And Then It Dies...

What’s dead then? It’s a bit o’ kit wot I thought was super smart, state of the art high tech up to a couple of days ago. And that kit would be something I got longer ago than I thought but still not in distant history. Yup, the combined landline and VOIP phone I got so’s my little nest of vipers could stay in contact with friends and family over there using that Skype lookin’ thingy to call far away phones for buttons without the need to turn on the computer.

Anyhoo, as good as it’s been, a few days ago, without any announcement, him thing big talky went to sleep. Okay, not strictly true; it just wouldn’t stay connected, just continually online – offline.

I went through the full fix-it faffing about stuff that you do; you know, on/off, pull cables and poke ‘em back in, try different ports on the router, a sharp whack with a lump-hammer and as a final resort, a full reset. Nothing changed.

As a very last resort I phoned the IP provider and got a young buck on their help desk and this was when the passage of time and the advance of age all caught up with me.

I explained my problem from start to present and enquired if he could think of anything I could try that I’d missed. I finally managed to put my mouth on ‘pause’ to give the poor kid a chance to respond. Wot responce did I get? “You’ve got a landline phone that does what now?” 
I repeated the VOIP angle again and that’s when a penny dropped at both ends of the line. I got the telephone before the major onset of smartphones and I also realised the young fellow was struggling with the concept of a time before smartphones. He said that Skype is now used primarily on smartphones  - if at all as it seems it’s lost ground to such stuff as FacePalm an’ Totter an’ similar. As for ‘high tech’ desk phones...

After further investigation and a few pings, it seems the dual phone base station, best described as a mini router, is fried and confused. Nothing lasts forever, eh? It’s done good and paid for itself many, many times over and some.

Yup, these phones are still out there but, after a little investigation, it would appear they’re no longer supported and possibly not even made now so I didn’t like the idea of buying another set.

What to do as her indoors won’t entertain the thought of a smartphone and refuses to be parted from her old clamshell phone that’s just a phone and a phone alone.

That’s when another penny dropped. There’s my first step, ‘early an’ old’, smartphone in the draw. It still has a SIM card inside but it’s not active or registered to any provider so the phone bit’s dead. However, I wondered if it would connect to the house WiFi so I dug it out and gave it a go. Damn!! Connect it did. Now wot? I know, see if it’ll download Skype and haul her indoors contact list over. Damn!!  Done in moments. Now for the big one. Give it a test by calling me. Whoa! We have contact...

Now that’s wot I call a result. We now have a stripped-down dedicated ‘call home’ Skype smartphone. {I thought it best to leave out the ET bit there.} Man, am I, like, an awesome, super cool, modern day technocrat or wot?

There’s also the added advantage of being able to pull two electrickery nibbling bits o’ kit from the sockets. Happy daze.

Quote;  Suli Breaks.

“I used to believe in freedom of speech until I had to pay my first phone bill.”