Bleeding Fiction

For no discernable reason whatsoever my neighbor's wireless signal started interfering with my own yesterday. I hadn't changed any of my settings, so I can only assume it was something on their end. (Please note that I use the word "neighbor" loosely here. It could be the person in the apartment next door, but this is wireless in Seattle so it could equally be a person two floors down or in the next building over or across the road and up the street. That's why I didn't knock on the door to see what was up.) I fiddled with my settings for a while to try to get it back to normal - I changed the channel my stuff was working on a few different times, I changed my WEP Key, I reset the modem and router, etc.

Nothing came of it, so I called tech support. First I tried Comcast, my fun ISP. They were sympathetic and kept me on the phone for about forty five minutes, but ultimately had nothing useful to say at all. Then I called Dell, whereupon I spoke to a fellow who identified himself as "Sean." He was friendly and earnest. He's also Indian, as is Dell's entire help desk, and his name is no more Sean than mine is Jasamita. I know why this happens, but I still think it's silly and, more, doesn't ultimately help anything.

Anyway, after an hour and a half on the phone with Sean he gave up on me and transferred me to his manager, who I spoke to for another two hours or so. The people at Dell are very friendly, but not always the most helpful sorts. For example, this is the end result of my time: My internet works again, seemingly stably, though God only knows if that will last. However, I now seem to be running it from a different bit of software than previously (from the card software instead of the router software, I think). I also had to disable my WEP, because it apparently interferes with my ability to connect to my router (funny. It never did before...). I have a firewall now, but the only thing it seems to stop is port scans from my router.

All of which means that I've effectively insulated my computer from myself. I used to know how my network dealie worked, more or less. I knew which program was running it, at the very least, and I knew the different ways I could muck with it (and put it back) in order to get something done. Right now, I've got no clue at all what makes the thing tick. I find this very annoying.