When solutions stare you in the face, but remain invisible: Lessons for switchers and those who encourage them

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When solutions stare you in the face, but remain invisible: Lessons for switchers and those who encourage them

Date Created: 07 Dec, 2005, 01:40 PM

The house I'm in at the moment has had only one working telephone connection for some time.

This morning contractors arrived on my request to see what they could do about getting the others working: a multiple socket in my bedroom, one in the hallway, one in the living room, and one in the study (which I had presumed was an ethernet connection).

When they inspected the one working connection in the front room, I asked them to consider a problem I had been having ever since I commenced my internet service with local ISP, iinet. I had been on some form of cable internet for many years, avoiding ADSL whose speeds were less than half that of cable for downloading.

But in my street, cable had not been laid for my ISP who had been Optus, and so I chose iinet on the basis that they were promising ADSL2+ speeds in the near future.

Now overnight, the local exchange's DSLAMs for iinet came into effect, and so I was eligible to take advantage of this extra speed - in fact, many times faster than the current peak of 1500/256.

Anyway, I asked the contractor what must have been an unsual question: Why when I use my cordless Panasonic phone (one of the long range ones with the dual antennae, see above left) do I lose my internet connection?

I had thought that perhaps the ADSL filter was the problem, but that wasn't the case.

I confounded him further by stating that I also lost my wireless connection to my Linksys WRT45G router, which sits connected to a D-Link ADSL modem/router, hooked to the phone line, then iinet, when I used my cordless phone.

After telling me he wasn't going to "go down that track" he then quickly looked at my setup and asked me:

"What's the frequency of the cordless phone", pointing to where it's written on the phone base.

Me: It's 2.4Ghz.

Him: "Ok, and what's the frequency of the Linksys wireless router", pointing to where it's written on the router.

Me: It's 2.4Ghz.

Him: "Do you think it's possible one cancels the other?"

Me: (Thinking to myself: "What a dolt! Of course!")

What I should have done in my problem solving is run an ethernet cord to the Powerbook from the Linksys while using the cordless phone to see if it was the phone line after all. No doubt the internet connection would have stood the test, and I would have been a step closer to working out the problem.

Sometimes solutions stare you in the face and you can't see them, until someone outside the system, but with their own expertise asks you the right questions to steer you to consider options and experiments.

Just like the work I do as I psychologist and knowledge coach.

As it turns out, I left the Panasonic in the front room, moved the router and modem to the middle of the house to get more even wireless distribution, and rang iinet to upgrade my phone system to take advantage of the very fast ADSL2+ speeds now available to me.

iinet requires that I bundle my residential phone line, which means I must "churn" over from the dominant Aussie telco, Telstra, to iinet's managed line. This gives me 20GB extra internet allowance per month, and reduces my ISP bill by $10. Calls and line rental will remain about the same as it was with Telstra.

But it does feel like it must for switchers moving from PC to Mac. It's been nice and warm in the bosom of the big paternal but lumbering telco who will be around forever, as compared to a nimble, fleet footed new player of indeterminable longevity.

When my local Mac user group, iMug, swings into its PC-to-Mac Switcher encouragement program for next year, I will have some personal empathy for those who seek a different path to computing nirvana.

Oh, and did I mention, one of the reasons for going with iinet is that they are a very Mac-friendly ISP? Both their webpages and helpdesk staff reflect the importance they give to Mac users; clearly they understand that giving good service to Mac users will get the word out since we tend to be seen much more as "influencers" than followers.