Service interruption

And now for something much lighter. This morning, my partner discovered our Internet connection was down. I checked it during the morning, and still nothing.

Sometime after midday, I suddenly thought that I should re-boot our modem, and it worked: The Internet was back. So, I went to our ISP’s homepage to find out what the problem was. The website said:

Engineers know about this problem and are working to fix it as quickly as possible so you can get back online.

So I think to myself, if the Internet connection is disrupted, how would I read that? Later, they added:

Telecom has advised that cause of the issue is a faulty hardware in one of the exchanges, and that replacement will be dispatched shortly.

That was good, and later again they added:

Telecom advised that authentication issue should be fixed now. Please reboot your modem/router in 20min time.

I was only able to read any of this because I’d rebooted our modem, so I wondered what use the instruction was to someone who hadn’t already done so. It’s kind of like telling a blind person to read an instruction manual.

Yes, I know that someone could check the web from an unaffected area (assuming there were any), but that wasn’t possible for me. Not that there’s anything the ISP could do about that. I could’ve called them to find out what was up, but I suppose I didn’t care that much. After all, there was nothing I was working on that couldn’t wait.

Still, it felt very weird to be cut off from the world—no email, no web news, nothing I’m used to. Fortunately, this little reminder of my dependence on modern technology had no real consequences—this time.

Still, it could’ve been worse: The power could’ve been out. Then I wouldn’t have been able to use the computer at all, there’d have been no morning TV (or even lights), and worst of all, there would’ve been no coffee. No coffee! That’s simply unimaginable.