Treos, TV and Technical Support...a love story

The way this early baseball season is progressing(?), the image of of a discouraged Yankee is sadly apropos.

The real import of this image is that it is a live Yankee game, on the YES Network (the Yankees' cable network), and it is on my Treo. Yep, I'm still having a great time playing with the beta of the new SlingPlayer for Palm OS (if you need more info, look at my detailed review); and there is nothing so sweet as watching a game while soaking in a tub full o' bubbles (ahhhhh...).

My reign as Captain Video hit a big speedbump last night: we had violent thunderstorms come through the area, and (as usual) Verizon's DSL went down (no broadband, no Slingbox). To make things worse, I had to let Verizon re-set my modem this morning, in order to get my connection back...and, because it changed all the settings to 'default', this played bloody hob with my SlingPlayer connection. Y'see, there are configuration changes that have to be made to both my modem and my router. When I initially set up my Slingbox, it meant going through 2 levels of tech support at Verizon, and the same at Belkin. Anyone who has dealt with either company's tech support, knows that this took a loooooong time. For example, when I called Verizon this morning (to get my DSL going), I kept getting a recording that stated my "...wait for a technician is less then 5 minutes." I heard that recording no less then 10 times before my call was answered 22 minutes later.

When I realized that I was going to have to run another double tech-support gauntlet, I decided to call Sling Media's tech support...just to see if they had any shortcuts for me. Boy, did they ever! After I explained my situation to 'Scott the tech' (who took a whopping 6 minutes to get on line), he had me download a small application, so that he could run my PC from his location. After that, he reconfigured my DSL modem and my router without a hitch. All told, it took less then 15 minutes from when I called, to when I hung up, feeling shocked that such support was still out there.

So, Scott of Sling Media tech support...my hat's off to you, pal (Verizon, can you hear me now?).