SDSL modems

Yesterday morning I was awakened by Iris as she barfed on my feet. Once that was cleaned up I went downstairs to make coffee and read email, and discovered that MY INTERNET CONNECTION WAS GONE!!!!

Further examination (and a call to the responsive Speakeasy.net) revealed that my SDSL connection had been dropped around 4am, and when I checked the modem it was dead, dead, dead. Plugged it into a different outlet... still dead.

I think the tech support guy mentioned that he hadn't had any luck finding SDSL modems in the computer stores, but I missed it, and didn't receive this bad news until I went to Microcenter after work. You can't buy an SDSL modem, except from the phone company (with a $199 "delivery & installation" charge!) or the manufacturer. Bummer. Both of those options sound like they could take a long time, and Covad's installation charge is a crock.

On the way out of Microcenter I bought a variable power-supply on the off chance that it was just the 'wall-wart' that had burned out, and not the entire modem. Got home, plugged it in, and the modem is fine! It connected up, used the right password, etc, just as though nothing had happened. With 18 hours of down time the server still registered 6,000 hits. That is really weird.

Boy, I sure know how to tell a story, eh?