This modem I have came with a slip of paper with instructions that said, "Insert CD. Follow CD instructions." The CD instructions were something along the lines of, "Plug things into the obvious places. Turn on. Watch lights turn green. It works!"
When, a few weeks later, things stopped working and the green lights became one orange light, I took it to be modem-speak for "I'm not working." Then the problem mysteriously fixed itself. Now, however, there is a sinister red light that I take to mean, "I'm really not fucking working. Plus, I'm frying the rest of your circuitry. Hope you like the smell of burning hair!"
Of course this would only happen not just during finals week, but the day before three papers are due, one of which is for an online class that, obviously, requires an internet connection. My non-online class had required reading materials that I needed to download, so I had to go to the airport last night to take advantage of their free wifi and late hours. On my down the driveway, my housemate stopped me and told me to go to the coffeeshop down the street. That being considerably closer, I took her advice, only to get there and find that it closed in ten minutes. I ended up at the airport anyway, with a forty minute detour. I'm proud to say though that even with these setbacks, I managed to finish things an entire half hour before I had to leave! Usually I'm stapling papers together while putting on my shoes and brushing my teeth.
When the madness that is finals week is over (Thursday! Noon!), after my beer, I'm going to call these internets people and find out a) just how many colors this modem capable of producing, b) what these various colors actually mean, and c) how this problem can be fixed without having to sit at home between the hours of 0900 and 4:55pm so a really unpleasant man can invade my bedroom just to push a button.
This also means I won't be online a whole lot for a few days. Hope everyone is doing well. :-D
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3 comments:
Sara,
What kind of a modem is it? If you search the Internet by brand name and model number (usually found somewhere on the back of the unit or on the box), you can often find documentation that was not in the box or hints from other users.
Our ISP supplies a Motorola cable modem that has a reset button on the back. To reset it, we have to mutilate a paperclip and poke it into the little hole -- a procedure normally reserved for rescuing drunks who have locked themselves in the bathroom. It is even less dignified because the wretched thing will not reset itself unless the user pushes the tiny button for ten seconds. Imagine me bent over the computer desk, strangling a little black box, and saying: "Three, one thousand, four, one thousand..."
Good luck.
I think your modem needs to be rebooted. Unplug the power source. Count to 8. Plug it back in. Should fix your problem.
Also, I don't think Modems can fry your circuitry, but I've been wrong before.
"Plug things into the obvious places. Turn on. Watch lights turn green. It works!"
It's amazing what people will bother to burn a CD for.
Hope your finals went well.
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