Monday, May 24, 2010

Updating Modem

Ok. After apparently being hacked and having spam sent out from my e-mail account, I've changed my password. Problem is, AT&T told me I needed to update my modem settings with the new password or I wouldn't be able to access my mail. It said to click on "Update Modem". I didn't see any such link. Anyone know how to do that?

I'm gonna restart the computer now and might not have e- mail for some time if I can't figure this out.

Minutes later update: Restarted the computer and it seems to work without doing the "Update Modem" thing, whatever that was. No thanks to Yahoo/ AT&T Mail and Help.


At 7:51 AM, Blogger Ernie Branscomb said...

Computers have a sense of humor.

At 8:05 AM, Blogger Fred said...

And sometimes I don't. Like this morning.

Latest update: Turn on the computer this morning and I can't go online. AT&T said I needed to update my modem settings. Can't do it online. At least you can't start it online. You have to call their 1-800 number and wait for someone to talk to.

After doing the same thing over and over again, I finally get hold of a tech guy and it took probably half an hour just to set the thing up right. Probably spent over an hour this morning dealing with it.

I told the tech guy he was fine, but the system for simply changing my password sucks. He said in a couple weeks they're gonna have it set up so it's not so hard to do.

At 10:40 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

When AT&T has a problem they always tell you they are fixing it but then it never happens.

If you happen to be a computer techie which I am not you could probably figure it out. I have had to call tech support for my internet company (not AT&T) a couple of times myself but then they answer on weekends and are pretty good at guiding you through it in a quick manner as they ask what program you are using and then are able to log into a computer with the exact program and they see the same thing you do instead of telling you to go here and you do not have a go here on your specific software.

At 12:47 PM, Blogger Fred said...

This wasn't that bad, once I actually connected with the tech guy. About the only thing that dragged it out was trying their online help plus bouncing back and forth between two different passwords.

It starts out online pretty crappy. They make you go fill in a bunch of security stuff, including your "pass card". I had no idea what my pass card was and couldn't find anything on it using their Help link.

I eventually noticed that the pass card was four letters or numbers because that's all the characters it would accept. I took a guess and luckily got the right code.

Even after all that, it then tells you that you have to update your modem, but they don't tell you how to do it except to call their 877 number.

At first I thought it worked without doing that- after I rebooted the computer and logged back in- but this morning it told me I couldn't connect and had to call the number to update the modem.

I call the number and get an automated voice menu. They only gave 4 options so I chose "Replace Password" or whatever it was. Eventually, the machine gave me a new password, even though I just entered one in the system the night before.

So, I try the new password. It doesn't work. I call the number again and get put on hold for 15 to 20 minutes waiting for a tech guy to be available. Finally I hang up.

I call back in about half an hour and actually get a tech guy within five minutes. Then it took maybe a half an hour or a bit more to have him guide me through the procedure (trying both passwords a couple times). It was a bit confusing.

Finally we got it. One thing that seemed to hold things up, aside from wrong passwords, was the hub I use to connect all the computers to the modem. He suggested bypassing the hub and hooking this computer directly to the modem and that's when it started working after we thought everything else should be working right.

I shouldn't have any problem reconnecting to the hub because I did it years ago when I first bought it and never had a problem.

At 12:19 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

My experience with those AT&T, my ISP, etc. is that when the service in the morning is slow or stopped, wrangling does no good. It just makes me cranky.

Turning off and stepping away from the computer for an hour or more pays off for me. By the time I return, my blood pressure has returned to normal, and usually, my connectivity has been restored.

That's my low-tech answer to high-tech "tech support" folks.

At 11:39 PM, Blogger Nyssa said...

One day someone will make computers that work easy!


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