Stupid Computers

Here's a sequence of events, mostly for my own edification:

1. Bob gave me a Netflix box for Christmas, that streams movies from the internet to your TV.

2. I gave Bob a 3-day weather forecaster that hooks into the router (the antenna) but has
a wireless receiver.

3. I tried to set up the Netflix box the day after Christmas, but it could not find an internet
connection. After much misery, I took it to my brother's house and we got it activated, then
David came to our house and fixed the router probs. Yay! On Sunday Dec. 28 I began
watching streaming movies (although the quality never got above two dots - out of 4 dots -
quality - I was happy.

4. Meanwhile I found out that Windstream offered a faster dsl connection for only $5 a month
more, so I called them to order this. They scheduled the upgrade for Jan. 7 (today) and said
it would require a new modem which they would send out to me and I should use the box to
send them the old modem.

5. On Dec. 29 I received the modem. In trying to activate it our whole internet connection was
lost. After an hour on the phone with Windstream and another hour with Linksys, all was
restored. Happiness ensued. Watching streaming movies, all happy.

6. On Dec. 30 I received another modem from Windstream. Now I have to return two of them.
I have not approached them about this problem yet.

7. On Friday Jan. 2 the Netflix box suddenly had 3 dots quality! Yay! The box had given itself
an update.

8. On Sunday afternoon Jan. 4 I activated Bob's weather forecaster, plugging the antenna into
the router and activating the wireless unit.

9. That night the movie box began reloading the movies every 60 seconds, basically making it
unwatchable. So I unplugged and removed batteries from the weather thingy and even hid it
in the bathroom, to make sure that was not causing the problem.

10. It was not. So I emailed support for the Netflix box - Monday I received an email saying I
should "factory reset" the box. Yes. This means again setting up the internet connection,
re-entering wep key for Linksys, blah blah. Surprisingly, all went well. But it did not fix the
problem. So I cold booted the modem and router, all on my own, Monday night (late). I
watched for a few minutes and it seemed to have fixed the problem. I would know more
after watching it longer Tuesday night after work.

11. Tuesday night after work I come home to find that we have no dsl connection at all.
none.at.all. No green light on modem, nothing. I call Windstream, wait 10 mins. for a
"person", who finally answers and tells me to plug the modem directly into the wall without
a filter. I, being stupid, do this. That of course, disconnects our phone conversation - duh.
I leave it plugged directly into the wall and call back again, wait again, and miraculously the
same person answers my call again. He now determines that the problem is outside of the
house, not inside (he can tell this somehow, from India or wherever he is). Now a tech
person is supposed to come to the house today between 5 and 7 pm, to fix our dsl.

12. I have forgotten what I was originally trying to do.

13. I hate computers.