Friday afternoon a fierce storm tore through the region. It knocked out power and phone lines in a good sized area as close as a mile from home. When I got home my wife reported that our Internet access was down. I guessed it was storm related and ignored it. We went out for dinner. When we got back I unplugged the cable modem and plugged it in again. Still no access. This is the first time in almost two years of using this service that this has been a problem. So I assumed, even though the TV signal came through the cable just fine, that the problem might be at the other end with ISP's servers.
In the morning I stuck my PDA stylus tip into the little reset button on the back of the modem. Eureka!
Then I went grocery shopping. When I got home she informed that it was out again. So I called the Cox cable help number. I punched buttons through the menu, entered numbers for my account, and then got a cheery canned voice telling me, “I'm looking up your account. This will only take a moment.” This varied eventually to “I'm looking something up here;” it sounded impatient to me despite the same cheery voice. Yet I was the one who was in phone menu limbo listening to an increasingly suspicious promise from a computer generated voice in between being subjected to annoying music.
When the voice said “I found your account!” I expected to talk to a human. Nope, more cheeriness, walking me through various diagnostic tests, starting with the really really basic stuff necessary for someone not sure of how to turn on their computer. After 25 minutes or so we got to the point where I disconnected the IN cable from the TV/Internet splitter and hooked it directly to the modem and, lo and behold, everything worked! Cheery voice assured my that I had a failed splitter. So off to Radio Shack for a new one. Installed that and–no access!
I was determined not to have to fight my way through the Cox help menus again. So later in the day, off to Staples for a coaxial cable to replace the cable between the splitter and the modem, the only remaining untested variable I could identify. Got home and access was back! Did the existing coaxial feel threatened by the new cable and resumed operation out of self-preservation?
This afternoon I was merrily working on a hotel reservation when access again disappeared. So several hours ago I installed the new coaxial and so far no more problems. Time will tell.
Information technology is wonderful–when it works!