Finally. It took one month, 46 email messages, and two visits to the store to resolve a problem with my Sidekick II. The solution wasn’t complicated, but I can’t honestly say it would’ve worked had I not got a new SIM card.

SMS (short message service) had not been working for months, but I didn’t notice because I rarely sent SMS messages. A friend of mine tried to send me one when we were meeting, but I never got it. I tried sending her a test message and it never went through. So I sent one to Paul who also has a Sidekick II with the same service and it timed out.

I used to get an SMS with the question of the day and that’s what clued me in that I had not received one for months. I thought I had unsubscribed to the service, but it started coming back as soon as SMS worked again.

I emailed T-Mobile about the problem as I figured we could solve it by email and save a trip to the store. The techs (I worked with multiple techs) had me do different things like check the network, manually scan the network, and change the phone number to the service. Nothing worked.

The emails were annoying. Every single one started with major sucking up and yadda yadda about commitment to resolving my problem and how they valued me. I’ve copied and pasted some phrases so you can see they’re overdoing it especially when almost every one of those 46 emails had the same sickeningly sweet phrase.

So they suggested I go to the store and test the SIM card. The store I went to couldn’t do that, so the staff replaced the SIM card and said it would take up to 24 hours to kick in.

Two days passed… I went out of town… came back and almost a week passed and it was not working. I started emailing the service again and it was taking too long to resolve, so I went to the store on Monday. The SIM card number was incorrectly entered into the system. When the staff tried to correct the number, the system refused to take it.

Out with the new and in with another new SIM card. The Sidekick II worked immediately. Still no SMS, though. Everything else was working again. So it was back to square one when all this started. I exchanged a few emails with the techs and finally, we resolved it by deselecting one of the options.

The question of the day started arriving again. I sent SMSes without any problems. Huzzah! 46 emails and one month to break the device, get it working, and fix the original problem.

It must’ve been a bad month for our family as my daughter stupidly dropped her Sidekick II into the sink full of water. Paul’s new Sidekick II carrier (that I bought in my first store visit since his old one was torn) lost its button within a couple of days (he got a replacement yesterday).

The emails with the sugary messages with my comments between each email so you know how much they wrote in one email:

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to assist you with your issue. We understand that you are having issues with your text messaging. We can see how this can be very frustrating but we can help.

[Meryl here, OK that's the first one and it's fine...]

I understand from your e-mail that you have been unable to receive text messages on your Sidekick II. I know how important it is to ensure you have access to all of the features on your device and to further assist you with your request, I have transferred your issue to our Technical Care group. You should receive a response within 24 hours and thank you for your patience.

[Transfer... there were quite a few transfer messages, but at least they acknowledged the reply]

We do appreciate that you took the time out of your busy schedule to write us in regards to not being able to send and receive text messaging from your Sidekick. We apologize for the inconvenience. However, we can definitely help you.

We know that it can be frustrating when you are busy and you are unable to reach your valued contacts, friends and family by text messaging. We know that previous technical representatives have provided you a number of troubleshooting steps. Unfortunately, the problem is still there. We thank you for your patience.

You are a valued customer and we want you to know that T-Mobile appreciates your business.

[By now, I'm getting tired of these...]

I would be more than happy to assist you today however I am unqualified to assist you with your technical needs. To better assist you with your question, we have transferred your issue to our Technical Care group. You should receive a response within 24 to 72 hours. Again I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

[Another transfer...]

Thank you for your patience, and for taking the time to contact T-Mobile about your text messaging problem. It’s a nice phone and we are sorry that you have had to write about this, it can often be quite frustrating. We are more than pleased to assist you.

We have done some work on the server here for you on your message queue. If you are still unable to send a text message to yourself, there are some things we need to know so that we can sort this out.

We appreciate the time you too to write to us for assistance with your text messages. We will assist you to get your messaging working properly, with your assistance and kind reply to this message. You are a valued customer and we are happy we could be of assistance. Keep in mind that we are here to answer any questions or concerns 24 hours a day 7 days a week for your convenience.

[Notice they're getting longer as my problem continued unsolved? I'll stop here as you get the idea.]

The wireless network in my house went haywire. It worked on three PCs, one had a horrible connection, and one can’t connect. Between Paul and me, we spent a lot of time researching and trying to figure out the problem. We narrowed down the possibilities few by doing tests. Paul is the network king in our house and I learned a bit in working with him. In fact, I solved the problem… temporarily.

I believe the wireless on the router is bad. It works fine when we hook miles of cable to it (I’ve tripped over them, knocked things down, and chased after a toddler who grabbed one.). I’m tired of looking at the cables, so we’re contacting the maker of this router as well as hunting for deals for a new wireless router with g (as in 802.11g).

Here are some of the tricks and troubleshooting tips I’ve learned in playing with the router:

* Look at how many computers can connect and how many can’t. This tells you a story. If all of them don’t work, then the problem is most likely the router itself. Maybe it needs a simple hard reset. Try a soft reset first (turning it off and back on). If that doesn’t do it, do a hard reset following the instructions for your router. Mine required holding the reset button while turning it off and back on and not letting go until about a minute after turning it back on.

* If no computer wirelessly connects to the network, check to see if the router still works by connecting to it with a cable. If it works here, you know the router is still alive. It doesn’t necessarily mean the wireless is dead. Obviously, if your router is strictly wireless and not dual like mine (cable and wireless), this won’t work. Instead, you can test by bypassing the router and plugging your LAN cable directly into the DSL/Cable modem.

* Do a little pingin’. It could be the ISP is down and not a router problem. Open a command prompt window (Start > Run > type “cmd” > hit Enter) and type “ipconfig /all” and you should get a response back with your IP address, subnet mask, default gateway and other items. What you are
looking for is the IP address of the “Default Gateway.”

At the command line, type “ping XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX” where XXX = the numbers listed as the Default Gateway. For example, my default gateway address is 192.168.1.1, therefore, I would type “ping 192.168.1.1″ If you get a response, then your router is working. Next, try to ping a site. You don’t need to know the IP address. You can ping by Web address. For example, type “ping www.marqui.com” and you should get a response with the ping times from an IP address. That IP address is Marqui’s. How did your computer know this? Through DNS (Domain Naming Service), but that’s another topic. If you can’t ping a site on the Internet, the problem is most likely with your ISP.

* Have a cordless phone? Some cordless phones disconnect wireless connections while you’re using it. Stupid, but it happens. I have one that does just that and another that doesn’t mess with it. Aggravating. I wanted to return the phone, but it was a “no return” phone. If I had known it would mess with the wireless, I would have never bought it. So I learned that the next time I buy a phone, to check to see if it will kill the wireless or not.

* Ensure configuration is correct. Check the router’s manual to complete this step.

* Try changing the channel. If that doesn’t work, change the SSID (aka name) and the channel. If your wireless’ SSID is “Wireless” and is on channel 5. First, try changing the channel to 11 or anything other than 5. If that doesn’t work, then create a new SSID like “Router” and pick a channel, any channel. It never hurts to reboot the router after each change, although when making changes to it, it resets itself. This step is what got our network working again.

The process for changing it depends on your router. For mine, all I had to do is enter its IP address (200.200.1.1, for example) in the browser, enter the ID and password, and I am in. It’s similar to a software or application screen. Enter info, select drop-down boxes, and click buttons to change / save.

* Another good thing to know is to point your mouse over the wireless icon in the system tray. It provides basic information about your wireless connection. It provides information on the SSID, speed, and strength. The blacked out part in the image is where the SSID is located. Also, get more information by right-clicking on the icon and selecting “View Available Wireless Network” or “Open Network Connections.”

* You may have WEP turned on. This secures others from using your wireless because it requires a password. If it’s on, verify each PC has it enabled and the correct password or passphrase.

This is a handful of what you can do. Other options are more detailed and complex. But this is a good start and will help eliminate a majority of possibilities.