DSL Downtime

So, to add complication to everything else that is going on, Kevin's and my DSL connection went down last night. It all started a few weeks ago, when Kevin got onto his latest kick, which is to try and do his own server/MythTV/Linux box. I told him that if we wanted to do his own Internet thing, he could buy a cheap Ethernet switch, and peel off his own slice of Internet before it goes into my server/router/NAT/firewall, redefine.

And of course, because Kevin does everything that I say, he went out and bought an Ethernet switch, to go with the new machine. With DSLExtreme (our ISP), we have like 8 static IP addresses. So last night (before heading out to the movies with Pratima and Kalpana), I went on DSLExtreme's website, and added a second static IP address to our account, for Kevin.

And that is when the trouble started.

I think something like 10 minutes after I added that second IP, our Internet was down. Of course I didn't notice for a few ours, since I was out. And by the time I did notice, it was late, so I just went to bed, hoping it would be all better when I work up.

Well, it wasn't. So I called tech support today, and they told me they would check the line, and call me back in 30 minutes.

Well, they never called back. So, approximately 12 hours later, I called them back, but this time, from Illinois. After the tech support guy spent some time messing around, he said that there was a problem with the router (which I surmised on my own), and that he would call me back in 30 minutes after he escalated the issue.

This time, he actually did call me back, but unfortunately, it was an instance of "good news/bad news". The good news was that he fixed the router. The bad news is that he changed my IP address. This is bad, because I don't have any out-of-band way to get at redefine, in order change the IP configuration of my machine.

But luckily, as it turns out, I do have out-of-band access to redefine -- Kevin. Thankfully, he was at home, and I walked him through re-configuring redefine, and so now I am back in business.

Woo-hoo! Geek tax paid. Thanks Kev.

-Andy.