Virgin Mobile "mifi" outage

Short version: If you have a virginmobile "mifi" device, be sure to keep the admin password, your MDN, MSID and account PIN somewhere you can reach it, because sometimes your mifi card will need reprogramming after an outage!

Got this device a few months ago, and for the most part it works great. The speed is adequate for most of what I want to do, and for $40/month "unlimited" it's reasonable. (Photo is from testfreaks.com's review)

Tuesday afternoon May 31 (I think) there was another data outage. I tried calling tech support, using my Verizon (!) cell phone, but the call was dropped. Tried calling from home, but this time there was an automated announcement: data connectivity issues, try back in a couple hours.

Wednesday, didn't try it. (I drove the car to work -- Quelle horreur!) but on Thursday Mifi still didn't work. Another call -- the data access issue has been resolved—Yes!!—but please select "tech support" from the main menu to reprogram your device. Bah! They asked for my account number (which I wrote down on a little 5"x5" sheet and hid somewhere on my desk) -- I said I didn't have one, and then selected "tech support" and... I needed the admin password for the device.

You got it—the account number, MSID, account PIN, and admin password were all carefully hidden on my desk. So I was mifi-less Tuesday afternoon 'til now, when I discovered said 5"x5" card. (I was out just two days, really, since Thursday and Friday were the only days I'd wanted to use it--and that was partly my fault.) You can be sure I put all those magic words/numbers in a better place.