Last week, my New York-based ISP changed the telephone company it deals with for its Tennessee POP locations and had us switch to new access numbers. I have been having problems ever since; some web sites, such as the home page for the Blogger Idol competition, I can’t get to at all, and others seem to be loading much slower.

I received my contributing editor’s copies of the new Wittenburg Door today and wanted to post something about the new issue to the Door’s message board. I can’t get through; I’m not sure whether that’s just coincidence or whether it’s related to my ISP problem.

I tried my ISP’s technical support tonight. They’ve been disappointing in the past, and they were just as disappointing tonight. I have decided to try to get Internet service through my telephone company, which will only cost a dollar or two more and which will go on my monthly phone bill. They are supposed to send me my confirmation e-mail in another day or two; if everything works out with the phone company, I will be off my current ISP by the end of the week.

I am not ready for broadband right now, but whenever I do go to broadband it’s likely to be through the phone company rather than the cable company (see below for the reason), so this will just make that eventual transition even more seamless.