Trading One Problem for a New One
In recent months, I’ve grown weary of my satellite internet service. Two years ago, I loved it, but back then it was either satellite or dial-up. No sooner did I sign the two year contract than DSL became available out here in cow country.
With satellite, when it rains harder than a drizzle, I lose my signal. If storms approach from the south, I lose my signal. If the dish gets coated with ice or snow in the winter, I lose my signal. If…well, you get the idea. And even when I have a signal, it’s slow. Not as slow as dial up, but close.
Last night, I learned that my order for DSL had gone through, and it was ready to be installed. Notice I said “last night.” I’m not a night person. Nor am I a morning person. I’m more of a two-hours-in-the-middle-of-the-afternoon person. I know these things never run smoothly. So why, you may ask, did I even attempt the installation in the evening instead of waiting for morning? AFTER my coffee, of course. The answer has to be impatience. And the eternal optimism that, for once, it will all fall into place like the directions say.
Ha!
The installation went well. Until I tried to access my Outlook email account. The one all my business emails come through. These blasted little boxes kept popping up demanding my user name and password. Plus I couldn’t SEND any messages. I tinkered with the email accounts options for a while and nothing seemed to work.
Which led me to remember a life lesson I’d learned (or been reminded of) this past summer when I was at that marvelous yoga retreat. Solving one problem only creates a new one. Example: A lonely girl thinks she’d be happy if only she had a boyfriend. She gets a boyfriend, but he’s not very thoughtful and wants to spend too much time with his buddies. So she thinks she’d be happy if only he’d marry her so she could “fix” him. They get married and now all he does is lie around the house all day and drink beer and demands she clean the house and cook dinner for his buddies who come over to watch the game on their TV. Now she thinks she’d be happy if only she’d get a divorce and have the house to herself again.
In my case, I’d solved my sluggish internet problem only to gain a massive email problem.
But, hey! That’s what tech support is for. Right? RIGHT??
After giving the tech lady with the thick accent access to my mouse, she managed to freeze up my computer. End Task wouldn’t work. She must have muted her microphone because I didn’t hear her swearing, and I knew she had to be cussing like crazy in some language I don’t understand. What she did manage to accomplish was change some numbers in a box labeled “Port.” I didn’t know what that meant, but the emails which had been stuck in the Outbox went. However the idiot dialogue boxes asking for my username and password kept popping up. Tech lady would click OK and they’d go away, only to pop right back up.
She finally told me I needed to un-install and re-install Outlook and hung up, grateful, I’m sure, to be done with me and my buggy computer. But from watching what she was doing, I’d formed some ideas of my own about the problem. And within ten minutes, I had it fixed.
Okay, I fixed the business account (the password had somehow gotten typed in wrong at some point). I still get the pop up boxes for the new email account provided by the new ISP. My solution: I deleted it. Wasn’t planning on using it anyway. I’m still getting a pop up box when I first log in, but it goes away and stays away when I close it. I figure I’ll deal with it during my two hours in the middle of the afternoon when I’m fully awake and caffeinated.
With satellite, when it rains harder than a drizzle, I lose my signal. If storms approach from the south, I lose my signal. If the dish gets coated with ice or snow in the winter, I lose my signal. If…well, you get the idea. And even when I have a signal, it’s slow. Not as slow as dial up, but close.
Last night, I learned that my order for DSL had gone through, and it was ready to be installed. Notice I said “last night.” I’m not a night person. Nor am I a morning person. I’m more of a two-hours-in-the-middle-of-the-afternoon person. I know these things never run smoothly. So why, you may ask, did I even attempt the installation in the evening instead of waiting for morning? AFTER my coffee, of course. The answer has to be impatience. And the eternal optimism that, for once, it will all fall into place like the directions say.
Ha!
The installation went well. Until I tried to access my Outlook email account. The one all my business emails come through. These blasted little boxes kept popping up demanding my user name and password. Plus I couldn’t SEND any messages. I tinkered with the email accounts options for a while and nothing seemed to work.
Which led me to remember a life lesson I’d learned (or been reminded of) this past summer when I was at that marvelous yoga retreat. Solving one problem only creates a new one. Example: A lonely girl thinks she’d be happy if only she had a boyfriend. She gets a boyfriend, but he’s not very thoughtful and wants to spend too much time with his buddies. So she thinks she’d be happy if only he’d marry her so she could “fix” him. They get married and now all he does is lie around the house all day and drink beer and demands she clean the house and cook dinner for his buddies who come over to watch the game on their TV. Now she thinks she’d be happy if only she’d get a divorce and have the house to herself again.
In my case, I’d solved my sluggish internet problem only to gain a massive email problem.
But, hey! That’s what tech support is for. Right? RIGHT??
After giving the tech lady with the thick accent access to my mouse, she managed to freeze up my computer. End Task wouldn’t work. She must have muted her microphone because I didn’t hear her swearing, and I knew she had to be cussing like crazy in some language I don’t understand. What she did manage to accomplish was change some numbers in a box labeled “Port.” I didn’t know what that meant, but the emails which had been stuck in the Outbox went. However the idiot dialogue boxes asking for my username and password kept popping up. Tech lady would click OK and they’d go away, only to pop right back up.
She finally told me I needed to un-install and re-install Outlook and hung up, grateful, I’m sure, to be done with me and my buggy computer. But from watching what she was doing, I’d formed some ideas of my own about the problem. And within ten minutes, I had it fixed.
Okay, I fixed the business account (the password had somehow gotten typed in wrong at some point). I still get the pop up boxes for the new email account provided by the new ISP. My solution: I deleted it. Wasn’t planning on using it anyway. I’m still getting a pop up box when I first log in, but it goes away and stays away when I close it. I figure I’ll deal with it during my two hours in the middle of the afternoon when I’m fully awake and caffeinated.
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