You know we had been thinking about getting Starlink because of the terrible internet service we’ve had the past few weeks. That decision has been made. Vince has a few questions about Starlink – mainly about the installation. He will hopefully be able to talk to them tomorrow and then get the equipment and get it installed.
Friday evening I was in the middle of responding to an email and the internet went off. In the past two weeks, it was off for 8 hours once, 10 hours once, 12 hours once and then – 30 or 32 hours. Yes. Off for over a day. No email. No Facebook. No Youtube. I thought it was rough til Addie was here for three hours and couldn’t use her cell phone. That was ROUGH – more so on the adults having to listen to her. No, it wasn’t that bad but she was frustrated. She could not accept that because the internet was off, her cell phone would not work. City kid! 🙂
Addie got a new puppy and wanted to bring her to see us. I’m betting before she comes back to see me, she makes sure we have internet! 🙂 The puppy’s name is Roxy and Addie is getting a taste of reality. She wanted to sleep with Roxy the first night and Nicole said no so Addie slept on the sofa with her but Roxy fell off the sofa so Nicole said she couldn’t sleep on the sofa any more so Addie has slept the last two nights on the floor with Roxy. That probably explains a bit of the grumpy attitude about the cell phone.
What was more aggravating was the way our ISP handled the outage. They don’t text us anything unless we ask. Vince sent them a text Saturday morning and they wrote back that they were aware of an outage (I’m sure – seems like half the area uses them for internet service and we were all out) and that it would be restored by 6 a.m. Didn’t happen. Vince texted them for an update and they said 8:30 a.m. Didn’t happen. Throughout the day and night, the times changed a dozen times. Really! Before I went to bed, they said 11:30 p.m. Didn’t happen. Then they said 1 a.m. That gave me hope because they had been giving us 2 hour increments so maybe the 1.5 hour bump meant they were close to being done. Nope, didn’t happen. Then it said 6 a.m. so I went to bed but the last time Vince checked, his message said 1:30 p.m. on Sunday. Maybe that was just to make us all happy that it actually came back on at 8 a.m.
I have zero confidence that it will stay on until we get the new one installed but . . not much we can do about it. In the grand scheme of things, this is a minor issue – frustrating but minor.
Vivian Oaks says
It really is a big deal anymore, when you think how much of our lives depend on these silly computers in our everyday lives. And to think, 30 years ago they were only used by big business. In third grade (mid-60’s) our class went to Corning Glass Works and I can remember how proud they were of their computer, that filled an entire room with just enough room
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I like to think I can live without the internet. I know I COULD but it would be tough. 30 hours was tough! Those huge computers were amazing. Technology has come a long ways.
Sherry Bobak says
That’s scary to me. If your phones only work on internet service what would you do in an emergency? I would definitely pay more for reliable service.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I can walk to the end of the driveway and text but if I want to make a call, I have to walk up a hill across the street. I sometimes can get enough service to text from the back deck but not always. I do believe that’s an unspoken requirement for any house we buy – horrible internet and no cell service! 🙂 Seriously, we have dealt with that everywhere we’ve lived.
CJ says
We only live 1.5 miles out of town, but at the base of a hill that blocks cell reception. We have zero bars. We’ve lived here since 2008, with DSL from Centurylink/Brightspeed. About 6 weeks ago, Brightspeed finally ran fiber down our road. In the 45 days we’ve had it, 10 days were without service.
I rank internet service right up there without power. Could I survive without either? Of course. Do I wish to and would I? No thank you.
We looked briefly at Starlink, but it requires 100 degree clear line of sight, and we have way too many trees for that. I’m hoping once the fiber has been around for a bit, we’ll see less outages, because it’s brilliantly fast. Our cell phones only work via WiFi as well, so no internet, no communication.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
We have a couple of trees that may be an issue with where Vince wanted to put it but there are other places he can put it – just not where he had wanted it.
That’s crazy to get the new service and then have so much trouble with it. I hope it all gets straightened out very soon.
Amy's Passions says
Ugh! I hear you! Living in northwest Wisconsin, the population is quite a bit sparser than in the central and southern part of the state. Living in the COUNTRY in Northwest Wisconsin makes things even worse! CenturyLink for us, and pay for “up to” 10Mbps, but our area isn’t able to reach that speed; we average 5-8 depending on the day/time. When it drops below 5Mbps…..*sigh*…. frustration sets it.
So, yes. I hear you!
And I concur what CJ says…”Could I survive without it? Of course. Do I wish to and would I? No thank you.”
Best of luck on the installation!
Tee says
We had horrible internet out in the sticks where we live and it was expensive, but we had few options. Our town worked it out to get fiberoptic installed in the next year and kept adding to the area it would be available to and miraculously, we ended up in that area. Lo and behold, our crappy internet provider sends us a note, saying that they have upgraded their equipment and now we have great internet. Now why couldn’t they have upgraded before they finally got some competition? It isn’t like we weren’t paying through the nose for it!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
Like magic! Amazing what companies will do when they’re about to lose business.