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Don't ask me why, but when I got to the store this morning, I set about connecting the store's mighty computer infrastructure (two basically homebrew machines) to the grand and vast Internet, via CenturyTel's DSL service.
Having already gone through the drill once, I figured this would be a no-brainer. I figured wrong.
Some things I learned along the way:
If you own a static IP address and connect as if you don't, the other end of the connection will "dynamically" assign your static IP to you every time.
CenturyTel has a lot of people working in tech support (Rick, Jared, Christina, Jonathan, and at least two others with whom I dealt with today).
After recharging all night, one of the portable phones at the store will operate continuously for about 97 minutes while you are on hold before its battery runs out, disconnecting you from the support tech who - some time ago - said, "Let me put you on hold for a minute." (It's not as bad as it sounds. I spent about 20 minutes on hold first, just waiting to talk to a tech.)
The basic problem had to do with an "internal" authentication error. Unfortunately, the tech support folks are expecting customers to be using the CenturyTel software to connect via DSL, so I ended up taking the LinkSys router out of the loop and installing the software so the tech and I could walk our way through a fairly through troubleshooting process. He even asked me to reconnect my router and try a bunch of things after all efforts to make the connection work with the "official" software failed. (I was happy to note that the tech didn't get huffy about my not having installed the official software from the get-go, though I did tire a bit of explaining to the satisfaction of what seemed to be the entire state of Louisiana that I understood the difference between upper and lower case letters.)
Not to brag, but it was my idea to replace the phone line and 10Base-T wire to eliminate those as the possible sources of my connection difficulties.
Ultimately - and I don't know if this helped - when I went home to start on the translation I received yesterday (and whose deadline has been accelerated to early Friday instead of noon), I took a moment to change the user name and password on the system we have set up at home with the store's user name and password.
Still no connection, but that seemed to indicate to me that the problem wasn't on my side of the wall jack. Upon restoring the name and password that was there originally, data began to flow through the connection like grain through a goose.
I repeated the experiment. No joy with the store name and password, and immediate gratification with our home name and password. So, I hooked up to CenturyTel's tech support from home and relayed that information.
In the middle of the whole thing, the power went out and as I went around turning off various equipment (to conserve the UPS for equipment plugged into it and to avoid any power-up surprises elsewhere) I wondered if the tech would conclude I was some kind of flake for having suddenly "abandoned' our chat session. After power came back on, I tried to link to the techs again, but it soon became clear that nothing short of another battery-draining phone call would solve my problem.
I was wrong. In the end, Drew called me around 5 pm to say the store's computer was online.
* * * The document I'm working on now is an old USSR government standard for high tensile-strength rolled steel. Stylistically, the document combines the warmth of a traffic summons with a level of stimulation one might get from reading, say, the white pages of the phone book. I've done 16 of the 21 pages sent to me, so I think I'm okay as far as the deadline is concerned, though my brain feels addled right now.
One of the interesting aspects of the availability of the Internet to do research is that in some cases (depending on one's level of "perfectionism" at any given time), a translation will take longer to do (if you can get reliable answers quickly, the process takes less time).
I've noticed recently that I tend to dig really hard for things that befuddle me. On the plus side, this results in some pretty good research skills; on the minus side, I'm beginning to notice that finding some answers involves what feels like geological periods of time. Ah, well...
* * * Feht called. He's back from his vacation in the Caribbean where, he says, he forgot how to type and spent a month speaking pidgin French to the locals. The whole traveling ensemble (Feht, ux. & son) apparently came down with something on the return flight, so I probably won't see any of them for a couple of days.
Predictably, despite having just returned from vacation, Feht could not help but note the fact that his phone has been unusually silent since his return (I'm listening to this and thinking, "What, after only two days back?" I must be missing something.)
It's getting late. Tomorrow, the issue of Galina's leaving for Houston will become clearer (and more urgent, as the weather flacks all predict mucho snow here Real Soon Now... somewhere starting tomorrow afternoon). Once she goes, it'll be Drew and me at the store (with some help from Shannon), and time available for translation will well-nigh disappear. There are a number of things that need doing at the store, too, but I shall not start in on those now...
Cheers...
Having already gone through the drill once, I figured this would be a no-brainer. I figured wrong.
Some things I learned along the way:
If you own a static IP address and connect as if you don't, the other end of the connection will "dynamically" assign your static IP to you every time.
CenturyTel has a lot of people working in tech support (Rick, Jared, Christina, Jonathan, and at least two others with whom I dealt with today).
After recharging all night, one of the portable phones at the store will operate continuously for about 97 minutes while you are on hold before its battery runs out, disconnecting you from the support tech who - some time ago - said, "Let me put you on hold for a minute." (It's not as bad as it sounds. I spent about 20 minutes on hold first, just waiting to talk to a tech.)
The basic problem had to do with an "internal" authentication error. Unfortunately, the tech support folks are expecting customers to be using the CenturyTel software to connect via DSL, so I ended up taking the LinkSys router out of the loop and installing the software so the tech and I could walk our way through a fairly through troubleshooting process. He even asked me to reconnect my router and try a bunch of things after all efforts to make the connection work with the "official" software failed. (I was happy to note that the tech didn't get huffy about my not having installed the official software from the get-go, though I did tire a bit of explaining to the satisfaction of what seemed to be the entire state of Louisiana that I understood the difference between upper and lower case letters.)
Not to brag, but it was my idea to replace the phone line and 10Base-T wire to eliminate those as the possible sources of my connection difficulties.
Ultimately - and I don't know if this helped - when I went home to start on the translation I received yesterday (and whose deadline has been accelerated to early Friday instead of noon), I took a moment to change the user name and password on the system we have set up at home with the store's user name and password.
Still no connection, but that seemed to indicate to me that the problem wasn't on my side of the wall jack. Upon restoring the name and password that was there originally, data began to flow through the connection like grain through a goose.
I repeated the experiment. No joy with the store name and password, and immediate gratification with our home name and password. So, I hooked up to CenturyTel's tech support from home and relayed that information.
In the middle of the whole thing, the power went out and as I went around turning off various equipment (to conserve the UPS for equipment plugged into it and to avoid any power-up surprises elsewhere) I wondered if the tech would conclude I was some kind of flake for having suddenly "abandoned' our chat session. After power came back on, I tried to link to the techs again, but it soon became clear that nothing short of another battery-draining phone call would solve my problem.
I was wrong. In the end, Drew called me around 5 pm to say the store's computer was online.
One of the interesting aspects of the availability of the Internet to do research is that in some cases (depending on one's level of "perfectionism" at any given time), a translation will take longer to do (if you can get reliable answers quickly, the process takes less time).
I've noticed recently that I tend to dig really hard for things that befuddle me. On the plus side, this results in some pretty good research skills; on the minus side, I'm beginning to notice that finding some answers involves what feels like geological periods of time. Ah, well...
Predictably, despite having just returned from vacation, Feht could not help but note the fact that his phone has been unusually silent since his return (I'm listening to this and thinking, "What, after only two days back?" I must be missing something.)
It's getting late. Tomorrow, the issue of Galina's leaving for Houston will become clearer (and more urgent, as the weather flacks all predict mucho snow here Real Soon Now... somewhere starting tomorrow afternoon). Once she goes, it'll be Drew and me at the store (with some help from Shannon), and time available for translation will well-nigh disappear. There are a number of things that need doing at the store, too, but I shall not start in on those now...
Cheers...
