Picture this, boys and girls…
The Guru has a new baby on the way, so he’s fired up a few ‘homers’ to bring in a little extra cash before the happy event. I’ll be too busy changing nappies after she’s born, so make hay while the sun shines I say!
Anyways, built an XP box for a friends business and tried to hook it into my company network on a spare hub port to do the Windows Update bit. The network is p2p 98 and all works fine with a shared ADSL internet connection, and f&p sharing via NetBEUI (so much faster than TCP). Logged on to the XP box, ran the Networking Wizard, and then saw all 7 other computers on the network. All shares and stuff available in both directions. Tried to go to WU site…IE bombed out…no connection!
Time now, 1am. Ran the wizard again, checked the network settings, IP addresses and such…no luck. Spent until 3am farting around then tried to connect to the Web using the ICS host…nothing. Pulled my hair out until 3.45 and drove home. Intel AnyPoint modem diagnostics said everything was fine with the line, the modem logged on and authenticated…just no Web!!! The last diagnostic test is a ping on the ISP…and that failed! Drove home and got in at just before 4…my machine (using the same Broadband company) also refused to connect. Went over to wifes machine…sharing my connection via 10BaseT and signed onto AOL using TCP/IP…connected. Logged off, tried to use IE…nothing! Went back to my machine…4.01am and rebooted. Connected straigt away and up popped TR! Logged onto my telco’s portal site and checked status…turns out they were down for server maintenance between 1 and 4 am!!
Has anyone else spent time running round in circles with a bizarre problem like this and getting nowhere, only to find later it WASN’T your fault…just Murphys Law and pure coincidence?
If it wasn’t for bad luck…I’d have no f***ing luck at all!
