Technophobia

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Internet is working, but I still can’t install the Comcast software. It’s weird. I plan to call them later, but I don’t feel like dealing with them right now and since I’m able to access the internet with no problem I’ll wait.

Doesn’t it seem odd that I can use the internet without having their software?

This post was typed on my home computer. Woo!

Friday, August 10, 2007

My help ticket has been assigned. I’m told that when I call back and am told it is closed that I should be able to continue installing and get internet.

Color me skeptical.

Not happy.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

I’ve spent over an hour on the phone with Comcast between the three phone calls last night and this morning. There’s a problem with the modem and I’m unable to install the Comcast software to get internet working. I’m told it may be fixed by the end of today, but I’m not holding my breath.

In the meantime, I got the laptop set up to test the aircard and that’s working beautifully - we get a much stronger signal for our cell phones here and the aircard is strong, too. So at least I can work tomorrow.

I’ve taken today off, so the plan for today is to work on unpacking the boxes in the living room and the bedroom as best we can. And I’ll tweak the work area in the basement a bit more, too. Since I know the aircard works great down here, I’m going to go ahead and set up my work-work area knowing that I won’t have to work in the dining room anymore. That’s nice.

We have painters on the deck - repainting the back door and staining the deck. I talked for a bit last night with Landlord Dude - he’s thinking he’ll have to replace the front door (the molding/weather-stripping around the top half window is rotted and he can’t find a replacement that fits right). I like that he’s willing to keep the house looking like more than the rental home that it is. He’s very accommodating.

OK, to work...I’ll check in later, of course.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

I don’t know what the deal is with Blogger when I’m at work, but when I try to make a comment at your blogs I get caught in this weird loop that will not let me type anything. I can read your blogs, but I can’t comment. And then by the time I get home and manage to get online, I forget what I would have said. It’s a vicious cycle and it’s quite annoying.

Just wanted you to know.

Monday, July 30, 2007

We didn’t do much yesterday for the move. Both of us were just plain tired and so we relaxed most of the day. We may pay for that laziness this week with the last push for the move on Saturday, but we think we’re in good shape overall. The help we got on Saturday was huge and got us much further along than we had hoped.

We got some hilarious video of Jesse last night. He was belly laughing at Annie - she wasn’t doing anything other that just standing there or walking past, but he laughed like it was the funniest thing he’d ever seen. His sheer delight was awesome. So Beau ran to get the camera and started filming on the sly. However, Jesse zeroed in on the camera and what we got was more of his piercing stare at the camera instead of his giggles at Annie. I’ll try to take time to download it tonight and post it to YouTube for your enjoyment.

I’m going to get my hair cut this afternoon. I can’t stand it anymore and Jesse pulls it too much. So I’m getting it cut into a chin length bob again (it’s at my shoulders right now). I’d really like to get it cut like Chief Vick on Psych (I can’t link to the show or her because of Flash issues here at work). I love her new haircut - it’s sassy. And let me say that I continue to love this silly little show. Beau and I watched the last two episodes yesterday and I laughed my head off - he had no clue about any of the pop culture references. At one point after I laughed and he didn’t he said, “I guess you need to be pop culturally literate to get this show?” Um, yeah. Sorry, honey.

Wow, I’ve really gone off on a tanget - here’s the bundling part: we’ve decided to go with Comcast‘s Triple Play bundling of cable, internet and phone. We figure it will save us about $30-50 a month. What’s a bummer is that our new phone number starts with 571 instead of the old faithful 703. I’m a bit sad about that and those who live in this area will understand, I think.

One last thing - I’ve up to chapter 4 in Deathly Hallows. So far I’m loving this book. I just wish I had more time to actually read it.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

...but technology doesn’t love me.

So our SysAdmin uninstalled the firewall software on my laptop to see if that is what is keeping me from being able to access the remote network with the cable modem. Just tried logging on with no success. *sigh*

The techies who have been helping are completely stumped. It makes no sense.

I can get access to the internet with no problem, so the cable is working. I just cannot get logged into the remote network at all via cable. But I can with the wireless aircard. It’s so weird.

Next thing to check into is something to do with the ports. I think. At this point, I’m about ready to give up and just make my dining room my office.

*double sigh*

***Points to whomever can identify the movie from which the post title comes.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

So I can’t access the remote network from home. I haven’t been able to get in since last Wednesday morning. I was logged on and then disconnected for a lunch break. When I came back a little while later I couldn’t get in and haven’t been in since. No one seems to know the problem. My cable is good - I can get to the internet. My security token pings as it should. The network seems be OK. And yet it isn’t because I can’t get in.

On Monday, I met with our System Admin and we tested with my wireless aircard at the office. That worked and I was able to get into the network. So I’m going to take the laptop upstairs to try that. If that works, then it is a problem with my cable, but there’s no explanation since I can get to the internet.

It’s a frustrating mystery.

[AN UPDATE (2:00 pm)]: So I talked to our SA and she assured me that my account wasn’t locked and that everything should be working. She wanted me to try the aircard again and then retry the cable. This time I took the laptop upstairs to test the wireless aircard since I don’t get much signal in the basement. That works fine and it actually works great up there. That’s where I’ve been working for the past few hours.

The retry of the cable did not work. So I called the Help Desk again and explained the situation again including the latest steps tested. This guy (different from the guy I talked to earlier this morning) is stumped. He suggested that maybe my cable provider did some kind of upgrade, to which I rolled my eyes because there’s no way they did an upgrade in the middle of the day - I called them to confirm that just to cover all bases.

The next solution is to disable or uninstall/reinstall the firewall software, which our SA is going to have to do the next time we’re both in the office because I don’t have the permissions to do that.

The irony of today is that while I can access the network perfectly upstairs on the wireless card, I cannot get to any outside website. It’s the exact opposite problem.

Weird.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Choir went well on Saturday and Sunday. It was fun, as always.

Jesse did well in the nursery and slept well in the afternoon and last night. I’m convinced that he’s an introvert like him (clearly I can’t type when I’m this tired) his Mama and that after enjoying being around a lot of people needs to sleep afterwards.

Which leads to my exhaustion. That I’m at the office today and tomorrow makes me more weary.

Now I must get back to work, of which there is plenty since I was unable to connect to the network from home on Wednesday and Thursday. Still no explanation for that from our IT person. I’m hoping whatever was the problem is fixed for Wednesday because I cannot come into the office everyday this week.

Monday, June 04, 2007

If you have our home phone number, please know that our phone service has been out of commission since sometime on Friday.

We didn’t discover the problem until Saturday. I put in a trouble call to Verizon and we have a technician coming to the house sometime between 8-4 tomorrow.

If you need to call us, try my cell phone as it’s the only one fully charged and on all the time. If you don’t have my number, email me - I’m online all day and will get back to you.

Thank you.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

I’m happy to report that I’ve had a steady and quick connection to the network all morning.

Woo!

Now I need to plan for bringing home more to work on so that I’m busy all day. The stuff I brought home yesterday I’ve already completed, although there is one thing I could try to do. I’m meeting with a guy tomorrow about it and I’m thinking of waiting for that so that I don’t royally screw up something important.

Fortunately, I need to go for a training thing at the courthouse this afternoon, so I won’t be sitting around here with nothing to work on all afternoon.

No more complaint posts about the telework thing, I promise.

I forgot to mention that our cable TV came back at about 6:30pm last night. What’s weird about that is that there was no signal to the TVs, but I was able to watch TV on the computer and our internet was not affected.

Anyhoo, all is well in technology land and I’m happy.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Technology can be great, but it can also frustrate me no end.

Again, I have not been able to keep a connection with the VPN for longer than a minute or two all afternoon.

In addition, our cable has crapped out. However, it only seems to be affecting our cable boxes because I can watch TV on the computer just fine.

I’m about ready to pull my hair out. Or burst into tears.

If I can’t be productive working at home, then I can’t justify the telecommuting thing.

Lord, help!

[UPDATE (7:45 pm)]: My husband is the best. He went right out to buy the router and ethernet cables. I’m now hooked up to the cable modem and so far everything is working perfectly...and much faster, too. Thank you, Lord!

Friday, March 23, 2007

I don’t know if it’s all of the Department or just our agency, but it’s a no go on YouTube viewing anymore.

Still doesn’t explain why I can’t open The Llama Butchers when at work.

How are you able to access your own blog from Father? I get an error because of some Flash code you’ve got going that shuts down the browser every time I try to load your page.

Monday, March 05, 2007

I’ve turned off the Trackback option. You’ll still see the link to the Trackback page for each post since I’m too lazy to delete that code from the template in case I change my mind, but no one should be able to ping trackbacks anymore.

I’m tired of the TB spam and it’s not like many of you guys use it anyway.

Friday, February 23, 2007

You should see the new template now. If you don’t see it or things look odd, refresh the page.

If things still don’t look right, let me know in the comments.

Thanks to those who gave feedback earlier today.