Lately it’s been just like the bad old days of DSL around here. I wrote about it more often than I remembered: here, here and finally here, among other times. Does anyone use DSL any more? I hope not.

Last week, after a fairly long period of solid performance, the house wifi because testy. Then temperamental. Then unstable and often unusable. Calls were made, robots were spoken to, and then a human being in the Philippines. Earlier today, a technician came to the house and did things to the system, which fixed it fine for about four hours.

Another call was made. This time I think I was speaking to a domestic call center. “Dan” he said, and it didn’t sound like a nom de call center (Raji calling himself Bob, or Nadia calling herself Mary). Another tech is coming tomorrow. We shall see.

I knew I was talking to the Philippines the first time because I asked. I couldn’t quite place her dialect, a mostly intelligible voice with an element of sing-song, and curiosity got the better of me. After all, the last thing she asked me was, “Is there anything else I can help you with or tell you?” There was.