No posts here in months... Ok, so yeah I was never good at keeping a diary either.
Seems to me that most people are either out there living life or at home blogging about it.
Anywho... what drew me out of my literary cave was an aggravating experience with Dell tech support.
My friend bought herself a new Dell laptop, and wanted to get on the wireless network but it wouldn't connect. Since I had offered to help her get her laptop on a paying basis if she should need it, she asked if I could check it out.
Right off the bat, I remembered that when I bought my Dell laptop a few years ago I had the same issue with not being able to get on the OPEN wireless network at Panera, even. I was able to see the wireless router but my wireless network card was saying the router wasn't responding to its requests to make friends. So I called Dell tech support (such was my naïveté in those days), and got lucky. I had no clue how lucky at the time- I actually got hold of a tech who could help me reconfigure my wireless card so that it and the router decided to talk to one another and got on famously.
Flash forward to yesterday (from a few years ago, not from right now because of course that would be a flashBACK)-- new Dell, Vista instead of XP, newer model of wireless card and I have no idea what config settings I need on the wireless card, or what else I might need to do to get this puppy on the intarwebz.
First step- check the forums. There are mentions of how bloody worthless and cumbersome ipv6 is, some users saying it caused them problems trying to connect to wireless. I know she won't be needing it- so I disable that.
Second step- there are also mentions about router firmware upgrades that may need to be done to make it compatible with Vista. Router already has the current firmware version- Check.
Next step- download the newest updates that the Dell website says have come out since the laptop was built, so she needs those. Installed and reboot... still no webz.
Final step-- dreading it based on a huge PILE of reviews I see all over the internet about Dell tech support these days-- I finally break down and call Dell.
Despite the fact that I started the conversation with: I downloaded the updates, the router is working fine with the most current firmware and has ppl already surfing on it, tried rebooting the computer, no I don't need to powercycle the router, remember I already have other machines using it wirelessly (damn you, spellcheck! if this ain't a word it should be, dagnabbit) without issue & etc.. Despite all that, Miss Rashmi (not India- surely ^0^) still wanted me to try these things so I gently reminded her I already FRIGGIN DID!!
Well apparently that kind of troubleshooting was all that was included in her payscale because her final step was to transfer me to "the next level" of support.
I'm guessing this is the level just above "I'm an idiot and can't turn off my computer".
To be fair to Morris, he did at least listen when I told him what I had done already. But I lost hope with him when he talked about logging into my router (him, not ME. wth?) I explained to him that although he had no business in my router, I would be happy to get the info I needed to login to it to let him know the config settings if he could hold on just a minute? He said sure no problem. Since by this point, I have spent a total of 10 mins on hold altogether since I dialed the shiny little Dell toll free number-- I figure this is the least he can do.
While I am working feverishly to get into the router so I can pick Morris back up and get his bow-down-to-the-guru expertise, he hangs up.
At this point I don't even care enough about Dell's clown tech support to call them back and tell them how disappointed I am that although I can hold for them 10 mins, they can't hold for even two without hanging up. K. whatev.
So anyway, long story short (too late, I know)- I was able to determine that for some reason Broadcom wireless cards seem to be averse to the idea of auto syncing channel when connecting for the very first time. I manually changed the channel to match the router, and voilà- I was able to shoot the curls. WOO!
...without any useful input/action from Dell ASSistance
...despite the fact that the "support" is covered for 2 years
So that's why I been like "FUCK HECTOR!"
Disclaimer: Although I did embellish this tale with some witty sarcasm that would have been poignant at the time, I refrained and was nothing but civil and patient with the Dell techs. Quite frankly, that's how I would want to be treated, which I feel is justification enough for bearing with an Idiot Handler and an Elitist Snob while they assume that I haven't done the basic stuff that one should try before even calling in.
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