WARNING:
don't read this entry if you:

1- consider your ISP a living God
2- feel like anything he does is the right thing, no matter the cost.
3- frame the bills he sends you above your computer to remind yourself how lucky you are to have him.

That being said , let's go to the Tale:

Last Tuesday, I find myself trying to solve an issue on my new Wi-fi laptop, which for some reason doesn't wanna hear a thing about the software the ISP provided to connect the PC to the router and access the web. Bringing the laptop in front of the router which also routs phone calls, I suddenly realize that the phone is out of commission as well.
Calling the ISP tech support (on a mobile phone, ouch for the bill) brings nothing but half an hour lost to switch the router on-off and bring diagnoses which all tell the router doesn't detect the laptop, to hear the hotliner telling me he can't find anything wrong with the router. Wonder why I can neither access the net not give or get phone calls, huh ?

Giving up the idea to solve the issue on the mobile phone, I ask for a technician to come home, and the hotliner provides me with a home intervention rendezvous on Thursday between 10:00 and 12:00AM.

On to Thursday: 1:00PM and no sign of the technician. I take the mobile phone (ouch again) and the hotliner I get tells me he doesn't have any home intervention registered on my file, that the intervention I had asked for had to be done via phone, thus it was normal that I saw no one coming

Half an hour, two router on-off switches and one threat to personnally bring the router back and resign the ISP contract later, I finally manage to get another home intervention on Saturday, between 8:00 and 10:00AM.

Saturday, 10:30AM: the tech arrives, starts my laptop, runs the very diagnoses I ran four days ago, and tells me some PCs (among the millions existing) don't accept the software the ISP provides to connect the PC to the router, and that my laptop... happens to be one of THOSE. I take it that kind of answer solves many incompetence issues...
The tech then completely resets the router, and while the phone works again, the router still doesn't detect the laptop Wi-fi modem, so the tech has to configure it manually. Trial, and it works, but the tech highly suggests I don't try to install and use the software (his own firm provides)on my laptop anymore. Plus before leaving, he states that given he was unable to determine what made the router go berserk in the very first place, there's no guarantee it won't do it again...

So here I am, back on the web, but feeling kinda dupe. None of my router problems has been really solved, this whole mess could happen again, and the only way I manage to go on the web is to get round a software which was initially supposed to make life easier. The only thing I get for sure is a lighter wallet, as the home intervention was billed about $150...
I'll let you readers judge this.