Connecting to the 'Net

As was the case last year, when we hooked up our phone, there was no dial tone.  That meant no DSL connection to the Internet.

After a few calls and some exchange of money we had a trouble-shooter on the job.  You may recall that last year our building's front door and telephone connection looked like this:


This year, the HDF Safety Door company on the left side is gone, the Bridal shop has turned into a Pool Accessories store and things look like this:


I should add, do not put your retail business into our ground floor!  People have tried everything from a car dealership to wedding planning - nothing has lasted more than a year except a tire-repair business.  (You can see a couple of the previous businesses on this post.)


Our telephone man could not immediately access the roof and track down the broken wire.  He naturally wanted to take an easy solution and run a new wire out the living room window and down the front of the building.  I objected strongly on the advice of my interior design consultant, Linda.  We soon got the building bawaab involved (more money!) and managed to get the telephone man up onto the roof.

The wire, of course, was broken somewhere near where the Safety Door sign was ripped out.  A few feet of new wire were spliced in and we had dial tone.

The DSL connection was established after the passage of another day.  Of course, it disappeared about once a day for the past three days.  I am optimistic that we will stay connected now - but I am one hell of an optimist.
A look at the current wiring reveals much about Egypt.  Yes, those are all telephone lines.  The light bulb dangling by twisted wires hanging below an opening in the balcony is normal practice here.  Sometimes I have been asked if Egypt has building codes.  It is hard to explain.


Surprisingly, this was not our biggest problem.  I will talk about water tomorrow.