Our 'broadband' internet connection was 'done' on Tuesday and Wednesday (and Thursday) and Friday of this week.

Tuesday was the day that the 'old' company was to do its magic and be sucker-punched into handing over the keys to the garden of the money-tree in our back yard.

Instead:

a. The 'new' company arrived first and promptly and efficiently connected the cable under the floorboards. The installer (Amy) was pleasant and efficient. She could not turn it all on and test it because the 'old' company did not come when agreed (the morning).

b. The 'old' company came late in the afternoon, too late for Amy to return that day. I did manage to leave a message on the new comany's service phone (10 minutes after their phone message said they'd closed) saying that we knew it wasn't their fault, but please feel free to do something sooner rather than later. I had a call back within 5 minutes, saying that they'd do it first thing Wednesday.

Wednesday and Amy came and did her thing very early in the working day. My son then had grief getting connected, but later found that he was trying to connect when we were actually already connected! On this afternoon and evening, the "three amigos" (teenage boys) racked up 97MB of chat and download before midnight.

Thursday from about 12.30am was when I finally got them off the connection and tried to get the email working. I failed! When I tried again that night, I again failed. NO setting of the email program made any difference. And, yes, I was using the 'script' supplied by the 'new' company's web site.

Friday was when I got home, tried all the email settings again, and rang the service centre. (Of course, with the broadband ADSL connection, you can also make calls while online.) We went through all the settings until one that was obvious to me... because it was on their 'script'. WELL, one little change later and email began to flow.

The End (of the beginning)
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Peter