The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.
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10:54am on Sunday, 25th June, 2006:
Rant
My "always on" Internet connection is no such thing. I've been having problems on and off for the past two months in which my Internet line drops every 5 minutes. Yesterday was the worst: I was disconnected at the following times: 17:39, 17:44, 17:49, 17:54, 17:59, 18:05, 18:10, 18:15, 18:20, 18:22, 20:24, 20:34, 21:07, 21:14, 21:19, 21:24, 21:30, 21:35, 21:41, 21:46, 21:51, 21:57, 22:03, 33:08, 22:13, 22:19, 22:24, 22:27, 22:32, 22:38, 22:44, 22:49, 22:55, 23:00, 23:06, 23:38, 23:43, 23:48, 23:53, 23:58, 00:04, 00:10, 00:15, 00:21, 00:26, 00:32, 00:37, 00:42, 00:48. Then I got angry and logged off.
The gap between 18:22 and 20:24 was occupied by having tea and watching Dr Who. Otherwise, I was logged on continually, except for those breaks. It didn't matter what I was doing — web site, game, email — it disconnected like clockwork.
I've tried different computers, different routers, connecting to different wall sockets — none of which I ever believed would be effective, but just so that when I complained to BT about it I could let them know it was their fault. This meant that when I phoned them the Friday before last to ask them to do something about it, they couldn't fob me off. I called the number in the Phone Book, which told me automatically to call another number; I called that number and it told me automatically to call another number, but it also gave me a bunch of options which I worked through and eventually got to speak to a real, live person (note for call centres: accents from the Indian sub-continent are sufficiently identifiable that "Hello, my name is Julian" doesn't cut it). The real, live person was unable to do anything from his computer, despite making me hold twice for 3 minutes at a time, and he eventually put me onto another group. Only through extreme pestering was I able to get the name of this group: the Line Maintenance Department. They don't have a direct line, but would call me back within the next three days.
That was 9 days ago, and I've not heard a peep from them.
Referenced by Service.
Referenced by An Engineer Calls.
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Copyright © 2006 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).