Since returning from university 10 months ago, there has been one very troubling thing in my parents house…
The internet connection is rubbish.
It’s real sad that so much of life does revolve around the wireless connection of an invisible structure. If for no other reason, not seeing it means you don’t appreciate it, you take it for granted. And, of course, you only notice it when you lose it.
Most importantly, it isn’t me that if affects but Mum and Dad who are constantly infuriated by trying to do things and get thwarted in their attempts every night.
So, let’s actually get round to the task that I should have sorted out for my parents long ago.
We began by calling Plusnet, who operate our Force9 connection. They got me to try various things: switching the filters, changing the settings on the router, turning it off and on again, and that kind of stuff. No change.
I then thought I’d explore internet forums as they are the first of call for any form of help these days. And, wow, were there reams and reams of tech babble, most of which meant little to me and, of that which did, I had already tried.
Back to Plusnet who began doing tests on the line. This took a couple of days to finish but their sleek customer service system confirmed to me in both emails and text messages that I needed to contact BT as there was a problem on their side.
And, if you are already bored of this post, this is where things get even more tedious. I contact BT and struggle tirelessly with the endless stream of non-native script. Nobody seemed to quite understand how a problem regarding broadband internet that was not being provided by BT could still be impacted by their business. That was until I explained that the connection came via the same cable. But, I was stopped when a customer service assistant cheerily mentioned that if I could hear him okay then the line was fine and BT have no responsibility here.
And the serve was returned to Plusnet’s side of the net. I called them back, this time being given information that it was a battery contact fault that I had to explore. BT had no idea about the battery contact fault but that it was nothing to do with anything on my side it would have to be at the exchange. Plusnet take this and decide to call in the big guns – the BT Openreach engineer.
I was made aware that it was going to cost me a fortune if the engineer found that it was something basic that was the reason for dragging round for a chinwag. Gambling with this risk, I got my man Mark round. Lovely chap who could talk for Europe. He taught me much about how exchanges work and how the connection reaches everyone’s houses. Cool stuff, but could he fix it for me? Well, a little bit. He replaced a dodgy cable and this improved the connection with the exchange.
But, the connection still dropped and this time, as if in defiance, was dropping once every 5 minutes. Cruel.
So, the engineer was called out again, this time while I was in Morocco so don’t know exactly what happened but a fancy new box has been attached to our wall which looks impressive enough to satisfy me. Furthermore, the connection was getting better and better, now only dropping occasionally.
But drop it still did. Going back to Plusnet, the last option I had was to order a new router and see what happens. I’m always keen to not over-consume and purchasing a new bit of hardware meant making an old one and all it’s cables redundant. Plus, I knew the router worked because the lights were always on when the connection dropped.
But a few days later, a letter box sized box arrived delivering the goods. 20 minutes of effortless installation and boom. Speedy internet with a secure password (something the old connection lacked) and lights on the router that like to stay green a lot more often than the old one.
And there we have it, for the time being (and I’m touching a very wooden piece of furniture when I say this), I’ve fixed my parent’s internet.
