Me No Technical!

I’m no techy, I’ll be the first to admit that and on occasions computers drive me potty!

I decided to create a separate blog for my computer witterings, not everyone is interested in them and I also wondered whether someone more technical than me could maybe give some advice on occasions. The Blogging fraternity is a very generous one.

So here's the first posting and my most recent computer frustration!

Computers were a major part of my job when I worked in the Careers Service as we recognised how important they would be in the future for everyone’s jobs. However I’ve been left work for over two years now and I’m obviously lagging behind with my knowledge as I’m on my own now, no technical back up available.

My latest problem occurred just before I went on holiday in mid May. My grandson and I were both on the Internet when suddenly we were disconnected. Now this has happened before and it usually comes back again within a minute or so. It's irritating but it just comes and goes sometimes. Not so this time! I tried again and then later that night and the next day with no success.

If I had been the only one on the Internet, I would have assumed it was my computer at fault. Well it’s getting on a bit now, three years old and in lap top years that quite aged. However it’s working quite well, just not as fast as my husband’s new one which my grandson was using when the Internet went down.

Next day it was the same story so I checked with a friend who uses the same Internet supplier. She said she had no problems but we could possibly have been using different servers. When things hadn’t changed the following day I decided to get onto Tiscali who provide my Internet connection.

Yes, I got an awful answering system to plough through. I kept getting part of the way and then being left on hold with a message every now and again suggesting I use their website to solve the problem. What a bunch of wassocks! I wouldn't have bothered phoning if I could have done that. Eventually I did get through and the chap was very helpful. He talked me through the problem and how to fix it.

It turned out my wireless router had to be reset and the settings reconfigured on both computers. Also the WPA Key Number (whatever that is) was incorrect. When I asked how this happened he suggested I had done something to the computer. I assured him I hadn't and that the system regularly disconnects and reconnects. He finally admitted that their server had gone down on the day I lost connection and they had a lot of these type of calls but he didn’t know how the WPA Key Number had been changed. Must have been the gremlins. So I’ve kept a record of how to reset the router and the WPA key number.

So this was not the computers to blame, nor me, it was Tiscali, but I had to sort this problem out. Goodness knows how much the technical support calls cost as I was on the phone for ages. The company didn’t contact me but then again even if they had, I couldn’t have accessed the email. However they might have notified us later that their server had been down out of courtesy. No, no, no, I’m just being stupid there expecting them to do that!

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