The Cable Guys
I had cable TV and Internet installed yesterday. Well, installed is a strong word. Comcast started taking my money, but I haven't watched one second of television or surfed one single Web page.
The TV part is my own fault. It turns out that the cable input on the TV we had in storage here somehow got ripped out. It can no longer accept a cable signal. This means only one thing: upgrade time!
But the Internet downtime is starting to iritate me like a canned coffee review. The night they activated it, they handed me all the hardware and said, "Here you go, but you can't install it tonight because the system is down". That's it. The system was down. No ETA, no explanation.
So tonight I fire up the kick-ass HP Pavillion, the new one with the insane 64-bit dual core Athlon, and set about going through the Comcast setup wizard. It checks for connectivity. No connectivity. I do all the standard computers for dummies stuff: check the cables, reboot, make sure the hardware is working properly. A-OK my end.
I call Comcast and am surprised to be connected to someone who purports to be a live human being after only about five minutes and 10 menu selections. He says that the installation software can sometimes just not work for no reason. Oh. Good to know. He also says that he can set me up over the phone, but then he looks and says that he can't because, guess what, their registration system is down. At least this guy tells me why (regular maintenance) and gives an ETA (an hour).
So how am I typing this? Well, in an inspired move, I picked up a bargain wireless card for the kick-ass HP. I'm currently freeloading on someone else's waves. Cool.
The TV part is my own fault. It turns out that the cable input on the TV we had in storage here somehow got ripped out. It can no longer accept a cable signal. This means only one thing: upgrade time!
But the Internet downtime is starting to iritate me like a canned coffee review. The night they activated it, they handed me all the hardware and said, "Here you go, but you can't install it tonight because the system is down". That's it. The system was down. No ETA, no explanation.
So tonight I fire up the kick-ass HP Pavillion, the new one with the insane 64-bit dual core Athlon, and set about going through the Comcast setup wizard. It checks for connectivity. No connectivity. I do all the standard computers for dummies stuff: check the cables, reboot, make sure the hardware is working properly. A-OK my end.
I call Comcast and am surprised to be connected to someone who purports to be a live human being after only about five minutes and 10 menu selections. He says that the installation software can sometimes just not work for no reason. Oh. Good to know. He also says that he can set me up over the phone, but then he looks and says that he can't because, guess what, their registration system is down. At least this guy tells me why (regular maintenance) and gives an ETA (an hour).
So how am I typing this? Well, in an inspired move, I picked up a bargain wireless card for the kick-ass HP. I'm currently freeloading on someone else's waves. Cool.
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