Technical Problems

On 9th October 2008, 4 days after we had returned from holiday, our building was struck by lightning and virtually every piece of electrical equipment was destroyed. As we had to replace all our computing equipment, including our router, we decided to use the opportunity to change our internet service provider. We got our equipment, but not our router, replaced within a couple of days and restored all our data from backups but we now had no ADSL internet service. We could access the internet via a dial-up service which allowed us to contact all our members, but made it impossible to provide our service.

The change of service provider should have gone smoothly but did not so we installed new equipment to allow us to access the internet via wireless service, but this was far from 100% reliable and was affected by factors outside our control such as weather. We tried to resume our service on November 9th in a somewhat limited fashion, but quickly found the limitations made it virtually impossible.

We eventually got our new ADSL service connected in late January and had just got back into the flow of normality when an irresistable opportunity to move to a new premises presented itself. The new premises is in a different exchange area so we were unable to bring our old telephone number and ADSL service. Our new telephone was connected two days after moving in but there was a delay on getting the ADSL service because the exchange was at full capacity and we had to wait for a cancellation. Eventually our ADSL was connected on April 3rd and we then spent a few days gathering the statistical data we had been unable to access without a connection. At long last, on April 7th we resumed our service and are keeping our fingers tightly crossed that nothing else is going to happen to prevent us operating as normal.

P.S. When we changed address and discovered there would be a delay in getting our new ADSL connection, we offered to refund any outstanding balance to any member who requested it. We are delighted that not a single member availed of this offer and we want to sincerely thank all members for their support and loyalty.

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