Thursday, June 5, 2008

Internet joys.

So, today we have this huge line of thunderstorms go through - lightning flashing, thunder crashing - the whole nine yards. I figure I'd better get the computer turned off and unplugged before we lose power (which happens quite often in our rural community). I'm at the computer using the mouse, when this huge lightning/thunder strike shakes the whole house, and blue sparks come from somewhere in the vicinity of the computer tower. I scream and jump out of my chair, because I remember some TV program that I watched where a lady got electrocuted through the computer, and I don' t want it to happen to me! Finally get the computer shut down, get the surge protectors unplugged from the wall and leave everything alone.

A couple of hours later, after the storm has blown over, I turn my computer back on and try to check my email - that is how 99% of my work is done, over the internet. Anyway, I get nothing. The email program can't find a connection, my internet won't connect to any pages, I got nothing! So I unplug everything, wait the required five minutes, plug everything back in, turn it on - nothing. I do that a few times during the afternoon, then finally call my internet provider. They tell me that yes, they did have a few glitches this afternoon, just wait a few minutes and try rebooting again. I wait 1/2 hour, reboot twice - still nothing. I call them back, they get onto my tower and tell me that nothing is showing up as being connected. They have me move wires around and all of a sudden - presto, I'm showing up again. Evidently, my tower took a hit from the lightning and it fried my router, hence the blue sparks!!! Well by this time it's after 5 p.m., but I have to go into town (8 miles away) at 6 p.m. for a 4h meeting, so the guy says he will wait for me to come in - just bring my blown router and the plug for it and he will have a new one waiting for me.

So I hurry up and get to town, go to my 4h meeting, come home, go to set up the new router and....it's different from the one I took in! So, here I am at 10 p.m., trying to figure out exactly where things should be plugged into this one, since there were no directions with it. Finally get it plugged in right, get it set up and TA-DA - I have internet once again!

Now if I could just figure out why a little bubble keeps popping up telling me that a network cable is unplugged, we'd be golden. :-)

Until next time.

Denise

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