What is it with the DSL and phone connections in Egypt? My SO has lost DSL for 5 days and the man that operates his switch has said he's working on it and it's been one thing after the other...not long ago it was the same waiting 4 days for him to replace a switch. Im starting to wonder. Is this normal???? Or is it getting out of hand? What have others experienced. I understand losing connections...but the entire DSL??? For DAYS? Thank God we have Dial Up to fall back on but even then....this isn't making sense. It has really caused alot of stress. Is it normal for these men to take so long to fix things that affect so many people? I'd think that the people in this group from this switch would be after this man and dragging him to go fix it. Im going bald from pulling hair out and im ready to jsut throw my computer, cell phone out the window. Add to it his phone not working right...even though he has a back up one...seems there is ALWAYS a new reason for no dsl, not hearing rings...ect. The distance is getting to me. Any suggestions or ideas???

My husband doesn't have internet in his home so we rely on the cafe's. Fortunately he's there at the same cafe many nights/week so he's made friends with the guy who runs it and he tries to give him the best computer they have each time. Very rarely is there a problem and when there is, it's that the city had a blackout or something.

As far as things taking long to repair, welcome to Egypt. It sucks. My husband's water heater motor broke MONTHS ago and he's STILL working on getting it repaired. It was going good for a while but now broke again. That country is so disorganized I can't even tell you. It's mind boggling to be sure!!!!!!!!!!!

Just take deep breathes and try to relax. We text each other about 4 or 5 times/day and I call about once or twice at regular times in the day. On top of that we chat via webcam for about 1/2 hour a few nights a week. Other than that it just plain sucks but I'm so busy with work and the kids that unless it's the weekend that I'm kidfree I don't really have time to think about it.

This is normal in Egypt: Dont worry and calm down. My husbands phone is out alot and so is his internet. He just got DSL today and it is working so good. (keeping my fingers crossed)

the connection SUCKS over there !!!!!!!!!!!!!! plus my husband NEVER had reception when he was home.. Drove me CRAZY!!!!!!!!!

alex is definitely worse than cairo!

THANK YOU....its just that i can't get used to this and it causes all sorts of insecurities with us both. I know his dsl operates off a switch owned by another who has 10 people on his router. Three switches total. We are now talking of investing into his own so we can at least have control over it when it goes bad...instead of relying on another. Im spoiled....I know. He has spoiled me with his time and rings and sms's and its hard when they just SUDDENLY stop...even harder when it takes sooo long to fix. And after 4 years....the distance is getting to me. I just want him home here with me...and I KNOW this is just as hard on him as it is me.

How do others here deal with those insecure moments??? Am i the only one that gets these???

Doodlbug....Im glad you got to see your man here recently...sorry to hear of the embassy thing and that heat....guess I will need to prepare for the heat issue.

Thanks to you all for the support...I needed to hear that this is normal there.

My fieance has been trying to get his dsl back online for over 3 weeks!!!! They say they are coming and don't or else for whatever reason it just takes a lonnng time to resolve problems. I don't even trip about it anymore

Is this the company itself that is soo long or an individual that owns the switch he runs off of. WOW we are in the same boat almost. Thats about how long our serious dsl issues have been going on. I think its the heat that affects it. We do this every summer but THIS summer seems worse for us emotionally. Im glad you guys are here. This helps so much because at times I feel we are the only ones that go through this and have to ask...IS it normal????? You all help keep it in perspective and its soo nice to know that others go through it and it IS normal. Thank you soooooooooooooo much.

Anyone here have an SO that has his OWN dsl switch????? Direct from company and not shared? Is THAT any better???

I used to have DSL from LINK.Net very good company and now since my family use it if they have any problem they have 24/7 support and they come next day to fix any problem...Good servce really

I have the same problem as you also. From the phone lines too the internet it is always so hard for us to get a hold of each other it has always been that way but for some reason it seems to be worse now. We will be a yahoo chatting like we were today then in the middle of our conversation i see he just goes offline and the phone omg that's worse i have such a hard time getting through to him and he has a hard time getting through to me. Its just really bad. I know how you feel i know you miss him alot i miss my man too. It's already hard that we can't be with them as soon as we like but to make it even harder we can't get a hold of them by phone, or email alot either. So i feel your frustration. All i want is for my man to be here soon so i know its hard hang in there! and pray alot that's what i do . That's really all you can do. Sooner or later your love will be here i hope you sooner!



AJ1

Some days I can't get through, and it's soooo frustrating to hear that woman speaking arabic every time you try to call. 5-6 years ago it was a lot worse though... Hell I think if we had communications back then like we do now I don't think we ever would have broken up for 5 years!

6 years ago neither one of us had cell phones...
...our parents foot the phone bill...so we only talked to each other at most 10 minutes a month (not including voice chat) (ouch)
...there was no international plan available to us so calling cost 91 cents a minute until September 11, and then it was magically $1.49 per minute forever after that very day (makes you wonder)

The only thing we would do was talk for about 2 hours every Thursday over yahoo voice chat, which was FREEEE! (Is it still free? We *never* use IM anymore!)

Unfortunately our schedules don't allow for IMing/voice chatting (we can't grab each other on the net because we're always at work and if we're not at work, one of us is asleep-- 6 years ago we were both in school so our days ended earlier).

The good thing about now is that we can talk every day for about 30 seconds before his phone gives up but that's IF we get through. We really try to find time to have at least one 1/2 hour conversation per week, usually on Friday nights or Sunday mornings (EST).

Same problems with the phones. NEVER know when you will get through. Sometimes I will get through on my end and Sam will be saying hello, hello, hello and he can't hear a thing I am saying (this is after I have probably dialed the number 10 or 15 times just to get an answer). Sometimes will just disconnect us for no reason. His schedule is so crazy that we talk to each other just whenever the calls get through. Texting is our other choice right now. We don't get to visit on internet much 'cause with the job he has now our schedules are way off from each other.

It is very very difficult right now. Our communication is limited and we are SICK of waiting. But whaddya gonna do??? Just keep waiting and hoping that the call comes SOON!!!!

Well, the DSL Man, (as I affectionately call him) FINALLY went to check the switch at his friends house and it was a power issue. What really gets me is we have NO control over these LITTLE things. I know we are spoiled and lucky to have what we do. I work nights, so our schedules are identical. We have a skype account and the quality of that is awesome. And HE can call ME on my cell phone. We use it at least 5 mights a week and he can call 3-4 times a night during my work to my cell ( I am in my car all night in delivery work). I guess we spend maybe 20 dollars a month that way. Saves soo much and I dont' have huge cell phone bills. The clarity is great on DSL.

Anyways....he's back "home" (online that is) so I can sleep again. We are seriously thinking of other options. Since Im sure we are in for a LONG wait through Cairo Embassy and AP.

Thanks for the words and support. Good to know I wasn't going mad and imagining this. You know how this type of thing can play dirty tricks on your mind....anyways.thanks to all.

Medo just got his DSL today. And it is just to his home. There is now shareing it. Finely today we talked with no diconections. So much better then dial up or cable. Now if they can just get the phones to work all the time. I get so disapointed when were talking and the phone goes dead and you call back and find the service is out, And we didn't get to hear I love you at the end of the call

I hate that to with the phone service. Keep me posted on his DSL and if its reliable. We have pretty much decided to go with a private line. I remember how dial up was. It was just as hard as this dsl. But I really think the fault isn't the dsl itself in this case but the man who owns these switches is sooo slow to fix them and he will go without returning calls or answering his cell. Have they heard of CUSTOMER SERVICE??? How do these people stay in business? I know Im documenting all the days we've been without over the last 2 months so my SO can have a talk with this man about the payment. He doesn't want to pay for service he hasn't gotten.


And Cheryl, especially for you...I can only imagine how hard this can be for you two. If he just got dsl today....SKYPE is awesome. I put on 20 dollars of credit and he calls me when he wants and the clarity is awesome and fewer dropped calls. Not so frustrating. AND sooooooooo cheap. It does give a sense of control and freedom. Thats the hardest thing for me is not having control of this stuff. Bad enough I feel our future is in the hands of some unknown in an Embassy far away who has NO CLUE who we are.

heyyy i call adam in egypt for only 18 cents a min... the link is www.globaltelelinks.net

i call a california number and then i dial adams number ... its very easy and u can hear excellent and u get all ur minutes on ur phone... the best thing for phone calls to egypt ...

When my husband was still in Morocco, he lost his DSL for more than a week. Someone hacked a big chunk of the line out where it was hanging down on the side of a building, to steal the wire from inside. It knocked the whole neighborhood out, including the closest cybercafe. He showed it to me when I visited, very easy to reach.

Bah, calling Egypt is no good today

we've been texting fine all day. He texts me to say he's still sick to his stomach and i text him to tell him I have a rip roarin' sore throat. We both think our second honeymoon should be at Mass Gen'l Hospital for a week.

OUr phone issues come and go with every other ring...but sms is grand today. Not to many issues in Cairo wth phones. I started to pull my chat history to put together a list of all the days he lost dsl in the last 6 months. He doesn't want to pay for this month. And I don't blame him. In the last 2.5 weeks his dsl was down 12 days. Thats just THIS month...

I can text him allllll I want....now whether he actually got them or not, who knows.

Nice to hear others having same issues w/connections in Egypt...my SO has DSL and hasnt had any connections in 3 days - the phone is a nightmare...get a woman speaking arabic, or a normal ring and then dead air, or a loud noise sounds like a couple of cats fighting...i just crack up...and at the same time it is frustrating..I can text him and if he replies to my texts I can get his most times..but sometimes not....we just do our best and tell each other one day we wont need the connections anymore...and it is discouraging when I can't hear his voice when I want to, however, in the long run our relationship will be much stronger......hope he has the internet tonight, this will be day 4...oh well, hope everyone is doing well....hang in there, we will all be reunited one day and laughing about the connections!!!!!

I get kicked offline about 4 or 5 times per day. The network gets unplugged for about an hour per day (at different times every day) and I want to scream!!!!!

Internet in Egypt suckkkkkkkkkkkks.

I CONCUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Internet and cellphones in Morocco suck too! I haven't been able to get thru to my husband for a week now! Either a Moroccan Arabic message about something, busy tone or weird ringing that's getting nowhere. I hate that so much!

Rarely I'd just dial and he picks up - then I'm so surprised!
Sometimes even the slightest rain is an obstacle for a phone call, so I watch out for weather too now.

well day four no chatting w/hubby...atleast we talked a few times today...for a few minutes and i could actually hear him....oh well...not much to do about it...i am heading off to the beach w/a gf tomm for a few days..i think the retreat will do some good...get away from the USCIS site which i check so many times a day..hahaa..hope everyone is havinga good night....take care all and keep our chins up, this too shall pass and we shall all reunite w/our loved ones...one day!!

I've never had connection problems when calling, but we don't actually phone too often.
We do get issues with bad internet connectivity sometimes though. We'll be chatting with the mic and sometimes have alot of static or calls disconnecting.
I used to be able to text him, but he switched to the new mobile company that opened a short time ago and though he can now text me, which he couldn't do before, now I can't text him. lol
I love to get texts from him now but it sucks that I can't send them to him anymore.

Well, his dsl has been back 4 days now...without much incident. Alhamdolellah!!! We dont' have much phone troubles....just at times. We've been lucky there. And skype has been awesome. When phones are bad, skype is usually good and he calls my cell alot for soo cheap. I guess we spend maybe $15.00 a month with Skype. Seems cheaper for HIM to call ME with it. He calls several times a day for 3-5 minutes about 4 times a week for that price. Not bad to get little touches AND....get that call history for when they want MORE proof that we have a relationship.

I just spent time printing out chat records from December tilll this week. I had to resort to printing only ONE page of each chat since we typically chat every day. If i printed out EVERY chat full length we'd have over 10,000 pages i estimated. So, i narrowed it down to 1 page each date to show daily contact...even that is up to 250 pages...but if evidence is what they ask for..evidence is what they will get.

Then there's the skype call history...and my cell phone history, and my sms history. This has been ALL ongoing for almost 4 years....soooooooooooooooooooooooo.....I do believe we can show our relationship is real. In Shaa Allah Cairo will take it and actually look at it or at least acknowledge it exsists. Sometimes I think if u just go with the stuff in hand...they won't llook....they KNOW its there...otherwise why would u have it with u???? Wondering if they ask more more evidence if u go with nothing in hand....hmm...anyone know? Any thoughts on that???

Anyways..hang in there with connections. After i checked our records I found I was sooo frustrated from feeling disconnected...After alll we did without dsl for over 12 days in a two week stretch. And that doesn't include the few weeks before to we had issues. I guess I had just had enough by the time I posted here. heheeh...thanks to all for the support....and i hope your connections soon get on track to.