By Dennis D. McDonald

This time I couldn't get to the Web via the Linksys card on my ancient Dell laptop communicating with the Westell DSL modem. Actually, I couldn't get it to the DSL modem using an Ethernet cable, either.

Funny thing is, I could access the web through my Dell Latutude D505 laptop communicating via its built-in wireless, plus the old iMac, connected via the Ethernet cable, had no trouble, either.

But try as I might, I just could not get the Westell modem and the old Dell laptop talking with each other.

So I called Verizon's Tech Support. I waited only ten minutes.

It took about an hour to go through the steps, but they solved it. Seems that once upon a time the Westell modem had been configured in "bridge mode" when it had been wired to the old Linksys DSL modem/router. When the Linksys router bit the dust some months back (this was the second Linksys router I have owned; I didn't think these would wear out, but I guess they do) I didn't bother to change it back from "bridge mode" since everything seemed to keep on working.

With the appropriate mumbo jumbo Verizon talked me through getting the old laptop talking with the modem, and everything is fine now. They couldn't understand, though, why the new laptop and the Mac had no problem. "That shouldn't work" the helpful tech told me on the phone.

Nevertheless, I have all three machines working again, two via wireless, one via cable.

And once again Verizon tech support has convinced me of the value of Verizon service. As I told the Verizon tech, I am reluctant to give up the Verizon tech support service despite the two or three requests I get from Comcast every week to come over to their Cable modem service.