Yay DSL!

Well, after nearly 2½ hours (at least half an hour of which was pure frustration), we now have not only our DSL internet set up, but our wireless network as well.

I started out trying to hook up the modem to Stacie's desktop computer, but I couldn't find an Ethernet port. So I took it up to the common room and hooked it up to Kayla's computer, like the old one was. I figure, I'll give Kayla my old computer, then Dad can fix it up for her (I'll pay for a new hard drive, if neccesary) and we'll just keep the modem on the current computer and not use it for anything else. I'll have to talk to Kayla about it.

Anyway, the modem got set up without a hitch after that, so I started trying to figure out how to set up the wireless network.

It took me at least half an hour to find the "site" to go to for configuration (http://dslrouter), but then it asked me for a password. I spent 5-10 minutes trying to guess, with no luck, before I decided to try the verizon.net Live Chat support.

In less than the time it had taken me to find the "site," I was in. It was just a generic administrator's username and password, but it was one I hadn't thought to try.

Anyway, after that, I logged off the chat, set up the wireless network, then connected my laptop to it before I left notes for everyone else about the network name and key.

It's nice to have reliable internet access again.

I miss my cable TV . . .

We got our DSL startup kit on Thursday, but Verizon had forgotten to order a modem/wireless router for us, so we got the whole kit minus that. The modem is supposed to come today sometime, but we won't be able to hook it up until Verizon e-mails me to say that the service is set up and ready to be used.

I returned the cable modem to Comcast on Friday evening. Except for finding a way to get to the place in all the one-way traffic of downtown Frederick, it was a piece of cake. I had disconnected it on Thursday evening when I got home from work, so I didn't get to record Smallville, since the modem was what gave us our cable TV.

I spent practically the whole weekend at Mom & Dad's house. At 1:00pm on Saturday, Kayla and I went to the stake center to watch Jason's basketball game. We saw Anna there, and decided to meet her at her house after the game, since she had to go to the pet store and we had some more of Kayla's stuff in the car to take to the house.

We got to the house and met Anna's new puppy, Mandy, then I watched Psych with Dad. She's a beagle and fox hound mix, and she's so cute! If Bambi were a dog with beagle coloring, he'd look like Mandy. Seriously, her legs are so long, and her neck is too, but she's got a beagle's coloring and soft, floppy ears.

Anyway, Anna got back a little later with Jason, and all of us (minus Jason and Dad) decided to watch Buffy and Angel for a while. Around 10 or 11pm, Anna asks, "You guys want to stay over?" and since I was already thinking about it, we decided we were going to do just that. So Anna dragged out the air mattresses (Jason's twin-sized one and Kimba's full-sized one) and some blankets and pillows. She lent me a pair of pajama pants too.

Sometime during the late night hours, my dad decided that he was going to get rid of some of the books on the shelves in his den--including his entire Star Trek novel collection. He got rid of a few others (most of which I took--not the Star Trek) and rearranged what he had left to his liking.

Once we were all settled, we watched some more Buffy and Angel until about 2:30, when we decided to go to sleep. That's the first time I've slept in that house since I moved a little more than a year ago. The somewhat-strange part is, Anna's new room is my old room.

We woke up between 9 and 11 yesterday morning and had some breakfast all around. After the beds were put away (or at least stood up against a couple walls so they wouldn't get in the way of rambunctious dogs) we watched Smallville, and then some more Buffy and Angel. (Are you seeing a theme here?)

Around 3, I went home to take a shower and pick up Jenn after I set up the phones that Kayla had given us. We now have a phone in the kitchen, one in Jenn and Amit's room, one in the 2nd-floor common room, and one in my room. Turns out, I didn't need a phone jack in my room, because I can use the extension of the one in the common room.

The DirecTV guy came to the house last Friday morning. I wasn't there, but Jenn and Amit were. Apparently, the guy asked if there was a main TV, and Jenn and Amit weren't sure what to tell them, since Kayla is going to be moving soon and the main TV is going with her. So the guy installed the DirecTV receiver in Jenn and Amit's room. The dish is on the roof (back left corner), and it looks like the cable for it goes over the roof and down the front right side (tucked into the corner our building makes with the one next door), into the ground somewhere.

Since the receiver is hooked up to Jenn and Amit's TV, the rest of us still don't have any cable at the moment. I asked Dad if a splitter and amplifier after the receiver would work, but apparently it wouldn't. Everyone would be forced to watch whatever Jenn and Amit were watching, since the receiver only has one tuner. We've been trying to figure out where the cable comes into the house from the dish, so that we can split and amplify it to the rest of our TVs if we need to. If we can just plug into the jacks with satellite-ready TV's and VCR/DVD players, that would be great though (especially if we actually have satellite-ready equipment).

I'll have to look a little closer this evening when I get home from my allergy shots (and before I go across the street for the preliminary voting machine setup). I think there might be some sort of splitter in Stacie's room, or somewhere near where the cable looks like it ends.

Heck, I might even be looking at the wrong cable--it might just go through the roof into the attic crawlspace, and then I'd have to look up there to see anything at all.

Verizon and New Roommate Update and a Little Common Sense

Unfortunately, Verizon does not offer FiOS service in my neighborhood, so we're getting DSL instead. Not too shabby. I've signed up for the e-mail update when they do offer it. Also, since we can't get FiOS, we're not getting the new TV--it was part of the FiOS triple-play bundle. Bummer. Guess I'll just have to fork out a couple hundred in the next month or two so we can get a new TV for the living room (the one there now is Kayla's, and is leaving with her).

The phone line is officially working. We just need to get phones set up around the house. Kayla's leaving the few phones she has for us, since she won't have a line in her room at my parents' house. I might pick up a couple more at Wal-Mart after my next pay check comes in. I looked for phone jacks in my bedroom, but the dresser, the bed, and the nightstand were in the way and too heavy to move, so I couldn't see certain parts of the walls. I'm hoping that there is a phone jack in there somewhere, but if not, it's no big deal.

Monday night, I set up our voicemail, plus a sub-mailbox for each of us who are staying. I also typed out instructions for each of them to set up their sub-mailboxes, and on how to check the voicemail.

The DirecTV people are supposed to set up our house for service on Friday, if I remember correctly. But the DSL service won't get setup until the 19th at the latest. They've shipped the equipment necessary for it, but we're not supposed to install the equipment until they e-mail me and tell me that the service is ready, which hopefully won't actually take until the 19th.

We haven't found a new roommate yet, but there's a girl coming tonight to see the house, and we've had a different girl come to see it with her social worker who liked it, but I haven't heard back from her yet and I wanted to meet her before deciding whether or not she should move in. I'm hoping either the girl with the social worker or the girl coming to look tonight will be able to move in.

Somewhat-funny story:

Friday or Saturday night, I was sleeping, right? Well, Kayla was bored, so she decided--at four o'clock in the morning--that she was going to try and take her bed apart so that she could move it out of the house. She sleeps on the couch most of the time anyway, so she won't be needing the bed until she moves into my parents' house.

She woke me out of a sound sleep, and I couldn't get back to sleep either. You'd think she'd realize that since taking a bed apart makes noise, you shouldn't do it at four o'clock in the morning.

So, I decided I wanted to read, but in case I started getting sleepy again, I didn't want to turn on the main light in the bedroom.

Then I remembered the book light I'd bought a few years ago. I thought it was either in my desk, in the storage tub in my closet, or in the storage container on the floor at the foot of my bed--no dice. So, I just grabbed my flash light out of the desk and read with that.

I got half-way through my grandma's book (The Chimes of Resdorn by DonnaLee Wheeler) by about 6:30. Considering I was probably less than a quarter of the way through when I started, that's saying something.

I guess I'll just have to buy another book light.

Comcast Sucks, Verizon Rocks!

So, my roommates and I have all been rather unhappy with the service we've been getting from our cable company since Comcast took over Adelphia. I'd be on the phone (my CELL phone, which I only get 300 minutes for every month) for at least 20 minutes, usually more, whenever I needed to make a service call. Plus, our internet pretty much sucks.

Then I looked into getting a different service.

Verizon was offering a bundle with FiOS (pretty much the fastest internet service you can get right now), a land-line phone (yay!), and cable TV (with DirecTV CHOICE), all for less than we've been paying Comcast for just the TV and internet. Plus, a free 19" television to go with it.

You'd better believe I signed us up for that! Then, we cancelled our Comcast services, effective sometime later today. The Verizon people are supposed to be there sometime tomorrow to hook everything up, and the DirecTV people should be there on Wednesday to do their thing.

I told my dad about it last night, and he was all like, "You're lucky. Out here, I have the choice of Comcast or nothing."

Yay for Verizon!

I'll let specific peeps (you know who you are) know what the home phone number is when I have that information. I forgot to write it down while I was setting up the account.

It's about time I got a new one.

So, I've had this "new every two" plan from Verizon for years now, and I've actually traded up once. The phone I got from that trade-up was ruined in August of 2006 when I took it on a water ride at Hershey Park (I'd forgotten to bring plastic bags for my stuff, and just took my backpack).

After that, I got my current phone (see pics at left), and from what I remember, they told me I'd have to wait two more years from the date of that purchase before I could get a new phone on the "new every two" plan. But I got a call a couple months ago, and they told me that I could get a new phone anyway. I didn't do anything about it then, because my current phone seemed to be working okay, and I didn't want to deal with the possibility that I'd have to pay the difference for the phone (you only get a $100 credit toward a new phone).

But yesterday, I just got sick of it. My current phone is nice, yes, but it's also bulky, heavy, and doesn't get good service on the first floor of my house, or in the basement at work.

So, I looked up new phones at the Verizon website, and found out I could get the phone I've had my eye on for months completely for FREE. All I had to do was redeem my "new every two" credit ONLINE, which gave me another credit for about $30 more. So, I got a $129 phone for $0.

I was expecting it to take a week or two to get the phone through the mail, but at the end of the order I saw that it said 1-2 business days, so I figured on Monday or Tuesday. But no, I got an e-mail a few hours later saying that the phone had shipped and giving me a FedEx tracking number. I checked out the tracking information. Lo and behold, the phone is due to arrive today by 3:00 p.m! As of 8:38 this morning, it's already on the truck for delivery in Hagerstown. This is too cool!

I'm getting the Samsung SCH-u740 (see pic at right), which opens in both directions: the same direction as a regular flip phone, as well as in the direction that my current phone opens (I have The V by LG). One of my co-workers has one, and I've had my eye on getting one of my own since he showed it to me.

Apparently, the delivery requires a signature, but that's okay, since Jen S. and Kayla are usually both home all day anyway. I so cannot wait to go home this evening! Of course, that's not really anything new--I just have a good reason to be excited to leave work today.

Anybody want my old phone? If not, I'm going to give it to this one organization I heard of that provides emergency cell phones to people who can't afford to have a regular cell phone plan--once I've got all of the data transferred, that is.