Zipping Along on the Web

We've finally come into the 20th Century (notice I didn't say 21st?). This week, we finally ditched the dialup internet. Seriously. We were probably the only ones left on dialup so you'd think someone would pay *us* to upgrade. We've switched to DSL offered through our phone company.

Personally I didn't really mind dialup. Then again, I didn't know what I was missing. Dialup was okay for me, but now that I have three kids in school with all the ensuing research, homework, etc., it was time to move up.

It's nice to be able to talk on the phone while surfing the 'net and emailing. Perhaps now Son #2 will stop giving out my cell phone number to his friends. As in: "If you call my house and get a busy signal, it's because my mom is on the computer, so call me on her cell phone." The sad thing is he gets more calls on my cell phone than I do.

So this week, I learned how to install and set up a wireless modem, a wireless adapter, add filters on my phone lines, installed a new internet program, and broke up with my old Internet Service Provider (ISP).

I started on the internet years and years ago with MindSpring. They were bought out a few years later by Earthlink. I've been happy with them all these, what? 14 years, but when it came to upgrading to DSL, they couldn't touch the deal offered by my phone company. I now have a bundle, which includes unlimited free long distance on my landline phone, highspeed internet, and two phone features I didn't have before (call waiting and caller ID). For less than the cost of Earthlink's DSL. I still have to master this new-fangled call waiting. For all of my blossoming tech prowess, I still hung up on Dear Hubby when trying to switch back to another caller. Oops.

Parting is such sweet sorrow. Especially since I wasn't able to export my saved emails to my new ISP because Earthlink will only allow you to save them in one format. Apparently not one of the 10 formats my new ISP accepts. I saved the ones I wanted to my harddrive as a text file and said "goodbye" to Earthlink (whom I've been with since before my kids' births). Sad? Nah, not really. There's something very liberating about starting fresh with a nice empty in-box and not the hundreds of archived emails that I "might" need someday.

Anyway, that's why I've been slow to blog this past week (that, and the 24 cupcakes and other Room-Mom tasks I performed for Son #3's kindergarten class). I think you'll find me posting more frequently. I know I'm looking forward to reading my favorite blogs quicker and more often.