Internet Difficulties...

Yesterday afternoon our internet service quit working. In our new neighborhood we have Skybeam satellite internet service because service is limited out here. There are only two providers in our neighborhood at the present time - Skybeam and Comcast. Since we already have a DirecTV contract and the Skybeam equipment was already in the house we elected to try it.  And with the exception of last night there have been no problems.

After checking my computer, the wireless router and restarting both without success, I called Skybeam. After about 15 minutes of holding I finally got to speak with a representative - who took me through all the same checks and procedures, saying he could see that my antenna was functioning properly and he could see my router was also connected.  But he couldn't fix the problem.  He said he would like to put me on hold, again, and check with someone else in their technical support office.

He came back about 5 minutes later and told me the problem was on their end - that they had a malfunction and most of the service in Fort Worth and surrounding areas was down.  He said they were "working hard to correct the problem" and to keep checking periodically to see when it came back up.

It didn't come back up last night.  When we got up this morning I checked and discovered I had a signal so I logged in to the internet.  My e-mail came right up - no problem.  Then, "We do not recognize this computer. Please enter your account number and phone number to register this device in our system.  You will only have to do this once."

OK - I figured since their system had been down I had to reestablish my connection - no problem.  Except I was already online in my g-mail account...

I entered the required information and got a different window that said "You have more than the authorized number of devices.  Please select a device to remove." I have three computers hooked up to the system but I never had any messages like that before.  I figured I'd have to remove one then call Skybeam and get the problem straightened out.  But that wasn't the case.

The only device it showed I needed to remove was my wireless router. And if I did that how the heck was I going to access the internet?

I closed the window and tried logging in again.  Same thing.  Same information. So I finally selected my router and removed it, knowing I could reconnect it (and would most likely have to) in a minute - after discovering I couldn't access the internet.

I logged into my e-mail again, successfully.  Then I tried to log into another window and got the same Skybeam window again.  Only this time, when I entered the account number and phone number it just returned to the same window.  I had no "unauthorized devices" - it just kept asking me for the account number and phone number and telling me "You will only have to do this once."  Yeah, OK.

By the way - why is it that Social Security numbers, phone numbers, account numbers, etc., all have spaces and/or dashes in them but when you enter them into an internet page, most of the time you have to leave them out? Just wondering...

By now it was time to call Skybeam.  It was 5:10am here.  (We had to get up early this morning anyway.)  I called the number, pushed the necessary numbers to talk to tech support in English, and eventually got a recording that said "You have contacted us after normal business hours.  Our hours are from 6am until 10pm. Please call back during normal business hours."

So now I have to wait nearly an hour to get this corrected.  I made the bed, started some laundry, had some coffee and did a virus scan on my computer...  What else is there to do at 5:15 in the morning?  (Arden said she wants the internet to go down more often...  wonder what she meant by that?)

So at a minute or two after 6 I called again.  I didn't have to wait long this time.  I guess if you call early enough - you know - before most people are even awake, there's no waiting line.  It was 5am in Colorado where Skybeam is located.

I explained the problem to the very nice woman on the phone and she had me do a couple of things.  Then she said "Let me try to fix it on my end."  I waited a couple of minutes and she said "Try logging in now."  I logged into g-mail with no problem.  Being thorough she suggested "Log into a couple more pages just to be sure the problem is corrected."  I did that too.  Four pages opened up without a problem.

I thanked her and asked her if it was really 5am where she was.  She said it was. I said "Ewww" and she laughed.  Apparently she understood I was being sympathetic.  Anyway - my internet is now operational and I have another blog post ready from yesterday.  So thanks to Skybeam for fixing the problem - even if it was somewhat of a hassle.  And thanks for reading my posts.

Have a great day!