Sort of, anyway.
About a week ago, we noticed that our satellite internet--let's say leisurely paced, at best--had become downright slothful. Especially in the evenings, when I came home from work and could spend a few minutes online. But it was even slow during the daytimes. I ran speed tests and responsiveness tests and when I had some results collated, called HughesNet's tech support.
This can often be a frustrating experience.
That first phone call winds up someplace in India, where the tech support person on the other end takes you through a scripted set of procedures that--if you are at all tech savvy (not that I am, at least, not much), you have already tried. But try to deviate from the script, and everything gets fouled up.
Not this time, though. This time, I explained what was going on. He checked the satellite modem remotely, and determined immediately that the LAN port had gotten screwed up somehow. Possibly a power failure, he said, and in fact we did have one recently. He told me that even though our modem was no longer under warranty, he was sending another out, free of charge, and crediting us for 7 days of down time. He explained with great precision how to hook up the new modem and how to send back the old one.
That was Sunday. Today is Wednesday, and the new modem is here. I took it out of the box, looked at the directions--and the instructions on precisely how to hook it up were precisely the opposite of what I had been told on the phone (and written down, step by step, as he told me).
I decided to go with the printed material rather than the dictated directions. And lo and behold, it's up and working like a charm. Speed feels faster than ever.
So thanks, HughesNet. The old modem will be on its way back to you tomorrow.
And for the rest of you--if in the past couple of weeks I haven't hit your blog or wished you happy birthday on Facebook or responded to your Tweets, it's because the interwebs have been SOOOO slow lately. And now that it's not, I have to run in about three minutes. But this weekend (and in the weeks to come) I will be in touch. Or, like, stalking you online, or whatever. Just sayin'.
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