Internot

Not been around. Did you miss me? Thought not.

But where have I been? I haven't been anywhere is the reply but my interweb access was fucked for a few weeks. Long story short - although the word "story" is perhaps too a generous term to apply to a mere computer fault and my attempts to fix it: switched Internet providers which meant swapping my old USB modem for a new wireless router/modem plugged into a network port. Except that my computer didn't want to network with said new router and refused to pick up an IP address. Made sure everything was plugged in, turned everything off and on again, checked there were green lights where there should have been green lights, tried changing cables, turned off firewall, removed all spyware software from computer, cleaned the registry, manually configured the IP address, reset TCP/IP stack and Winsock... but nothing worked.

The only option remaining was to reinstall Windows. Spent a few days backing up all vital documents, files and executables onto external hard drive, checked that I had all necessary installation discs and then gave my old PC a virtual enema.

Fortunately, it worked. Yay, etcetera.

Then had the fun of reinstalling all my software and hardware and was reminded the hard way that most of the programs and drivers needed replacing or patches to make the fucking things work. That took another week.

I've just about got everything important up and running. Finally.

But it has been not a little fraught and frustrating.

It is good, however, to have flushed out all the crap from my system. It's amazing the amount of unnecessary guff you accumulate on your hard drive over the years.

Anyway, relax: I'm back now. All is well.

I promise to write about something more interesting next time.