The internet is down - Everything is Broken!!! - 2021-03-01

A few days ago an Openreach "engineer" was caught fiddling atop my pole... chaos ensued.

Our connection to the internet has totally flaked out. Its been mostly down, during the brief moments that its has been functional, usability and speed has dropped to something only recognizable to those that grew up with dial up.

For now we're using this little hack job, my phone and a travel router. Its not ideal but it will keep the house connected by using my cellular data plan/phone as a modem and then the travel router feeds into an Ethernet switch that then pushes the connection to the rest of the house.

We're expecting a visit from an engineer over the next few days but from what I have been told they will likely do the absolute minimum to get the line running again... so my smartphone will be sat at home like this for the foreseeable future.

I won't have much access to my phone while its hooked up like this but I can still be contacted through the usual means. I've setup my PC to connect to WhatsApp, Signal, Discord and FB Messenger... the other stuff too. Phone call wise, I'm going to be using an old number on a Dumb Phone (Nokia 105 in case anybody is curious), texting is a no go (not that anybody does that anymore) seeing as I can't be bothered to type T9 style ever again.

If you do wing me a message and I don't instantly message back... I'm not at my PC. If you call and I don't answer... you're phoning my new home modem, ask for the other number.

PC use is going to be limited as far as access to the net is concerned given that I don't have a huge amount of bandwidth and the bandwidth that is available is shared between 4 people.

Seeing as I'm on what feels like an ancient connection... think I'm going to go and hang out on IRC.

My internet detox begins.