feeling smart

I wouldn't classify myself as being really behind in technology nor really excelled at it.  I am somewhere in the middle, probably lower half middle.  Many kids know more than I do but I know more than my parents.

My parents think I am this tech genius when all I do is read the error messages on their computer or phone and TRY to figure out how to help them.  Sometimes I have to call the parts/service for help.  Sometimes I can't do anything and refer them to my way more knowledgeable brother-in-law.

When I needed help with my phone, I didn't ask my parents or a peer...I texted my 10 year old nephew.  He helped me fix the problem within seconds.  He told me I was like his nana & poppop because I didn't know these 'simple' things.   Since when does inverting your colors on your phone a simple thing?  I did it by accident, somehow.

But most recently, there was a bad accident a block or two away from where I live and power went out.  When I got home that night, internet was down.   We did the usual unplug everything, restart, the most extreme basics.  Eventually we called our internet provider who said our modem wasn't online and arranged for a service call for $75 in 5 days.  That wasn't going to cut it.   The following day, I sat back down, unplugged everything.  All the wires. All the plugs.  I waited a few minutes and reassembled.  Shockingly the modem was now back in working order and the router seemed to be just fine....but it wasn't working.  Again we speak to the Internet Provider.  They run tests.  They can't figure out what went wrong.  Something, he said, didn't seem right.  A bigger problem.  So he ups our service call to the next morning.

I still was mystified, but I kept thinking....Hmm, modem works, router doesn't.  Start there.  So eventually I figured out that the router somehow reset and was no longer what I named it, but needed to be reprogrammed.  Quite simple task....but why did this take like 5 hours to figure out?

I felt like a genius.  I did it.  I solved our internet problems.  We saved $75 in service/technician fees.
I have no idea why it happened, a simple power outage should not have messed with that - but at least I know signs to look for in the future.