We’ve been down for a day — the DSL failed. Bummer.

I finally got a simple enough network setup at my end so my ISP would talk to me.
They required a single computer with a crossover cable plugged into the modem before they wanted to talk to me about line problems. I guess they get enough problems with people’s home equipment.
So, they finally decided that my computers were outputting ARP packets and they were responding to them but I was not receiving any of their packets. Time to call the DSL provider — Qwest.

I’ve heard bad things about getting technical support from the phone companies, so, with trepidation, I phoned the tech support number.
Pressed “2″ to say I had DSL.
Pressed “3″ to say I was not using Quest as my ISP,
Pressed “2″ to say this was a new problem.
And I was talking to an actual human!!!!!
No waiting, no hassle.
Wow!!!
I explained that I’d talked to my ISP and they said to call Qwest.
He typed for a second and said “yes, you do have a problem”.
“There is a tech on the way to fix it”.
One hour later the connection was running again.

So, there are a lot of terrible stories out there, but this is a good story about DSL and phone company technical support and it has a happy ending.
And now I have connectivity so my life can go on.