Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
Life in the Slow Lane
by admin - 22:42 on 04 September 2010
The digital superhighway has already slowed somewhat by the time it reaches the end of the rutted cart track at the end of which The Rural Retreat is situated, but of late our broadband connection has seemed barely faster than that provided by a 28.8k modem.
This afternoon, Matchgirl had had enough – she was determined to identify the problem.
Several hours followed of juggling phones, cables and microfilters, switching the plethora of wireless devices off and on, moving the BT Home Hub around and hunting for the phone line's master junction box.
As a result of all this effort we determined that the problem was outside the Retreat: until then, the chief suspects had been the mice that scamper around the cavity walls and in the gap between downstairs ceiling and upstairs floorboards. Nibbled wires could be costly.
A phone call to BT was speedily re-routed to its Indian sub-division where, after many questions, more juggling and some remote testing, the telecommunications expert decided there was probably a line fault. That was after the man from Mumbai had recovered from his shock at the deprivation of rural westerners whose ancient phone system means they don't expect to get a broadband speed of more than 500kps anyway – 20MB packages mean nothing here.
The man from closer to home will visit with his toolbox between 8.30am and 1pm on Monday, after which – all being well – we'll be able to watch iPlayer again.
The Pentax saw some action this morning when a few views within strolling distance of the Retreat were captured. More strolling was done in the afternoon, up the lane with Bess, when the first of this year's blackberry crop was sampled. Autumn is almost here.
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