Hi.

Verizon guy came yesterday. This was the 5th appointment and the 4th guy to come to my house. Once, the guy never came, and I was told 'we fixed it at our end". NOT REALLY!!

So yesterday he comes in and replaces ALL wiring in my house, Separates the phone line from the dsl line (he also gave me a new NID). He told me "you now do not have to put filters on your phone because I gave you a separate line for your dsl and I put a filter in the NID for the phones in your house.

He also put in 3 jacks. One in my bedroom, and two by the computer. One for phone line and one for dsl line. He had gone outside and went in a backyard to access a telephone pole.

He came back and said "the pole is rotted in places but the wires are fine. I ran a pole cable test and the cable is fine. THAT is the only thing I did not replace because the box has 50 lines in it"

So after all was fixed, rewired, re-done and revamped, I asked him "Just for the record, what happens if after you leave, let's say tonight", my dsl light starts to blink again, what do I do"?

He said 'Call Elvis (that's his supervisor) and tell him that Joe rewired everything and changed everything EXCEPT the pole cable.

Then I gather Joe will come out again and change that.

But guess what "And as I say this, I 'm crossing fingers, and throwing salt over my shoulder), lol

From 1 p.m. till now (it's almost noon the next day), IT'S BEEN HOLDING STEADY.

Alan was shocked. He was on the internet last night and exclaimed "Hey, I'm not being thrown off".

So I have no idea if this is working or not working (I don't trust it anymore, after 6 weeks of this).

I am biding my time. Being cautious.

So here's my plan.

I want to back up my "my documents folder onto a flash drive". I have lots of recipes and so many documents I can't print them all out."

So I know I have to go and buy a flash drive. Right? What size to do I get.

Do I then pop the flash drive and go to my computer, and well, how does one copy the docs from the my documents folder onto the flash drive?

I gather that it's only a copy and I will still have the original my documents folder (which opens up in either wordpad or microsoft word right?"

I have various documents in that folder. Some are word documents and some are Microsoft word documents.

So if I ever get a new computer (not a laptop, but just the tower), and it will have to be better and newer than what I have now which is over 7 years old.

So let's say I get a new computer, I gather it will come with Windows 7?

And word pad. Does it have to come with Microsoft Word in order for me to take the flash drive and copy the docs from the flash into the "my documents folder", in the new computer.

I have never done this, (use flash drives, etc.)

And can I copy other things on that flash drive? Alan has programs that he does stuff on. Can I put these on a flash drive and just re-put them on a new computer?

I have my "flip" videos on this present computer.

I am not familiar with using Flash drives.

I am not going to buy a fancy computer (when I do indeed buy one). I just want it to have a dvd rom thing, and USB ports, and anything else will be a bonus. I don't burn cds or dvds.

I do however want to be able to watch the dvds I do now own,l well I want to be able to sit at my computer and watch them on the monitor.

So if you can just tell me how I do this flash drive thing (and if I can put more than just the my documents folder), I'd appreciate it.

I mean, once I have a flash drive with all my documents on it, I just have to plug it in the new computer and it automatically copies everything onto my hard drive? Am I correct?

I CAN learn stuff but it just takes me time.

Thanks much
melody