It seems like I have been without internet for days. Which is unsurprising, because I have!
I first noticed it two weeks ago and reported it a week ago. On Tuesday engineers needed access to the house. Fortunately Jimmy was around. They decided they needed to climb the poll but couldn't do that in the dark. Following that, they needed access to the house, again. fortunately Jimmy was around, at least for part of the day.
That seemed almost to work; I had broadband that was only cutting off only every couple of hours or so. It did mean that I had no dial-tone in the phone on that line, which is not the line I use for phone calls (two lines, legacy issue, round-tuit prevails). On Friday, another engineer called (fortunately I don't work on Fridays) and did something to restore the dial-tone. I had broadband for several hours but it disconnected from time-to-time and was painfully slow. Phonecalls assured me that it would improve over a couple of days.
Saturday morning, despite frequent attempts, I could not connect at all. A call to the telephony department said that there had been a lot of noise on the line but it was now working perfectly; I should contact Broadband. Broadband said there was a problem and talked me through various things.
She told me that my router wasn't working properly, because it was set up wrong. I was cynical about that, because I had set it up three years ago when I got this PC; it had previously worked okay for a year or more on the previous PC. However, I was prepared to accept that there might be an unrelated problem with the router even when I pondered that it was too much a coincidence that my router should pack up at the same time as my line!
So I went out and bought a new one, for thirty five pounds. That didn't work either, so I got back on the phone again and was practically in tears. The person on the other end said that if the 'link' or 'DSL' light is flickering (as it was on both) that is never an indication of a router fault. He did some tests and called back to confirm there was a problem on the line, and escalated it to a Broadband engineer.
The Broadband engineer called this morning (fortunately I don't work Mondays...how many households could sustain home visits on four separate weekdays within a week?). He did some tests and said there was a lot of noise on the line: noise that could be heard in a voice call. He also climbed the poll and then came back and tested the line and said it was running at 7.2 mbps. I have done a Speedtest which suggests 1/20th of that. In the past I have got 2 mbps. I am close to the exchange and use the line only for broadband, using the main socket, and I don't have it sitting on the fridge or whatever. I will buy a new filter and see what happens with the new router.
It is particularly annoying it happening at this time. Jimmy started a new job on Thursday. I knew this was coming, so my focus has been on spending time with him rather than on the PC, and this weekend would have been an excellent opportunity for catching up on blogging, blog-reading etc. Instead I have had to resort to stuff like cleaning the kitchen. Yikes (although I did do so to the accompaniment of Tristan und Isolde.
I tell you, I am never letting that man near my kitchen again. Nothing is where it should be. I have found things that I thought have gone missing. Clothes pegs, cloths for mopping, double sided sponges/scourers. I can't believe his hoarding instincts. He's the sort of person who sees a 3-for-2 offer and buys six. We have a kitchen with little storage. He was supposed to have put a new cupboard up to expand it. Instead we have four cans of lighter refill gas, three different shower cleaning sprays, three unopened bottles of mayonnaise and two of tomato ketchup. Six big boxes of teabags. Three different packets of Garam Masala, all opened. Two unopened bottles of Reggae Reggae sauce. At least my tins of sardines are neatly stacked in one place; his tins of salmon are distributed randomly throughout the cupboard.
I also went through the other cupboard throwing put numerous out-of-date packages of rice, pasta, flour and other cooking ingredients. I will concede I am responsible for those. Since I went down with CFS I have not had the energy or inclination either to bake (although that doesn't explain the rice and pasta) or to clear the cupboards, whereas I managed to do that, having cleaned the kitchen, having cooked dinner, having been swimming, having done a couple of loads of laundry. It may not seem much to most people, but for me it's a massive step forward.
