reynardo | I really shouldn't bitch at my customers so much...

because sometimes - just occasionally - they might be telling the truth.

This little beastie refused to connect to the net for me this morning. We got hacked a couple of years back so the routine is:

Ensure modem is in standby
start machine
activate firewall manually (thanks to the hack, it refuses to start automatically, no matter what setting you put it on
run the "ipfix.bat" on the desktop
enjoy the net.

Except that this morning, it wouldn't connect. At all.

Normally you can ping the modem at 192.168.100.1 - destination host unreachable Hmmmm - dubious noises...

So I rebooted the modem (the most common troubleshoot we do at work). So let me try... oh. The keyboard now didn't work. And neither did the mouse!

Rebbot the whole system - no joy. No mouse. No keyboard.

Stop.

Think...

AHA! Check back of tower - and sure enough the terribly-loose mouse plug was almost out, and somehow I had also managed to pull out the keyboard connection too. D'oh!

Another reboot later, they're back. But still no modem. OK - let's go for the bottom line:

C:> ping 127.0.0.1
Destination host unreachable
Destination host unreachable
Desti yeah, we get the idea.

Bugger!

So I pulled then reinstalled TCP/IP and finally got the ping to work on the home address, then rebooted the modem one more time and ran ipconfig /renew.

Which is why I am now able to tell you lot all about it now! Go Me!!!!!

So - now the most difficult choice of the morning - fried or scrambled eggs with my bacon and mushrooms and muffins?