Thankfully, it really wasn't his fault (06/14/06)

It’s not my fault.

You have no idea how comforting it was to be told that, especially after a period of hours when I thought the opposite was true.

As usual, I’d stumbled into uncharted waters by trying to hook something new up to the computer at home.

Since November — that’s right, more than six months ago — I’ve been trying to set up a wireless router at home. It’s a nifty gadget that lets more than one computer access the Internet simultaneously.

In theory. I don’t know for sure that it works, because more than six months later I don’t have the thing properly installed yet.

Initially, the problem was the fact that we’re Mac users. I inserted the informational CD that came with the router hardware and was unable to get it to do anything.

Attempts to get advice from the manufacturer, via e-mails, phone calls, and and Internet forum sites were fruitless. Customer service in the information technology age sometimes makes you want to toss the computer out the window.

So, for months, the router sat — unused and unconnected — on the desk beside the computer, a sort of silent rebuke, reminding me of my techno-failures.

Finally, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to give it another try.

It was a Sunday afternoon, and I was alone in the house for a few hours. Just the right time to give it one more push.

I tried the CD and ran into the same problem, but when I clicked on some of the individual files I was able to access images. Soon I realized that they were pages from a manual. Within relatively short order, I was able to print out enough information to connect the hardware properly.

Unfortunately, there was no information on how to get the different pieces to communicate with one another.

Just the same, I figured it was worth a try. So I disconnected the computer from its DSL modem, then hooked the modem up to the router, then hooked the router up to the computer. I powered back up and kept my fingers crossed.

The computer booted up fine. The right lights showed up on the DSL modem. And the lights on the router were correct, according to my makeshift installation guide.

But it was no dice. The parts weren’t talking to one another.

Clearly I was going to have to get some guidance from the Mac guys we use at the newspaper.

By now, my wife and daughter were on their way home. So I quickly un-did everything I had done before, leaving the router out of the mix and re-connecting to the DSL modem directly.

When I powered up, they were just about ready to pull into the driveway. All I had to do was get things put back just the way they were and no one would be the wiser about my efforts.

Trouble is, when I powered up and checked my connection to the Internet, I didn’t have any. It was gone.

No Internet connection, wife and daughter arriving to check their e-mail, and it’s all my fault.

They weren’t happy. Neither was I. Mostly, I didn’t like the notion that I’d broken things.

A couple of hours later, I tried a bit of trouble-shooting. I hooked up my wife’s laptop directly to the DSL modem, trying to figure out if the problem would follow the computer or follow the modem. Still no Internet.

Aha, I thought, it’s the modem. I called the DSL provider, reaching a technician probably in the Indian subcontinent somewhere. I explained what I’d done, explained my attempts at trouble-shooting, and offered my theory that the modem had failed.

The guy listened patiently, approved of the logic behind my trouble-shooting efforts, then delivered the good news: It wasn’t my fault.

The computer was fine.

The modem was fine.

And nothing I’d done with the router had created any problems.

There’d been a server failure somewhere that would be fixed as soon as possible.

It was just chance, he assured me, that it had occurred at the same time I was messing with connections.

“It’s not your fault,” he told me.

“You just made my day,” I said.[[In-content Ad]]