This actually happened back in March, but I'm just now getting around to getting it on the blog.
*****
I needed to combine some pdf files for Field Ecology Governor's School documentation. I like to keep my Word files to a relatively small manageable size (experience speaking here), but then need to combine them to send a single file to the Virginia Department of Education in Richmond.
However, my copy of Adobe Acrobat no longer works with my current system -- ahhh, the wonders of system upgrades. Adobe wants a small fortune ($300) for a stand-alone copy of Acrobat -- and it doesn't appear to be available for the Mac. They'd much rather sell you a "Creative Cloud" subscription -- but that's not so great when you have a not-so-broadband Internet connection. It also costs more than I want -- about $20 per month for full access. Regardless, I opted for a $10/month plan that has limited Acrobat capabilities, but has most of what I need. I still could use a better Internet connection, but it's do-able.
Or so I thought.
Turns out, when I went to buy the subscription, they won't sell it to me in India. No problem -- I'll use John's "magic" VPN that gives me a U.S. internet address. BUT (you knew there had to be a "but" coming) BSNL (our Internet provider) cuts off service whenever I set up the VPN. Zero connection through the VPN. Good connection when I turn it off.
OK -- I also have a Vodafone 3G dongle to get to the Internet. It's slower, but acceptable for most work. Turns out, I couldn't get the dongle to connect -- I got a message that I wasn't authorized to use the service. Hmm…. Sounds like maybe I haven't paid the bill.
You need some background here. The Vodafone dongle was arranged through Ruby Macons. Even though we pay the bill, we can't access the account records because to log-in you need a one-time password that is SMS'd to the phone of record. Whose phone it is, we can't figure out -- it's neither my phone nor Lon's. We can't change the phone number because we can't access the profile. We also wish we knew who was getting the billing notices because it's also someone else's email on the account.
Fortunately, Vodafone makes it easy to give them money. You can do a "Quick Bill Pay" without having to log into the account -- anyone with a valid credit or debit card can put cash into the account. (Smart business move there!) We periodically add rupees to the account, but we actually have no idea of how much the service actually costs. So, I added 5000 rupees (about $85) to our account -- that should cover me for a while. Instantly, I had Internet access. Problem solved. The VPN works fine with Vodafone.
After all of this, I was able to get purchase my "PDF Pack" and get my work done. But it's a pain to switch Internet connections whenever I need to VPN -- and to remember to turn off monthly subscriptions when I don't need them.
Such is life in "The Cloud" in India …
*****
I needed to combine some pdf files for Field Ecology Governor's School documentation. I like to keep my Word files to a relatively small manageable size (experience speaking here), but then need to combine them to send a single file to the Virginia Department of Education in Richmond.
However, my copy of Adobe Acrobat no longer works with my current system -- ahhh, the wonders of system upgrades. Adobe wants a small fortune ($300) for a stand-alone copy of Acrobat -- and it doesn't appear to be available for the Mac. They'd much rather sell you a "Creative Cloud" subscription -- but that's not so great when you have a not-so-broadband Internet connection. It also costs more than I want -- about $20 per month for full access. Regardless, I opted for a $10/month plan that has limited Acrobat capabilities, but has most of what I need. I still could use a better Internet connection, but it's do-able.
Or so I thought.
Turns out, when I went to buy the subscription, they won't sell it to me in India. No problem -- I'll use John's "magic" VPN that gives me a U.S. internet address. BUT (you knew there had to be a "but" coming) BSNL (our Internet provider) cuts off service whenever I set up the VPN. Zero connection through the VPN. Good connection when I turn it off.
OK -- I also have a Vodafone 3G dongle to get to the Internet. It's slower, but acceptable for most work. Turns out, I couldn't get the dongle to connect -- I got a message that I wasn't authorized to use the service. Hmm…. Sounds like maybe I haven't paid the bill.
You need some background here. The Vodafone dongle was arranged through Ruby Macons. Even though we pay the bill, we can't access the account records because to log-in you need a one-time password that is SMS'd to the phone of record. Whose phone it is, we can't figure out -- it's neither my phone nor Lon's. We can't change the phone number because we can't access the profile. We also wish we knew who was getting the billing notices because it's also someone else's email on the account.
Fortunately, Vodafone makes it easy to give them money. You can do a "Quick Bill Pay" without having to log into the account -- anyone with a valid credit or debit card can put cash into the account. (Smart business move there!) We periodically add rupees to the account, but we actually have no idea of how much the service actually costs. So, I added 5000 rupees (about $85) to our account -- that should cover me for a while. Instantly, I had Internet access. Problem solved. The VPN works fine with Vodafone.
After all of this, I was able to get purchase my "PDF Pack" and get my work done. But it's a pain to switch Internet connections whenever I need to VPN -- and to remember to turn off monthly subscriptions when I don't need them.
Such is life in "The Cloud" in India …
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