Saturday, June 16, 2007

On the Death of a Modem

We knew it was getting old and cranky.











Our ActionTec DSL modem from Quest has required frequent restarting, factory resets, and in the past few months, frequent rest periods before it would consent to giving us a green light for wireless internet.





And there was the time after the lightning stike and power surge, where we thought it was a gonner, but after a full 24 hour rest period, it managed to gather its wits about it and give a green light again.





But on Tuesday afternoon, it finally gave up the ghost quietly and completely. I was researching something online and suddenly had no internet.


Wondering if this was the real thing, or just another coma, I unplugged the power cable. Later Tuesday evening, I tried it again.


The red power light came on and then got stuck there. No blinking to green, no other lights to be had. Well, we could be dealing with the need for another overnight rest period.


But on Wednesday morning, I tried plugging in the power cable again.


Red light, no blinking, no other lights at all.


Nothing but a little spark of static electricity at the joining of the power tab to the slot.


Persistant Vegetative State?





I left if alone for a while. Upon checking on my patient on Wednesday evening, there was still no change. Solid red power light. Not even a spark when I disconnected and then reconnected.





We pronounced it dead on Wednesday night, but since it had given us five years of faithful service, and since we were planning to go into town on Friday, we allowed it to lie in state for all of Thursday and into Friday afternoon.





On Friday morning, we went to get a new modem. A sleek young thing wearing modern colors, with room to network by wire 4 devices.










Welcome to our new modem. Not quite the same as the old modem.

I realize now that the old modem was being very crotchety for some time.

It has gone on to a well-deserved rest.

And we are happy to be connected once again.

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