Day: January 3, 2005

I installed WordPress (blogging software) with a new webhost today, and the testbed blog is up and running. It wasn’t five minutes, for a few reasons, but it wasn’t brutal. Still, not something I’d encourage anyone to try who doesn’t already know a little bit about FTP and databases. The host, TextDrive, was incredibly responsive via e-mail support over the last 48 hours or so. That’s the good news. The bad news is that I needed their responsiveness for two separate issues, first with changing my initial account password and then with glitches logging into myPhpAdmin. On the whole, the responsiveness of the support overshadows the need for the support, but I’ve still got several steps to take before I’ll move clock over to WordPress on a new host. I am grateful for these detailed instructions on importing a Radio blog to WordPress. I’ll be putting them to the test eventually.

We did a bit of re-arranging today, and moved the computer desk. During the move, I un-plugged the six-year-old Alcatel ADSL 1000 “modem” and switched the phone cord for a shorter version, since it was now closer to the jack. A few frustrating hours without internet access later, I switched back to the original cord, in a final attempt to eliminate all the variables… and everything worked again. Closer examination reveals what many may know already: RJ-11 cords (standard telephone wire) may have either 2 wires or 4. Phone service only needs two wires; DSL needs (apparently) all four wires. Makes sense when you think about it, but then who does? I actually did know that most RJ-11 cords had only two wires in them, but never knew what the other “missing” two might be for. Well, if nothing else, DSL is the answer. Now you know.