Internet connection has been down for about 16 hours. Now, we're back.
Last night, a relatively violent storm rolled through Western North Carolina. It's not unusual for there to be power outages. Why is that? Why aren't we protected from power surges and power outages caused by major thunderstorms? Is it that we don't have the technology? Or could it be that big business (the power companies) will not pay to have redundant power supplies and adequate surge protectors?
So, my Internet goes out last night. I call my Internet provider first thing this morning after troubleshooting on my own. For those of us who have had Internet service for while, we've all gone through the drill – unplug your cable modem. Leave your cable modem unplugged for 30-60 seconds. While your cable modem is unplugged please unplug your router. Now, plug in your router and then plug in your cable modem. Which lights are blinking and which lights are off? Please turn off and then turn back on your computer. None of these maneuvers work. I knew that the problem was in the cable feed coming into my house. So I call my cable provider and waste over 30 min. on the phone before they decide to send somebody out. The good news is that they send somebody out within the prescribed two-hour window. It took this computer guru less than 5 min. to see that the problem wasn't inside my house, like I said. The problem was outside of my house. He went and checked the box outside the house and there was no power coming to the box. The problem was somewhere in the vast network of my cable provider.
Here's my issue – my time is completely worthless to my cable provider. They should've known that the problem was outside of my house when I called. If they didn't know, why didn't they? This isn't nuclear physics. System diagnostics should be relatively simple and required for all cable companies. It is my opinion that they knew but didn't care to pass on that piece of information to me. In my opinion, this is another failure of government regulation and oversight. If we are supposed to be efficient workers, we can't waste time dealing with simple basic utilities.
The cable is out in four counties in Arkansas today. It sucks. I have no clue when it will be back on the air. They should at the least give you a discount on that month of your bill. Why am I paying all this money when every channel I have is currently off the air. Ironically though, On Demand is working completely fine. WTF?
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