Internet

One of the many things Kyle had to do when moving into our house in Belgium was arrange for phone and internet service.

Belgacom (the phone and internet provider) gave him several service options ranging from dial-up with limited downloads per month to DSL and unlimited megabytes per month.  Kyle chose the second highest option which gave us fast-ish internet and 100 megabytes per month.

The last three months we've been hitting the limit of 100 megabytes earlier and earlier in the month.  When we hit it our internet speed drops to dial up speed.  This was sort of workable when we hit the limit on the 29th but as that crept to the 21st  or this month the 15th it has become unworkable.

Within the SHAPE community there is a genuine dread of working with Belgacom.  But the lack of internet tipped the scale and motivated me to make a visit to the Belgacom office.  We definitely wanted high speed and unlimited megabytes.

Yes I had to wait a bit (under twenty minutes - not bad by Belgian standards).  I talked with the customer service guy and saw the graph of our internet usage (a steadily climbing line) and arranged for the top tier service.

Good news - we are going to have it.  Bad news - it doesn't kick in until August.  Good news - for 5 euros I could purchase an additional 20 megs for the month which takes us out of dial up speed.

The new service requires a new router which Belgacom provided.  I was sent home with the router and instruction guides - 2 of them.  One in French and one in Flemish.  I was told to hook up the new router before August 1st.  So this morning I gave it a shot.  And hooray!  Here I am on the internet, that I hooked up using French instructions (and lots of pictures).

I'm looking forward to the faster speed next month.  Uploading photos onto this blog takes several minutes at our current speed - I hope it is faster next month.  If so, watch out - more photos coming your way.