Technology Woes

About three months ago (maybe four?) Spouse decided we were spending too much on household phone and cable internet service. We switched over to Earthlink phone and DSL, and therefrom derive a number of woes. First we discovered (after having been out of town for a week) that the alarm system was no longer linked to the Home Office, thereby rendering it nothing more than an Irritating Noise Delivery System. There were some other kinks in the system, and Spouse (who either has the patience of Job or the tenacity of a pit bull. Or perhaps both) kept Earthlink, ATT and Covad busy with visits to the house, trying to figure out what was wrong. At last, it appeared that all problems except the alarm system one had been resolved, and the simplest way to fix the alarm problem was to have a cheap dedicated second line run into the house. So we did that. Alarm system now goes all the way to Central: robbers be wary.

However.

The DSL service is no longer working. They can't figure out why, since this should have nothing to do with the secondary line (which is the only change that was made between when the 'net worked and when it stopped working). They thought it was a bad modem and sent us a new one. Unfortunately, the problem persists. All the various vendors (that would be Covad, ATT and Earthlink) swear that their stuff is working fine, and can't explain why we're still getting no DSL. We are currently getting by with dial-up, which is prohibitively slow. I am writing this from a cafe with free wi-fi.

So if you've been trying to get hold of me and I seem weirdly unresponsive, or if you wonder why I'm barely posting anywhere, it is (to paraphrase the Beatles) only the modem and not my mind that is confusing things.