I broke the interwebs

So, I got a new keyboard and broke the interwebs. Or at least my little corner of it.

My internet connection has been a little glitchy lately. A couple of times a week it goes out for five minutes or so, then comes right back. So I didn’t think much of it when it went out again Sunday morning when I pulled the old keyboard out and plugged the new one in. The connection always comes back in a minute or two, and I have to call my ISP to ask them what’s up with that anyway.

But it never came back. I spent most of Sunday afternoon trying to get back online and finally called my ISP. They figured it was the modem, which is ten years old after all. So I can get a new one in town when the local ISP’s office opens Monday at 10.

Except I can’t because my truck is in the shop. So Dean left work at 10 to run and get the modem and drop it off for me. Finally. Five minutes now and I’ll be back online. Except . . . no. The DSL light that should be a solid green flashes, then turns red. Meaning it’s not connecting. Okay, let’s try all the possibilities again – cables, different phone lines, take off the DSL filters, move upstairs and try that line, etc. Still no connection and the light on the modem points to the DSL line as the problem.

I called our ISP and after going through all the possibilities, it seemed that the problem was in the phone line and they’d have to send someone out. Oh great. I can’t get online today at all? Well, maybe. They’ll send someone out as soon as possible.

Well, damn. I really need to get online now. So Dean said I could use his office and his internet connection at work this afternoon. I packed up my laptop, he came and picked me up and we headed out to the station. We were just turning into the station when he got a call. It was our ISP service guy. He was headed to our house. Could we meet him there? Hell yeah.

We turned around and went home, and a few minutes later he pulled up, came in and took a look at the line coming into the house. “Huh. This is weird. Never seen one wired like this before.” Oh boy. Doesn’t sound good. “Oh yeah, there’s yer problem.”

Apparently there are supposed to be five wires coming in. The little junction box holding them was loose and only one wire was still connected. That wire apparently gave us enough bandwidth for voice, but not nearly enough for DSL. Some of them may have been broken earlier, making my connection glitchy lately. I guess I broke the rest moving cables around when I hooked up my new keyboard. The line in my office is the initial line coming into the house, so it affected the other lines as well. “Have you fixed up in a couple of minutes. Really weird wiring and this box and these wires are all loose. You should get an electrician in to get this junction box installed properly.”

So I *finally* got back online Monday evening. On the bright side, I like the new keyboard.