Blogocentric Formulations

Tech Support

Ugh, best laid plans. Instead of writing my NaNo novel all weekend, I've been playing tech support because our wireless router went down. Finally bit the bullet and bought a really nice Belkin router that will hopefully last a very long time... but I ended up spending more than six hours today trying to get it configured. I was on the phone with Belkin's tech support for more than three of those hours, following their incessant instructions to unplug things, plug them back in, switch cables, change settings, blah blah blah. I finally got fed up and asked the rep (and his supervisor who was on the line by that point), "Do you guys actually know what the problem is, or are you just guessing? Because you've now told me to do the same thing six times."

They finally admitted that they didn't know what the problem was, and there was a very good chance that the router itself was defective. So I should probably return it and get another one.

I went back to Costco and bought the Linksys router that was right next to it on the shelf, albeit $25 more. I brought it home, plugged it in, and was up and running in less than 5 minutes.

So, lessons learned today:

1. Don't buy Belkin routers; buy Linksys
2. Tech support is sometimes just guessing how to fix something
3. For $25, I could have saved myself half a day of hair-pulling frustration and no internet

As I was checking out with the second router, the cashier looked at it and said, "Great choice. I have a buddy who works at Best Buy and he says that Linksys is the only good brand of routers. All the other brands are more trouble than they're worth, even if they're cheaper."

I asked him, "Where were you six hours ago?"

Off to hopefully write something on my NaNo novel today. I start my part-time consulting gig tomorrow, so I need to get something done in case tomorrow is as hectic as I think it's gonna be.