My email was down for 6 days! A real nightmare...

Last Wednesday my router died. I ran out to buy another router assuming I'd be up and running in a very short time. Well, four hours later I had connectively and fell into bed at midnight exhausted from hours on the phone with tech support while trying to figure out the problem. Normally, I'm relatively handy with computer stuff and was frustrated that this otherwise simple process turning into such a chore.
Thursday morning I noticed I didn't get any of the usual dozens of messages I get overnight. For some goofy reason, I couldn't receive any of my business email at JessLyman@LYMANandSTEICHEN.com. My business partner Theresa Steichen had no such problem. Our website was up and running. That night I contacted Register.com to see if there was a problem there. Nothing was wrong. I then sent numerous email messages to my hosting company and they didn't respond. I continued to contact them for 6 days and received no answer even when using my personal email.
On Monday morning after an agonizing weekend, imagining that every single one of the thousands of prospects in my database was sending me an email requesting to write an offer on a house they just drove past, I contacted my ISP, Mediacom and they prompted sent out a tech. The tech spent an hour and a half to discover my modem was bad and promptly replaced that. However, this didn't explain why I wasn't receiving my email. I was at a loss. No email at my computer, my PDA (different service provider) or at my ISP's website. In looking at my settings at Register.com I saw that Rackspace was hosting the web developer I used (who still hadn't called or sent a message to my working personal email. I called them but they couldn't help since their contract was with my web developer not me.
To make a long story shorter...it turned out the an AT & T server down the line had blocked my email due to "abuse" not by me but by someone with whom I shared that particular server. As a result, hundreds of other users weren't getting there email either. I put in a request to fix this since I wasn't the "abuser" only to get no response or solution. Thus, I created a new email address at gmail to have my business email re-routed and now, a week later it is working. The abuse scenario still exists but MY NEW WEB DEVELOPER as of yesterday, The Marketing Shop (I'll show you for not contacting me for 6 days!!) has my site up and running and email working. Thank you Jenna Ryan, jenna@themarketingshop.com.
Sure, my clients called me to tell me my email was down. Sure, I showed some homes and handled inquires on my listings. Maybe I didn't miss a sale or listing but I certainly lost some sleep worrying myself crazy. Here I am a new router, a new wireless modem, a new email address (re-routing to my address) and a new web hosting company later, I have my business email working; JessLyman@LYMANandSTEICHEN.com
How dependant we have become on technology! I love the many tools at hand today and use them with gusto but when they don't work, our hands may be tied and our world stops (or so it feels). Thanks to my favorite mortgage broker and friend, Ken Horst, The Great Rate, for listening to me moan through all this!
Thanks for listening.