Beep BeepI woke up this morning, came downstairs to the computer desk and tried to log onto the Internet to do the usual on-line stuff. There was a problem with the network connection.

I tried several things to troubleshoot the system: reboot, reset the cable modem, reset the router and power cycle everything. Nothing worked. The modem lacked it’s usual little twinkling indicator lights and was stuck with one steady light and one steady with an occasional flicker. The cable activity indicator was totally off.

Aha! The cable modem died! Time to call Time Warner and get my Road Runner® technician to bring me a new modem. I called the Road Runner® help line number.

To make a very long and aggravating story short, I waded through telephone tree, three technicians all of who put me through the identical drill of convincing them that I tried everything else that may have caused the symptom. An hour and a half down the rat hole.

Finally, finally, I got the last one to admit that it could be the modem. With that, I was connected with a person to set up the house call. At first I got some bureaucrat underling that wanted to send someone out on the 25th to ‘have a look.’ Sometime between 9AM and 7PM I was told. “Let me talk to the supervisor,” I said.

A man came on the line and tried to convince me that ‘as a courtesy,’ he could send out someone tomorrow with the same 9AM to 7PM time frame. I then told him that I would be prepared to fire Time Warner and go with another ISP after twenty years as a good, regular paying, premium customer, if he couldn’t pin the exact time down - after all, weekends are when I do shopping and other things I can’t do during the week. The best he could do, he told me, was to have the installer call me a half hour prior to the service call so I could be at home for the service.

Fortunately, I have a 3G modem I can install on one of the computers as a work around, but then one of us has to work ‘offline’ while the other has internet access. It’s a pain and a bit slower, but at least we can go online.

I’ll have a follow-up report later.