problem solved

Well in my last blog entry I mentioned my computer biting the dust and over the past week I've had problems connecting to the internet.  Its amazing how cutoff I feel from the world not being able to log on.  I called my service provider to report the problem and spoke to no less than three tech supporters with each having me go through a number of tests .  After running all over the house and plugging in my modem to check phone lines it was concluded that they could not find the problem and an agent would call me to discuss moving to a slower up-link.  I finaly got the call and a tech came over to the house. It took all of two minutes to figure out that my modem had died.  It seems they only last about four years.  None of the previous three techs mentioned that his might be the reason I was not connecting although it was the most obvious reason.  Is there a modem patrol out there constantly replacing worn out units? This must happen quite often.  It reminds me of when I bought a printer that stopped printing shortly after I started using it.  I phoned the company and a tech ran me though a series of procedures that took close to an hour.  He finally suggested I take the printer back to the store.  As I was putting the printer back in its box I noticed in the manual that the cartridge only came with a small amount of ink.  I plopped in a new cartridge and problem solved.