FIXED!

And yes, to answer the unasked and unanswered question, I fixed the router on my own. I called Jon and described what it was doing, which was, essentially, nothing. Did he think it had died? Probably, was his reply.

Now, AT&T has provided my DSL service since I set it up. I haven't received anything from anyone in this market who can provide the same level of service I currently receive at the price I currently pay. At the time I got DSL service, the router came with the service. Yes, I had to pay for it, but I wasn't thrust into the router aisle at Frye's and told to find something. I was sent a piece of equipment that worked with my Mac the first time I plugged it in.

So, the thing to do is call AT&T, talk to tech support and have them tell me what I'm thinking all along, is the problem; the router is dead. Drag out a phone bill. It took me 10 minutes to read through everything on the phone bill to find a phone number. This vexes me #6. They put their customer service number in small print, in amongst a pile of text where you're not likely to read because there is so much of it. They refer you to the web site. I suppose this is more cost effective but the problem lies with the fact that I can't access the web. Hello? Believe me, when I got a live person on the line from Customer Service, I told them that was one of the stupidest things ever.

I had no idea how old the router was. The tech guy whom I talked to was helpful and quite apologetic. "I'm sorry. The router is 4 years old and it's out of warranty." I almost laughed. I'm sure he's had people who want something for nothing, regardless of the age of their equipment. I'm not one of those.

On Tuesday, I took the router to the AT&T store where they hoped it was just the power cord. It wasn't. I bought a new router (Thank heavens for having fixed some credit so there was enough to purchase a new router.), took it home and set it up all by myself, without a panicked call to any of my friends for advice on what I'm doing wrong. Tuesday evening, I was back online.

I need to take a moment and thank my friend, Doo, who gave me a suggestion which resulted in the saving of all the photos on one of my digital camera cards. He suggested cleaning the card's contacts with denatured alcohol. All I had was rubbing alcohol but that did the trick. He also mentioned that cards have a shelf-life of around 1000 uses. As much as I used that card, I could see it might be bordering on the end of its useful life.

As I can't afford a bigger card right yet, I have gone to a smaller card. But, in reality, I'm downloading the photos I take on a regular basis. If I go anywhere on a vacation, I'm going to need a bigger card. A trip is not in the foreseeable future so I don't have to figure out how to pay for it right now.

I'm patting myself on the back for handling what I can, figuring it out and taking care of it, on my own. The other side is knowing when I don't know what to do and not being afraid to ask. It's only taken 53 years.

Beverage: Earl Grey tea

Deb