Tech Support

Another week done and dusted. Most of my week has been fraught with technical issues. About a week or so ago Netflix (which I watch via my Xbox on the TV) did a massive update and ever since then I have been unable to watch anything. I contacted Netflix first and spent around an hour type talking with a tech support person there troubleshooting the issue via the Xbox...Nothing. In the end they told me it was an Xbox issue and I should contact them. The next evening I spent a total of 3 sodding hours on the phone with them, the first hour was spent talking with the general support dept, once again we explored every setting in the Xbox, resetting, deleting, re-installing, emptying the cache and a ton of other weird and wonderful things, after he could help no more he said I needed to speak to the connectivity dept...he tried to connect me and then cut me off, luckily he had given me the direct number, so I redialled, gave my case number, I was then told that I had reached the hardware dept and they couldn't help me, they in turn said they would put me through to Connectivity...Once connected I was through to billing....Not all was lost as the chap in billing seemed to know his stuff and walked me through yet more redundant steps to fix the problem, once he had exhausted his expertise he then said I would need to speak with Connectivity, he gave me a couple of numbers one of which I knew was the first number I had tried, so ignoring that one, I tried the second number with a new case number, once more I found myself in general support, who then in turn said they would connect me to the Connectivity Dept...to which I said, 'do you actually have a Connectivity Dept as it really doesn't seem as if it's connected at all?" Anyway she put me through and hey ho I was back in Hardware. They said they couldn't help but said my call had been elevated and that I would receive a call back in the next 24 hours....It's now Sunday (3 days later) and no one has called.

In the meantime I went back to Netflix and explained the whole situation to them again. I am not known for my patience, so I was somewhat terse by this point. Anyway an hour later they said I need to contact my Internet service provider and get them to do a hard reset on my Internet...It sounded dodgy to me.

So next I phoned Eastlink, they laughed with me and said they had never heard of a hard reset and the Internet was not a black box sitting in the corner of the room they they could hit a reset button on...I knew this of course. Anyway I did decide to get a new modem and router installed and up my Internet speed.
The chap arrived on Saturday, installed the new router/modem (all in one unit) and hey presto Netflix works.
So the moral of this story is, if Netflix does an update which is a total suck on your Internet speed and connectivity and can't make the connection from your modem to router to Xbox, up your Internet speed and get a router/modem in one.

In other news I paid a visit to an event called A Victorian Christmas at the Citadel in Halifax on Saturday, I had not been to it before, but knew there would be period costumes a plenty and perhaps some other interesting shots to be had. It was quite nice, with an old fashioned Santa, and little morsels of living history scattered around in the various rooms off the main courtyard and some lovely fiddle music. It was however bloody cold, the rain just about held off, but the wind was biting, far too cold to spend too much time there. It's always cold on Citadel Hill. Below are 3 of my favourite shots.

Ho, Ho, Ho

Victorian Food by lantern light in the Barracks

Could be Baker Street?