Last night I came home to a DSL connection which kept dropping out and retraining, and running very slowly when it would stay connected more than a few seconds, and a phone line full of static. Since it rained last night, I figured this probably had something to do with it. So I call up Qwest, and they tell me they’ll send someone out today.

About an hour later (still last night) I get a callback from Qwest, and the guy is trying to gently discourage me from having a technician sent out, saying that the line tests OK and the technician won’t be able to find anything, and that it will all be a colossal waste of time.

I know better. From experience I can say that a line that tests OK can still have all kinds of faults on it. I’ve seen it more times than I can count or even remember.

Anyhow, this morning rolls around, and at about 7:45 the phone rings, and it’s the Qwest technician. Now I was asleep at that point, so I probably wasn’t too coherent, but I did manage to notice that all the noise was gone from the line. Once I checked my DSL connection, I found it was normal and training at full speed again. Way to go!

So why am I bothering to write about this? That phone call last night is still stuck in my head. In most states, if the phone company comes out and finds nothing wrong with your line, you can be charged a trip charge. Iowa prohibits this sort of charge. Perhaps this is the reason for the call?