Connected

I'm almost too scared to write this for fear that something will go drastically wrong....

WE FINALLY HAVE INTERNET AT HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

It's amazing how something that everyone takes for granted has caused us so many dramas.  We've waited for so long, it is still very much a novelty for us to be able to jump on the net whenever we like, without having to drive somewhere else and be rushed for time.

Our journey to get internet access in our new house began before we even left Buntine.  Duncan rang up Skymesh and applied for us to get satellite internet.  The government pay for the installation costs in rural areas.  We were prepared to wait, but when we didn't hear from them in over two months, Duncan rang them, politely told them to get stuffed, and began looking for other options. 

Ha!  Options in the country.  There's a laugh.  The only other viable option seemed to be Bigpond.  After hearing horror stories about satellite being as slow as dial-up, we thought we'd look into NextG.  We drove to the Telstra Shop in Albany (1.5 hours away) to buy a modem.  They said they were out of stock but they were guaranteed to have more arrive two days later.  Two days later we returned only to be told the modems still had not arrived.

We were not amused.  That's the last time we believe Telstra and any of their 'guarantees'.  This time we told them to hold one for us when they arrived and give us a call to come and pay for it.

Four days after that, I drove back to Albany and picked up the $300 modem.  It lasted for maybe one day before it carked it.  It wasn't a problem with our reception either.  Duncan had spent $250 on an aerial for the roof and it was getting decent range.  It was a problem with the modem itself.  After five days straight of calling Bigpond, speaking to countless offshore people who don't have a clue where we are or what they are doing, they finally agreed to send us a replacement modem.

The second modem brought us false hope.  It worked for three days before dying an untimely death.  Duncan is the more mellow one in our relationship, but even he was furious with Bigpond by this stage and their refusal to return phone calls or offer any decent support.  They agreed to send us a third modem.

To say Duncan was livid when the third modem arrived was an understatement.  He thought there was something suspicious about it when he opened the box.  The plastic was not wrapped around it properly, and when he looked closer, he saw that is had heaps of scatches on it.  There was no doubt about it: Bigpond had sent us a dodgy modem that another customer had sent back to them.  It didn't work at all - not even a little bit.  This time Duncan told them we did NOT want any more of their cheap, crappy modems, we would pay no fees for the few days we did have internet, and that we wanted them to send us postage packs so we could return the three dodgy modems and be refunded $300.

A week later, one postage pack arrived.  One.  For three modems.  And it was so small one modem didn't even fit into it.

What is wrong with these people?!?

We ordered a different kind of modem through a Brisbane company.  It cost us about $600, but it is absolutely brilliant.  Our internet is so fast, it hasn't dropped out ONCE and I can watch YouTube clips with no problems at all.  Unfortunately we still have to go through Bigpond for our usage though as the modem takes Telstra SIM cards.  But at least we don't have to deal with their nasty products anymore.

By the way, we're still waiting for Bigpond to send us more post packs and refund us our $300.

BUT we have internet :)

Some people have asked how on earth I've kept my blog going for three and a half months.  Scheduled posting, my friends.  I write my blog posts in a Word document and upload them all when I get to use the internet.  Then I use the scheduled posting option in Blogger to select which dates/times I want them all to appear.  It means I've had to be very, very organised, but my blog has precious few readers as it is, and I'd hate to lose them by not blogging.  I'm not one of the gurus with a massive readership who can close down my blog and have everyone realise via Google Reader when I've started back up.  I've always been and will probably always be a small fry.

I'm stoked that I can now start reading others' blogs and commenting regularly again.  I've finally got up to date with all of the unread posts in my reader, and fixed up my blogroll and added new blogs I enjoy to my reader as well.

I've realised there are advantages in not having the net.  Firstly, I'm no longer as addicted to Facebook.  I don't feel the need to use it for dramatic attention-seeking or the like.

But I'm glad to be back online.  What a rigmarole the last few months have been!