Where all my crackers at?

Hi all!

First off, I wanted to acknowledge that I'm moving into strange new territory now. I know of at least two people who are aware of the existence of this blog. It feels a little weird to no longer be shouting into the darkness, as it were, and frankly it's a little intimidating. My best be right now seems to be continuing what I've been doing and hoping folks either like it or get bored and leave.

In either case, a hearty "Hello!" to David and Brad, and congrats on your resoucefulness.

I have a longish entry languishing on my other PC that should be posted shortly. It was ready to go last night, but (a) I wanted to check the spelling of names and accuracy of facts, and (b) I was without Internet access this entire weekend. Woe is me!

I was ecstatic when I learned I would have a T1 Internet connection out here, but it's been a long hard slog. My connection has been fine, except for the little fact that they put me (and, one would hope, everyone else) behind a NAT. This means that while I could access things fine, I was unable to accept incoming connections. No web server. No FTP or SSH. No bit torrent. No fun at all.

This has struck me as odd. Not only have I gotten a regular-class IP address with all of my other ISPs before (including Worldnet, SBC DSL and TimeWarner cable internet), but the whole point of HAVING a T1 is that your upload speed matches your download speed. Insane quantities of bandwidth are being utterly wasted.

Space Age, my ISP, hasn't answered the phone once in the dozen of times I've called them. They let the phone ring five times, then a message tell you to leave your name, apartment complex, apartment number, your phone number, and a message. I do this, and my messages are always about two minutes long.

At one point, I had great hope and was ready to kiss their feet. After a week of unreturned calls, a tech called me up and gave me information for static IP setup. I was so excited! That was two weeks ago. The numbers don't work, and they're back to ignoring my calls. If you're reading this, you probably know how much I hate talking on the phone anyways, and so it's doubly painful to go through all that without even getting what I'm looking for.

Anyways. Things are even worse now, although I'm not sure whether they're punishing me specifically or not. Now I just can't get online at all, whether I try a dynamic or static IP setup. Perhaps they are suggesting that I be grateful for what I have. I can get online for a little while by stealing bandwidth from unsecured wireless connections, but I won't use that for anything risky like viewing financial info, logging into password-protected sites and/or reading email. I may make an exception and put up that post tonight, though. What's the worst they could do? Take over my blog and post a lot of annoying stories nobody wants to read? Hah.

I don't really have a long-term plan, other than hoping for the best. My only other option here is SBC, and while I know I can work with their setup, I really, really, really hate them as a company. It felt positively liberating to finally ditch the landline and give the finger to SBC/Yahoo DSL, so I don't want to return to them, tail between my legs, begging for a publicly accessible IP address. I Want to Believe that Space Age, the scrappy little independent fiber-running ISP, has a good heart and is just a little overwhelmed and understaffed. But I can't take much more of this. Poppa needs his Daily Show episodes.