Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Datastorm storm over.

There is sometimes no synchronization between the imagination and prediction of the near future and what reality turns out to be.
Knowing this, it should make a sane person distrustful of any thought about how events in the future could happen.

Because the diagnosis was that the Datastorm Satellite System was broken down seriously, the decision had to be made to return to San Diego, USA from San Quintin, Mexico.
A trip taking over 5 hours.
Having to find a Datastorm installer willing to fix the system.
Available at short notice.
To solve a complicated puzzle.

Friends Ute and Andreas were wishing well taking off and feelings were badly mixed about this whole project of having to return to the USA because of a technical failure.

The journey started bad or comically, depending how one sees it.
Before even to reach the town of San Quintin, the narrow road was completely blocked because a large trailer loaded with tons of tomatoes had turned over.
Many Mexicans were busy to salvage as many tomatoes as possible and the fact that traffic would be blocked for a long time because of this activity was not taken into consideration.
The tomatoes had more value than the time of the drivers in their vehicles.
The Fuso Santek has four-wheel drive that was switched on and all the waiting cars and trucks were passed by through the deep sand on the right hand side of the road.
At least those tomatoes on the road were not going to alter the plans for the expedition as the Datastorm Satellite System managed to do.

Having reached San Quintin, first objective was to find an Internet café to take care of some cyberspace business including posting a message on the blog about the current situation to inform all the loyal and fervent readers.

A nice place was found, at 10 Pesos an hour, (0,93 $, 0,69 Euros) including electricity and young Mexican students in short skirts testing their seduction tools.
With the help of Google and some phone calls through Skype, a Datastorm installer in San Diego was found and an arrangement made.
The news was that if he was not available tomorrow, then certainly in the days after or next week.
A stay of at least a week in the USA was anticipated to have the Datastorm Satellite System diagnosed and cured.

Being in the Mexican Internet café and using the MacBook Pro because there was WIFI, an exciting thought shook the brains.
If the Internet café had WIFI, they had a router.
Mike Apache, the Datastorm installer, had diagnosed by phone it was the router failing on the Fuso Santek.

The lady of the Internet café was asked how she got her router and she directed to a computer shop.
This shop was found and Carlos Fragozo met.
He happened to have in his shop three brand new routers and exactly like the one in the Fuso Santek.
It was decided to replace the router to see if that would bring the Datastorm Satellite System back to life.
Unfortunately this didn’t work.
The problem persisted.
This glimmer of hope that a replacement of the router would avoid a long and costly trip back to the USA dampened and evaporated.
The conclusion was made that it was the HN 7000S modem.
If a new router was unsuccessful as well, it had to be the modem.
Because the Datastorm Satellite System was bought in March 2007 it was still under guarantee.
Carlos Fragozo of the computer shop in San Quintin, by now a friend, suggested to call the installer, Mike Apache, to ask him if the broken modem could be send by FedEx for him to return a new one.
A great plan: it would take some days, but it would be not much difference in time compared to travelling up and down and a lot cheaper.
Mike Apache was called again but Mike first wanted to know more about the problem.
He claimed it was impossible it was the modem.
In his expert opinion it had to be the router.

So again Carlos Fragozo went with a new router into the Fuso Santek and made a vital discovery.
The configuration of the old router, which was entered into the new router, was corrupt.
This made the new router function like the old one stopping the Datastorm Satellite System working properly.
It took a lot of fiddling but eventually it worked.
The Fuso Santek was again in communication with the world.
In total it had taken over 4 hours but the result was fabulous.
No return trip to the USA.
No waiting for an installer.

The failed router is under guarantee but this could not be honoured by Carlos Fragozo.
In total 140 $ (104 Euros) was paid including labour, phone calls to the USA and tax.

Some celebration shoppings were made and quickly returned to trailer park “El Pabellon” to party with friends Ute and Andreas.

To be amazed and thankful about how things go in life.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oi, achei teu blog pelo google tá bem interessante gostei desse post. Quando der dá uma passada pelo meu blog, é sobre camisetas personalizadas, mostra passo a passo como criar uma camiseta personalizada bem maneira. Até mais.

Anonymous said...

Because of the problems, expense, and maintenance with Datastorm, I chose to use WiFi when possible and cellular when not. Mind you that my internet use is not to make money, but even so, a lot of time at a Mexican Internet Cafe could be purchased before the Datastorm monthly fees were met. Bah! Write your journals when you will and publish them at the next stop in town. I can wait to read them.
I would suggest you leave the iPhone alone and consider getting a quad band (worldwide access) smartphone. Mobiletechreview.com has lots to absorb, and searching Cingular's (now AT&T, again) phones will present a great collection to get started with. These phones can do triple duty (laptop modem, phone, WiFi and cellular internet access). They usually handle pictures too, but you have a laptop and camera already.