General Update

Internet issues sure are fun! No, of course not, they're misery. We all know that. I've been experiencing them since last Saturday. My ancient modem from Verizon went out and took my Linksys router with it. It took hours of tech support calls with both companies to confirm this. I ended up getting a new modem and router in one combination device from Verizon. Apparently my old modem did not want to give up the ghost as it took another hour with tech support to sort that all out. So my computer was up and running again. Verizon made it clear that the video game systems would work with the new device but that they're not able to provide any tech support in such issues. I asked them where the port forwarding was in the new device so I could figure it out myself. They said that was an area for premium tech support. In other words, they wanted to charge me for just pointing out where the port forwarding application was. Not even for walking me through it all. To hell with that. So with some wandering around and further fiddling with everything I've gotten all the systems back online. Ports open where they should be. At least with the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. The Wii is connecting and accessing the Shopping Channel just fine. I'll have to wait until later on to see if I can actually connect to someone in a game. You know how the Nintendo Wi-fi Connection is. At least there was some good news in all of this hassle. My Nintendo DS is now connected to the Internet. Which means I'll be there online for Phantasy Star Zero. My old setup wouldn't have allowed for that. Now, if it'll just stay working through the generation...