Yesterday was the day we had scheduled for the new digital phone install, and I got in to the shop early to clean the area where I was going to set up the router and work on the phones. I was under the impression (incorrectly, as it turned out) that physical people would be coming by for the install. WRONG No, it was all via phone on my cell phone, codes and communications from my laptop, and wiring - which we didn't know anything about.
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Apparently I hadn't understood the rather cryptic instructions well, and I was no way prepared to go ahead with the download because the phones and my computer weren't talking to each other (no router). *sigh* It was a LONG day. |
The first person, from whom I found out that most of my understanding had been totally and completely wrong, was a bit miffed that I couldn't make her schedule. But, if I was doing all of that stuff on my own, that's the way it was going to be. Then I needed the new router to talk to my laptop and they weren't communicating. After talking with another tech, I reached out for help in a different way, ending up with someone who was actually VERY helpful, and signing a maintenance contract with them for two years for laptop maintenance (which I have allowed to get a bit beyond ridiculous). It took more than an hour for the laptop to get cleaned up enough to find the one corrupted file that I had. (The fact that I only had one is a bit of a miracle.)
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The 50 foot cable I purchased was JUST enough length to be able to use without adding either of the shorter 10-foot cables I had available. My modem is on the North side of the shop under the TV, the router was on the South side of the shop near DH's desk. |
My second phone person realized that we needed to wire the router to the modem. The laptop was still doing its' thing and not usable at the time, but we would need to link the router and modem together, and the modem was on the opposite side of the store. DH jumped into things then. He measured, determined that we would need a longer cable then we had available, so off I went to the office supply store to buy a 50-foot cable. I also bought a couple of couplers just in case we were a bit short. I had two ten-foot cables available if we needed to join them to the main section. My laptop was still being cleaned up, file by file, so I didn't need to babysit that.
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Meanwhile, I had contacted customer support at a software company who were busy remotely cleaning up my hard drive to be sure we didn't have anything nasty lurking that would cause corruption of the phone system or of my laptop. I now have a 2-year maintenance contract *sigh*, but I actually think that will be a good thing. |
I got back to the shop, cable in hand, and DH was busy drilling holes into the floor from the basement level. It's a VERY old building with poured concrete walls in the basement, so it's always a guessing game where a drilled hole will actually be on the main level. After seriously dulling his large bit, and a second spade bit once we had the correct hole(s), we found that the 50 foot cable was just about perfect, and got the cable connected between the modem and the router. I left them to communicate and catch up on the gossip until my next phone guy called me at about 5:30 pm. I think he was actually phone guy number 4. They were all very nice people (except for the first woman who was a bit huffy), and every one of them, were foreign from various countries. I found that amusing.
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For a while, we'll have two phones at each place - DH's desk and the cash register area. We'll answer whichever one rings. Eventually our phone numbers will be ported from Clear Rate (great guys, really) to Nextiva. We'll keep one line with Clear Rate - the line that operates our alarm system. |
I finally finished the install at about 7:00 pm with the help of this final tech. It will take anywhere from 1-20 days for our phone numbers to be ported to the digital system (that's up to the phone company, not the digital company), so right now, we're functioning with two phones at the cash station and two phones on DH's desk. Whichever phone rings, that's the one we'll answer. When it's the digital phone ringing, we'll know the number has been ported and can get rid of the wired phone. What can I say? Life is an ADVENTURE and I couldn't invent this story - LOL. But, long day behind us, we accomplished what we needed to, and we're ready to step into the digital phone age. Voila! LOL Have a great weekend, I'll be back on Monday.
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DH is headed to Church of the Assumption this morning for the funeral of an old friend. He was exactly the same age as DH. They went to school together and the parents were close friends with DH's folks. He wanted me to come along, but realized it was in the middle of the work day. So he's heading there himself. He hates going to these things, but it was a good friend of his youth and the old neighborhood. |
OH ... AND, I HAVE A STORY UP FOR VOTES. I'd love it if you would take a read, and if you like it, I'd really appreciate your vote. We're down to very few of us now, and it's tough competition. EVERY vote counts. Here's the link to the page. https://www.dreamwidth.org/poll/?id=32190. The prompt was “A genius is the one most like himself". Slava Ukraini.
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