I awoke this morning at 3:30am Eastern Time. I don't know why but I thought I would get something useful done.

I don't know if I have told you all before but my wife and I are in the process of setting up a home based business. There are so many things to take care of that do not affect most normal people. Things like setting up our business so we can take credit cards, setting up business phone and internet services, getting business cards printed as needed, advertising, figuring out how to successfully integrate the fax machine with our phone so that the phone works when it is supposed to, the fax works when it is supposed to, etc.

Our business DSL service was hooked up yesterday. We got our business phone line a few days prior. I was successful in getting our DSL set up when directly connected to my computer. That is the good news. The bad news is when I tried to use the DSL through the broadband routher we had, it decided to be a butt.

I can log into the router. It shows that the router is connected to the internet. I can ping a specified web site (send a signal to a web site and receive a return message stating "Yeah, I heard you" so to speak). However, when I try to use my browser to go to a specified web site, it won't.

I know the problem is in the router because I can directly connect my computer to the DSL modem and successfully get to a web page with my browser.

We have had this particular router for awhile. In fact, we had it during the "Blackout of 2003" if you remember that. You must remember that. August 14, 2003. 50 million people in the eastern US and Canada without power. The thing is I think that router was fried when power came back. You see when the power first came back on, it was not of good quality (Undervoltage, Underfrequency, etc.) What happened to many people was they fried many electronics when power came back. That router , now that I remember it, did not act right after the blackout. We had purchased a replacement and put the old one aside. Maybe, we should have pitched it instead. We didn't pursue it with our homeowners insurance because it cost less than our insurance deductible would have been and we had unplugged everything else.

What to do now? I have four options presently.

1. Continue to access the internet with my computer directly connected to the DSL modem. This is not an acceptable alternative because I have a wife and business partner who needs internet access as much if not more that I do. In addition, there is the factor that comes into play if I do not let her have internet access.

2. Allow her to access the internet with her computer directly connected to the DSL modem. This is not an acceptable alternative either because I need to access stuff online as well.

3. Move the broadband router that is working from the cable connection to the DSL connection. This is not a preferred alternative because we have a printer connected to a wired print server that is connected to our home lan that would not be accessible for use. My wife could be directly connected to the cable connection. She would not be able to access the network printer.

Options 1, 2 and 3 are also not acceptable because we want to disconnect our cable internet service and as of right now, we need both cable and DSL so we can both be online.

That leaves option 4.

4. Purchase a new broadband router for the business DSL. This option is not preferred because it involves spending money. That would allow everyone to be online simultaneously and allow all equipment to be used.

I will let you know how things come out later.

Now, if I could just get this f*&%ing fax machine to work right. I guess that is a story for another day.

Charles Ramsey