I struggled with failing internet trying to google why it was failing. It was the favourite TV plot, where the doctor gets injured, bt he's the only one that could do the surgery. After wasting countless hours trolling aroud the internet for help, rebooting, switching things off, switching things on, and generally getting extremely annoyed at the situation, we surmised the problem was with the wifi router that TM had provided. This brings us to this morning.

My Inventor had promised to swap the alleged faulty router with one he had brought from Australia, before he left for the plant this morning, so I could sort out the mountain of jobs that have been piling up while I couldn't manage to stay connected for long enough to complete them. Here follows the condensed version of this morning's events.

Router is plugged in. Inventor takes netbook to next room to set up router. Can't find piece of paper with TM password. Look here, look there. Upstairs, downstairs. I left it here, you put it there. Pull out files, sift through papers. Phone rings, won't connect. Phone rings again, battery is flat. Now the phone is searching, too. Phone rings again, pick up other handset but it's flat too. Base station won't answer either. Use mobile to phone Lorena to apologise for being late and making her late for work. Ask wife to drive Lorena to work.  Find password. Change mind about wife driving. Try to enter password. Give up, plug old modem back in and plug netbook into modem with blue cable. No phones working and wife has left her mobile on Inventor's desk at the plant, so phones her daughter using Skype. Daughter answers then netbook turns off. Check cables, push and check again. Discover switch on multiboard is in the down position. Switch on and start to recharge netbook, Skype daughter back. Daughter is about to leave for work, so say goodbye. Hit forehead firmly on desk five times, take a deep breath and open blogspot to debrief.

Thank you for being there for me, dear reader. I appreciate your listening ear, though I do doubt any of you managed to read this far. Now I must go and use my blue cable while it is working, sort out these bills and do what I must, before this unairconditioned room becomes too hot. Then I will retire to the airconditioned bedroom to write another blog about the wonderful things that have happened in our lives of late.