DENIAL.

I drive to a coffee shop because I actually have billable work to get done and would rather do that than waste time on messing with the ISP.

ANGER.

I come home hours later to find that the Internet connection is still spotty. Time to stop billable work and tinker with the issue at hand.  I power down the cable model and the wifi router, disable and enable wireless card,… the whole nine yards – I did work tech support 5+ years, I do know the drill.

Surprise surprise: It’s not me, it’s them.

BARGAINING.

I call Comcast to report the problem. I sit on hold for a while. Phone tech apologizes for the inconvenience and assures me they will fix this free of charge. Ha! I bite my tongue and not mention the cost of lost time and income, cost of gas driving somewhere with reliable internet connection, etc.

The tech looks up the history of connection between their servers and my cable model and confirms that there are issues, sometimes they can’t see the cable model online at all. Tech offers to reset the cable model remotely. This kicks me off the phone since I’m on the Comcast home phone (rather than burning cell minutes). Comcast tech calls back and says that the issue is still occurring.

We schedule a time for a tech to come out.

DEPRESSION.

Tech comes out a couple days later. Surprisingly he knows the exact date/time when the issue started occuring. How? Because that’s when Comcast issued the regular IP refresh signal to my cable model. Because of the tech’s lack of knowledge/experience, I end up training him on how the Internet works behind the scenes (DNS, IP addresses, packets, cable modems, routers). I provide this to Comcast free of charge, every time. Then I walk him step by step through the indisputable proof that my computer is NOT the issue – also providing training on how one can best diagnose whether it is the computer, the website(s) being pinged, or the ISP’s equipment/service.

Tech tries everything and anything to resolve the issue and in the end “adjusts the signal stength something-or-another on the router which should improve the problem over time.” He admits that the model of wifi router issued by Comcast is giving a lot of people trouble but Comcast will not issue a different one to me – I’d have to buy one myself.

After 2 hours of my time, the tech says it shouldn’t be an issue any more and leaves. The internet connection seems to be working OK at this point.

ACCEPTANCE.

I cross my fingers in hopes that the “solution” works for as long as possible before another ice age hits.