I'm Stupid, for those of you who didn't already know.

[Furlyne]

I had a heck of a day saturday.  The wife was trying to get into a secure site at our cellphone provider from home and getting that wonderfull IE error that I like to call "the white screen of death to all the bad typists".  She had been trying for several days.  She couldn't log on from home, but I could from work (even through all the firewalls and filters).

My setup at home is pretty simple.  DLS modem hooked to the telco line.  Router to the DSL modem, 4 computers hooked to the router.  I reset her computers IE to default, and since it is only a few months old, I am absolutely sure that the there arn't many long forgoten modifications.  Still no connection to the secure site. I checked many secure sites, including my web page online configuration site (XO), all connect with no problems.

I call my cellphone provider to ask if they have any clues.  They say their site uses standered security settings, suggest that I screw up my MTU settings, and finally tell me to call my ISP.

ISP says they have no clue, the don't block any ports (ummm... I bet) and don't support routers.

I said to myself, "self, that router is several years old, when is the last time you upgraded the software in the stupid thing."  Um...  "Never" I answer, never had a problem with it and don't like to fix things that ain't broken.  While I am downloading the latest revision, I tell the wife not to touch her computer, and turn off the DSL modem.  Midway through the flash, she decides to check her email.  The flash fails.  The wife tells me that she thought she just couldn't use the internet, I said nothing about email.  (she really is much smarter than this, just having a moment I guess).

I hold my breath, and flash again.  Bingo, it worked!  no fried router.

While the modem is doing the sync dance, I open up the router controls, and start reseting things.  To keep it simple, I reset the default loggin password and enter the PPPoE login.  Modem gets done dancing and shows solid sync.  I save the router settings and watch it try to log in.  Nothing but an error message saying my connection was refused.

Crap, I fried the router I thought.

I hook the DSL modem direct to the wifes comp (its easier than trying to dig to the back of my box, and faster than the two crappy laptops), rig a PPPoE connections.  Hit connect, modem flashed briefly, and I get the same dang error again.

I said to myself "self, this ain't good!)  Self just wimpers and begins looking through old boxes in search of a modem, wondering if I just hae a coincidental service outage.  My external is hiding, so I find an old generic modem card and install it in wifes machine.  I set up the modem, configured a dialup, and hit connect.  

Flashback time, I haven't heard those annoying modem sync tones for a long time and start to get nostalgic.  Suddenly, I have a connetion and can get into the secure site that started this whole mess.  I shut down and try the DSL again.  Nothing.

I call ISP tech support and am told that I should reinstall my operating system on all 4 computers.  Ummm...  don't see that happening.

I call back and get a different person.  The guy I talk with listens to my entire story and tells me that they don't support routers and asks for my phone number.  He hangs up.  

Less than a minute later, tech guy calls me back and says that now that he is on break, he can talk.  He said they wern't allowed to say anything about routers because my ISP has a "home networking solution" at a substantially steeper monthly cost.  In other words, if I can't get my config working, I might buy theirs. I decide that I can listen.  

He tells me he did the exact same thing a few weeks ago and figured out the secret.  I'm still listening.

He tells me that when you flash a router, it resets all your log in info.  I say "yup, but I already reset everything back.".  He tells me he tried that too.  

Then he says, I bet you forgot the e-mail you were sent about a year ago just like I did.

My eyes lit up.  I truely understood the depth of my stupidity.  I forgot to tag the @domainname.net onto the end of my login ID.  My ISP started requiring this about a year ago.  I set my router for the new login and then promptly forgot about it.

Tech guy tells me it took him several days to figure it out himself.  

Anyway, freshly educated in the ways of the DSL side, I set my PPPoE correctly, rewire, remove the modem card, clean up and connect.  Secure site now works.  

Wife comes home from her afternoon out having fun and has her connction fixed.  Your Wife faction has increased!, your Saturday afternoon relaxation faction could not possibly get worse.

Pain and suffering hots you for 4 hours work.
You have been slain
EQ will not be loading today....

[Soriab]

LOL Yea if you get a space break there most forget that the @<ipsdomain>.net  needs to be after the user name.

I work for telco and I even forget when I do things like that.

[DiosT]

Tech problems.....



bleh...


Format c: /q /s

reboot with 2k cd in

get SP4 off my Jukebox Zen

get security Patches

Install video card/sound card

Direct X

EverQuest


All done in under 4 hours! easy!



Thats my solution to all computer-related problems...


Router/connection problems: Turn off computer, turn off router, unplug all the connections, go eat a meal or something, come back, reconnect everything, turn on the router, turn on the computer, disable the network connection, renable the conenction, start IE/Mozilla and try to hit google, If that dont work--start doing a regiment of pings (localhost, 127, my IP address, default gateway/router, Router's gateway, Modem's Gateway(if modem doubles as a firewall as well), next ping DNS servers)

Usually by this time, you'll encounter a problem and have a decent understanding of where it might lie, such as my campus network was down recently, did the above connection steps, and got to the point my router's gateway was down, which was outside my hands :-(


Eventually it came back though :-)

[mac173]

With router/connection problems and general comp problems, I re-boot.

If that dosen't work, I bring in the 25lb sledgehammer, show it to the computer, and tell it to work after the reboot, or else.

It's worked so far.

[Thoar Nametaker]

Wow what a nice tech!