I can't be the only one that does this

There are times when I will do something the causes my internet to break, perhaps for a few seconds or perhaps longer. I am working on router code, and so not at all surprising. Some times we will do planned stuff, to test fall back and the like, so we know the link will be down for a specific period of time.

What catches me out every damn time is that when it breaks, even when I broke it, while I am waiting for it to come back - I go to just check my email.

And it always takes me a couple of seconds to realise!

I caught myself doing that this morning - we managed to totally break the core router in the office, which was entirely my fault, and while Andrew was changing it over I nearly went to check my email. I realise what I was doing, and guess what? I thought this is so silly I'll blog about it.

Yes, that's right, I went to my blog page to make a post. D'Oh!

Tell me I am not alone :-)


  1. You are not alone :) For those of us with reliable Internet access doing things online becomes second nature. My FTTC dropped for 10 minutes the other day - first thing I did was try to access BT's status page - d'oh :)

  2. A few weeks ago... "Dammit my internet is broken. Bah. Oh well I'll go play world of warcraft until it comes back up".

  3. Nope, I've caught myself a couple of times going for a "fun browse" (comics whatnot) while waiting for the Internet to come back up.
    As obviously the Internet going down only affects work functions! :)

  4. My personal favourite, and proof I'm not completely sane, is when I break the network and know that Google will probably find me the fix.

    So, with Internet down, I promptly fire up a browser, and type some search terms into the search box. 30 seconds later, I realise that this isn't going to work well...

  5. I once offered to remote into a friends computer to fix their broken internet... Took me a good 30seconds to a minute to relise the stupidity of that suggestion.

  6. I can give you a worse example. I do the same, router goes down while I'm working, instantly switch to Chrome to do some browsing.

    That doesn't work, so instantly reach for the iPad, which is of course connected to the same Internet connection. Double doh, every time I do it.

  7. Not alone.

    If I'm doing something which involves rebooting my modem/router, I need to remember to first load up half a dozen tabs to skim through while it reboots. Otherwise, I'll reboot it and then immediately try and do something online...

    Internet-mediated ADHD? I swear I used to be able to go two minutes sitting at a desk without actually doing anything!

  8. I have to say, we have a 100% hit rate on this one here - we've both tried to do things with the Internet when it's down. At least, when it's something I have to go out to deal with, I soon stop that, but when I've had to wait at home for something to be fixed ISP-side, I've frequently found myself wondering why the email isn't coming, or trying to reach various web sites, and then thinking "oh how silly of me". A few minutes later, I find David trying to do something similar.

  9. You're not alone - I've done it more times than I care to remember.

    Now then where did I put that 2nd parameter to try and fix the internet - oh...

    (long live tethering!)

  10. I do this too, but I've also done the plumbing equivalent:

    The kitchen sink drain is blocked, so I put a bucket under the trap and open the trap (dirty water flows into bucket). Then I rod the drain to clear it, and then pour the bucket of water into the sink to get rid of it... while the trap is still open! Luckily I've only done this at home, not at a friend's where I'm fixing the blocked drain for them.

    At least trying to use the downed Internet doesn't leave a mess to clear up...


