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Putting this here, because I was on the customer side of things. If it goes elsewhere, feel free to move it.
Gather around and I'll tell you a story. Let's begin by setting the scene.
Back in July of 2007, our apartment complex set up free wireless Internet for the residents. Hubby and I thought this sounded pretty good, since free wireless sure beat $30+ a month for cable. All it required was an initial investment in a pair of wireless adapters for our two computers. His laptop needed a new laptop-friendly card, since his built-in card had given up the ghost sometime in the past three years, and my desktop only had the built-in ethernet card. So it was off to local stores on a quest to become wireless-ready.
Due to the nature of errands that day, our first stop was Target. We found the Internet cards and adapters and took inventory of what was available to us. Of what was on the shelf, the best deal price- and brand-wise seemed to be from Belkin; we'd heard of Belkin before, while the only other brand on the shelf was a bit cheaper and completely unfamiliar to both of us. The card on the shelf was a neat little USB adapter, which I liked because it wouldn't require opening up my computer to install another PCI card or have a little antenna sticking out the back where little baby hands could find and snap it off. The USB adapter came with a base and cable so the card could sit on the desk instead. Awesome. Unfortunately, they were out of actual laptop cards, and only had one USB adapter, which we bought.
Our next stop on our errand run was Wal-Mart, and we decided to check out their electronics section to see if they had anything better. Sure enough, they had an actual notebook card by Belkin. We bought that and the same USB adapter, which was cheaper, and later in the week I went back to Target to return the extra USB adapter. We got everything hooked up at home, got our computers registered on the University system (required to access the wireless network), and were good to go.
September rolled around, and my adapter began displaying some unusual behavior. Over the summer, we'd been roleplaying via Skype (a voice chat program) with our friends, who live in three other states. In September, Hubby wrapped up the campaign he'd been running and I began one I'd planned for a while. And not two sessions into the campaign, Skype began dropping the call periodically. At first, I thought it to be a problem with Skype, but I couldn't reconnect the conference call, and web pages wouldn't load either. Yet my Internet icon was sitting happy as a clam in my system tray, letting me know I had “Excellent” reception. A quick disable and re-enable later, and Skype was up and running once more. This occurred periodically throughout the fall, yet I never quite got around to actually contacting Belkin to find out if there was something wrong with the adapter. I never had the time, and I'm really not that keen on calling people on the phone. I just don't like it.
Easter weekend in March, Hubby, Baby, and I went to an anime convention in Boston. I sold art in the Artists' Alley, made out like a bandit, and enjoyed myself overall. Sunday evening on Easter, we returned home, and I fired up my computer. I was met with a network adapter that seemed to have developed some form of electronic epilepsy while we were gone. I suspect it was jealous. Now, instead of just occasionally losing signal while still lying to me about its connectivity, the adapter was connecting to the network, disconnecting a second later, reconnecting a second after that, disconnecting again a second after that, reconnecting once more.... The connection flickered like this for about half an hour before settling on “connected.”
For the next three weeks, the adapter had bouts of connection epilepsy, for half an hour each time, followed by two- to six-hour stretches of behaving itself (for the most part). I couldn't figure it out. Its connection to the USB ports was as secure as ever, I hadn't changed any drivers or deleted anything crucial (I was in Boston, how could I?), and the card wasn't physically damaged. This added to irritation as the Skype calls would drop more frequently now (though during actual roleplaying time, the connection behaved itself. Go figure.), and AIM would eventually lock me out of my account for half an hour at a time for trying to reconnect too often. Web surfing was especially painful, as the connection would drop just as I clicked on a page to load, and would keep dropping as I hit refresh whenever it connected. Let me tell you, I'm getting sick of that “Cannot find the web page” message.
I finally gathered the nerve to try to contact Belkin about the problem about two weeks ago. However, having a mild aversion to calling on the phone, I first sought out the support form on the website. Easy peasy. Plug in my product information, my name, my e-mail, etc. Fill out this text box with a description of my problem, and hit send. I left a nice, detailed description of when I bought the adapter, when the connection problems first began and when they got irritatingly worse, the fact that I'd reformatted my computer in January and reinstalled the adapter and its drivers from the included CD, and the fact that my husband's connection didn't do this at all (I even included his card's model number, just in case they wanted that info). All well and good, right?
Two days later, I received a response from them. I eagerly clicked on the link in the e-mail to see what helpful information they might have provided. Instead, I found a canned, “We understand you want drivers. Here's how to get them.” Only more long-winded and unhelpful. Head? Meet desk.
I rated the response as “poor” and replied, “I am not looking for drivers. In case you didn't read it before, here's my problem again, with more details.” Or, at least, something to that effect. I tried to be even clearer on the details the second time around, in case they'd just seen the word “drivers” and went into autopilot.
Another two days went by before I received this gem of a response: “Here's how you connect to the wireless network.” And they proceeded to describe a long and convoluted process involving ten steps minimum that boiled down to manually connecting to the network of my choice. Not only was that not the answer I needed, I can do that very action much quicker by simply clicking on the network icon in my system tray, selecting my desired network, and clicking “Connect.” And I really don't even need to do that, since I set my computer to automatically connect to the network I want. ::bangs head repeatedly on desk::
They included a toll-free phone number in both replies, which I decided I needed to use as this time-delay e-conversation with a pre-programmed IT robot was not helping my situation. Unfortunately, it took me another week to drum up the resolve to actually make that phone call. Fortunately, this gave us enough time to test out the adapter on Hubby's laptop. He installed the adapter on his computer, and let it sit for a bit. At first it seemed to mock us, connecting happily and staying connected. After it realized it didn't have us fooled, however, it launched into another fit of epilepsy. (Possibly to elicit sympathy from me. It didn't work.) That proved that it wasn't the adapter's base or my USB port malfunctioning. I was fairly certain it wasn't the network itself, since Hubby's computer never lost connection this much, let alone in an epileptic fit of doom.
Gather around and I'll tell you a story. Let's begin by setting the scene.
Back in July of 2007, our apartment complex set up free wireless Internet for the residents. Hubby and I thought this sounded pretty good, since free wireless sure beat $30+ a month for cable. All it required was an initial investment in a pair of wireless adapters for our two computers. His laptop needed a new laptop-friendly card, since his built-in card had given up the ghost sometime in the past three years, and my desktop only had the built-in ethernet card. So it was off to local stores on a quest to become wireless-ready.
Due to the nature of errands that day, our first stop was Target. We found the Internet cards and adapters and took inventory of what was available to us. Of what was on the shelf, the best deal price- and brand-wise seemed to be from Belkin; we'd heard of Belkin before, while the only other brand on the shelf was a bit cheaper and completely unfamiliar to both of us. The card on the shelf was a neat little USB adapter, which I liked because it wouldn't require opening up my computer to install another PCI card or have a little antenna sticking out the back where little baby hands could find and snap it off. The USB adapter came with a base and cable so the card could sit on the desk instead. Awesome. Unfortunately, they were out of actual laptop cards, and only had one USB adapter, which we bought.
Our next stop on our errand run was Wal-Mart, and we decided to check out their electronics section to see if they had anything better. Sure enough, they had an actual notebook card by Belkin. We bought that and the same USB adapter, which was cheaper, and later in the week I went back to Target to return the extra USB adapter. We got everything hooked up at home, got our computers registered on the University system (required to access the wireless network), and were good to go.
September rolled around, and my adapter began displaying some unusual behavior. Over the summer, we'd been roleplaying via Skype (a voice chat program) with our friends, who live in three other states. In September, Hubby wrapped up the campaign he'd been running and I began one I'd planned for a while. And not two sessions into the campaign, Skype began dropping the call periodically. At first, I thought it to be a problem with Skype, but I couldn't reconnect the conference call, and web pages wouldn't load either. Yet my Internet icon was sitting happy as a clam in my system tray, letting me know I had “Excellent” reception. A quick disable and re-enable later, and Skype was up and running once more. This occurred periodically throughout the fall, yet I never quite got around to actually contacting Belkin to find out if there was something wrong with the adapter. I never had the time, and I'm really not that keen on calling people on the phone. I just don't like it.
Easter weekend in March, Hubby, Baby, and I went to an anime convention in Boston. I sold art in the Artists' Alley, made out like a bandit, and enjoyed myself overall. Sunday evening on Easter, we returned home, and I fired up my computer. I was met with a network adapter that seemed to have developed some form of electronic epilepsy while we were gone. I suspect it was jealous. Now, instead of just occasionally losing signal while still lying to me about its connectivity, the adapter was connecting to the network, disconnecting a second later, reconnecting a second after that, disconnecting again a second after that, reconnecting once more.... The connection flickered like this for about half an hour before settling on “connected.”
For the next three weeks, the adapter had bouts of connection epilepsy, for half an hour each time, followed by two- to six-hour stretches of behaving itself (for the most part). I couldn't figure it out. Its connection to the USB ports was as secure as ever, I hadn't changed any drivers or deleted anything crucial (I was in Boston, how could I?), and the card wasn't physically damaged. This added to irritation as the Skype calls would drop more frequently now (though during actual roleplaying time, the connection behaved itself. Go figure.), and AIM would eventually lock me out of my account for half an hour at a time for trying to reconnect too often. Web surfing was especially painful, as the connection would drop just as I clicked on a page to load, and would keep dropping as I hit refresh whenever it connected. Let me tell you, I'm getting sick of that “Cannot find the web page” message.
I finally gathered the nerve to try to contact Belkin about the problem about two weeks ago. However, having a mild aversion to calling on the phone, I first sought out the support form on the website. Easy peasy. Plug in my product information, my name, my e-mail, etc. Fill out this text box with a description of my problem, and hit send. I left a nice, detailed description of when I bought the adapter, when the connection problems first began and when they got irritatingly worse, the fact that I'd reformatted my computer in January and reinstalled the adapter and its drivers from the included CD, and the fact that my husband's connection didn't do this at all (I even included his card's model number, just in case they wanted that info). All well and good, right?
Two days later, I received a response from them. I eagerly clicked on the link in the e-mail to see what helpful information they might have provided. Instead, I found a canned, “We understand you want drivers. Here's how to get them.” Only more long-winded and unhelpful. Head? Meet desk.
I rated the response as “poor” and replied, “I am not looking for drivers. In case you didn't read it before, here's my problem again, with more details.” Or, at least, something to that effect. I tried to be even clearer on the details the second time around, in case they'd just seen the word “drivers” and went into autopilot.
Another two days went by before I received this gem of a response: “Here's how you connect to the wireless network.” And they proceeded to describe a long and convoluted process involving ten steps minimum that boiled down to manually connecting to the network of my choice. Not only was that not the answer I needed, I can do that very action much quicker by simply clicking on the network icon in my system tray, selecting my desired network, and clicking “Connect.” And I really don't even need to do that, since I set my computer to automatically connect to the network I want. ::bangs head repeatedly on desk::
They included a toll-free phone number in both replies, which I decided I needed to use as this time-delay e-conversation with a pre-programmed IT robot was not helping my situation. Unfortunately, it took me another week to drum up the resolve to actually make that phone call. Fortunately, this gave us enough time to test out the adapter on Hubby's laptop. He installed the adapter on his computer, and let it sit for a bit. At first it seemed to mock us, connecting happily and staying connected. After it realized it didn't have us fooled, however, it launched into another fit of epilepsy. (Possibly to elicit sympathy from me. It didn't work.) That proved that it wasn't the adapter's base or my USB port malfunctioning. I was fairly certain it wasn't the network itself, since Hubby's computer never lost connection this much, let alone in an epileptic fit of doom.
Whenever we have an issue with sites that we monitor going completely unknown, we can almost lay down money that it's a T1 issue, i.e. the telephone company needs to fix it. (Only 1 out of every 100+ occurrences is actually because the entire site is down) And odds are, we'll have to fight with them for 3-5 hours to get a frakking tech on site, as they'll first try to blame everything but their own equipment for the problem.
, I'm more savvy with hardware, not software. Either way, I'm a bit leery of installing drivers that haven't been completely tested, especially since the default drivers aren't XP signed (so XP was leery of me installing them in the first place).
--- Sheldonrs
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