As useless as rivets on a birthday cake...

My router has this neat feature that would allow me to access files when I'm away from home, and to that end, I asked my Internet provider—not naming any names, but the company's name starts with "A" and ends with "T&T"—to issue me a static IP address.

The person I spoke with told me that would require a technician's visit, which I found somewhat strange (what, the hardware they installed only works when the IP address is assigned dynamically from somewhere else?). The earliest slot for a technician's visit was this past Wednesday, so I settled down to wait.

The technician arrived while I was in the middle of my medical appointment, and according to Galina, he ran a bunch of diagnostics and gave her a piece of paper with a phone number that I was to call to find out the assigned static IP address.

When I called, I was informed that I was the proud owner of five static IP addresses (!) and one more for a gateway. Off the top of my head, I could not imagine how these were to be used to configure the 2WIRE router attached to the AT&T router.

No illumination resulted after a call to tech support this morning. In fact, the advice I received sort of broke my setup. I was advised to call a different support number, one that charges you $49 for a one-time problem, or $180 per year. Instead, I called the sales office and told them to stuff the IP addresses.

I need to make a note to check my billing to make sure they don't charge me for my less-than-24-hours possession of those addresses.

Cheers...

I am impressed...

I have this piece of furniture... a thing (no idea how to describe ti) that I literally bought for (if memory serves) a sawbuck at some garage sale some time ago. Its unique selling proposition—as far as I am concerned—is that it has two cabinets that are just the right size to house my stamp collection, and an inconspicuous shelf that is useful for, well... inconspicuous storage.

The item made the trip from here to Webster with no problem. Bringing it back... well, that was another story. Galina tightened the screws, noting (correctly) that the thing was pretty ugly (I believe the term used was something along the lines of "fuggly"). Fortunately, the fellow we had doing some minor work around the house stepped in and volunteered to refinish the piece, and he delivered it today.

And now, all the rest of the furniture in my office should probably be refinished, because what had been an "ugly duckling" is currently the snazziest item in the room (aside from, ahem, me). :)

Cheers...