in Technology

Back and Rearing to Go

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In case anyone hadn’t noticed, I haven’t been online for over a week now.

My old ISP was giving me a royal runaround. After considerable troubleshooting, they determined that the previous issues that we’ve been having were in the phone lines in the house. We’d paid for an extended insurance plan, which meant that they would have been responsible for sending out a technician to fix whatever problem here was with the phone lines.

That wouldn’t have cost me anything, but they would have needed to pay for it. They didn’t want to do that, obviously, so they said that since the service is in my daughter’s name, they couldn’t do any more troubleshooting without her express okay and they also couldn’t switch the service into my name without her consent, in writing.

They already knew that our daughter is now in Guatemala and I explained that I could only reach her through Facebook; a little difficult without the Internet. They don’t have postal service, either. I also pointed out that if they didn’t switch the account to my name, they would not be receiving any money. Thus, it was in their best interest to simply switch the account to my name and continue troubleshooting. That is simple logic.

Their answer was a resounding, “No.”

I prayed about it, basically telling God that I needed him to give me a sign regarding what I should do. If He wanted me to keep the ISP (Blackfoot, which is out of Missoula) I would. But if He wanted me to switch to another service, like DirecTV, I would.

I happened to go into the church, and since I knew that the church has internet, as the sermons are broadcasted, I asked them what ISP they used. I knew that in the past, they’d used Blackfoot, so I figured I could get some kind of confirmation, one way or the other. I let them know that my Internet was down, but offered no other information.

I was immediately told that they used a company called Big Sky Communications Network and the pastor I spoke to specifically said, “I definitely wouldn’t recommend using Blackfoot. They have a lot of problems and don’t have much in the line of customer support.”

I’d noticed that part and I explained my whole situation. They weren’t surprised. That pastor said that they still had Blackfoot, too, but that was because it was on a contract and that their primary ISP was Big Sky, which is local, right in town (a little surprising, considering the tiny size of our town).

Still having doubts, when I next talked to the senior pastor, I asked him what ISP he used, personally. He said, “I recently switched from Blackfoot to Big Sky and I’m really glad that I did. I get better service for much less money. I wouldn’t go back to Blackfoot unless there was no choice.”

Mind you, he knew nothing of my conversation with the other pastor. That was a pretty good confirmation. So when this posts, I will be online again with Big Sky. They don’t use the phone lines, either, but connect wirelessly, so I don’t even need to worry about the issues with the phone lines. I don’t have a landline phone, so that part makes no difference.

I’m certainly not going to be recommending Blackfoot anytime soon.

Praise God for giving me my answer!

  • In the same situation, would you have switched ISP’s?

    • Yes
    • No
    • I probably would have switched before you did

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Written by Rex Trulove

12 Comments

  4. I had no idea that God was so into high-tech!

    (Sorry to be flippant, Rex, but that’s just me!)

    Congratulations on getting sorted. It would appear that switching ISPs was always going to be the best solution, and getting recommendations from local people who have done the same is usually a good plan.

    Like you, I’ve been away for a few days, but that was due to spending three days in Berlin with my son. Or rather, we spent three days in Berlin but he was at a computer games convention while I had a whale of a time being a tourist! It was a fascinating trip that I would happily repeat.

    I discovered on our return that i had taken more than 700 photographs, at least some of which will doubtless find their way onto Virily!

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    • God is not only high-tech, but He also created it. He knows more about technology than any man will ever know. For that matter, He knows more about everything than any person can ever know. Many times I’ve been able to fix things that I have no knowledge about at all, after praying for help from God.

      It sounds like you had a great time with your son, even if he didn’t spend the time in tourist mode. I’m of a mind that there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing the tourist thing from time to time. I often do that when we go for a drive in some part of Montana I’ve never seen before, provided that I have the time to do so.

      I look forward to seeing the images you’ll share. The chances of me ever seeing Berlin, or Germany in general, are between slim and none. It isn’t statistically impossible, but it is highly unlikely.

      • David is on the autistic spectrum, so I went as his official carer – not much caring required, but it meant that we got reduced rates on the train tickets!

        I was surprised at just how many tourists there were in Berlin in mid-October. As might be expected, they crowded round the major attractions, such as the Brandenburg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie, but I found plenty of spots where there was hardly anyone else to be seen.

        My particular interest was in museums and art galleries, and these again varied in how crowded they were.

        The golden rule is – if you are prepared to walk, you can get away from the crowds very easily. I have calculated that I walked more than 25 miles over the three days!

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