Internet Woes
Saturday, 6pm. Teck Beng was happily fiddling around on MSN, lazing at home as usual. He was perplexed over an old problem; about why his router refuses to give him a static ip, which is a prerequisite for hosting games like DoTA. With free time on his hands, he decided to tinker around and play smart. "Ah, this looks quite idiot-proof", he remarked. Little did he realise that he did an irreversible change when he clicked on Easy Setup.
Saturday, 7pm. By the time he realised his folly, it was too late. He had lost contact with the outside world! Stupid MSN could not sign in; always giving the 8700e27 error code message. It even advises the anxious TeckBeng that he can go to the Internet to check it out. "How the @#$% do I go Internet to check when I can't even go to Google?!", he thought in exasperation. Time ticked by as the increasingly desperate Teck Beng tried every single move, not realising that he was making the situation worse by every wrong mouseclick.
"Beng beng, time for dinner" "Rrrrawwwrrr," he roared out in anger and anxiety. His stomach could not take it. Pride and ego were at stake. By meddling with the unknown world of bits and bytes, he had dragged the whole family down into the IT abyss of no return. It took an angry father and worried mother to drag the vicious beast out of his seat for family. Gloomily, he went for dinner reluctantly, eating food to quell his Internet problems, temporarily.
Saturday 10pm. Back at home. TeckBeng tried again. And again. And again. In the end, he decided to look for external help. He picked up the phone and called the router helpdesk. "Sorry, we are currently not available. Our working hours is from Monday to Friday. 8am to 5pm". An expletive was immediately heard in the silent room of Teck Beng. "Wah @@#$, how come outside companies are also like SAF!!!Where are they when I need them the most???", exclaimed the increasingly feral TeckBeng in disgust. "By then, I would already be in camp..."Tormented by the lack of access, he swallowed and tried again. And again. And again....
Sunday 2am. Unfortunately, even without coffee, TeckBeng was quite persistent. Guard duties had an unusual benefit of giving him extra vitality to work through the night. Internet options, check. DNS, check. DHCP, check. Manually typing in IP, check and etc. "This is worse than I thought", said the crestfallen Beng. "I still got 6 more months before Singnet service is terminated. I would DIE without DoTA, email, MSN and blogs like an Indian chick, Pinkie, ladybug, purple, youwei,fmrgene,paradox....ARRRRRRGHHHH," screamed Beng in frustration.
Sunday 3am. Desperate means call for desperate measures. He had tried every single method, including digging up his Signal notes and trying his best to resolve IP address and subnet mask; finding his router MAC address, etc "And what the hell are DNS, proxy server and key ports supposed to mean??" as he glanced through the pop-up error messages of MSN ad nauseum. His last desperate measures include reinstalling the router ten times and pleading with God twenty times, but that, sadly did not work out. Teck Beng did not feel so isolated in his room before. "Noooooooooooooo!". The only thing separating a beast from Beng was that the latter has no fangs and tails, but both possess bloodshot eyes.
Sunday 4am. At last, exhaustion gave in and Beng managed to sleep uneasily, with an angry feeling of being so helpless, and tired mind. The only thing he remembered before he knocked out is his 26 alphanumeric encryption key, which he had keyed in ten times during reinstallation. "2588B23422342424323ADD...zzZ"
Sunday 10am. TeckBeng tried a novel method. He called Eddie Cai, since he felt that the latter is more knowledgeable in computer stuffs. After two hours of talking (alternating between a screwed up handphone and a housephone), sadly, Eddie also could not resolve his unusual problem. The wireless connection was ok, but somehow, the error comes from the remote end. "What?!You mean I aged a zillion years and gained white hair just because of a remote error?!" Beng exclaimed. (though he reluctantly admitted that it was his own folly that caused the fiasco in the first place). Beng also observed that bad things come in clumps. Like a @#$#ed up phone to boot as well. In the end, the only useful thing that Eddie provided was the Singtel number. Beng decided to ask for directions, after countless hours of useless self-effort. "Press one for password reset, press two for....press * to repeat" "Damn, I hate those recorded messages," as TeckBeng pressed the * button the fifth time.
"Welcome, how can I help you?" the Singnet operator offered his help. After an hour of explanation, password reset and trying to translate an Indian accent, the thorny problem was finally resolved. Like a huge burden lifted off his chest, TeckBeng managed to relax in those tense twelve hours.
Sunday, 4pm. Teck Beng manages to see his favourite blogs and MSN. And is quite contented with the outside world...for now. "Must change those temper of mine" he quietly thought to himself. "It's no good to feel so impatient and angry in the long run. Damn. Don't want me high blood pressure"
And so, TeckBeng won't be tinkering with the router settings for a very long time.