Mental Meanderings

Still fighting with my computer

Well, I've got everything set up the way it was and I've given up for now trying to find out what's causing the problem. I suspect (like I did when this problem first appeared) that it has something to do with my ISP. I've had nothing but trouble since they finally (after four months) got me transferred at the end of June. I can't believe I'm locked into a two year contract.

I'll bare with this problem for another day or two, depending how interruptive it is to my normal routine. Then I'll call the ISP helpdesk again. I've got some notes about all I've done etc. some of the suggested strategies and a link for a microsoft helpfile that stats that there may be a problem with the ISP's DNS server (which is what I suspect the problem is).

There is nothing else I can do from here but next chance I get I'm going to see if I can log into my ISP from my mothers computer. If it happens on her computer too then I'll know that it is definately the ISP and not my computer. I don't think it could possibly be my computer now because I've completely reformated the hard drive.

That means that I've closed down the computer, loaded up in DOS mode, completely wiped all information from the hard drive and the reinstalled everything. 1 hour to reinstall Windows XP another 2-3 hours for each of the regular programs I use and 3 hours for one of my online games. Basically, each time I reformat the hard drive it takes me a day to get my system back to normal.

That has been how my time has been spent this weekend and I've had enough of it. Since nothing I do seems to make any difference I have to assume it's beyond my control. Thus it must be the ISP. I should never have switched ISP's. I never had this much trouble on my old provider. The only reason I switched was because the old one required a credit card and I didn't have one. Now I do so even that reason doesn't hold any more. But alas, I'm locked into a two year contract. I either pay a fortune to break it (unless I can get out of it via a loophole because of their failure to provide a reliable service) or I deal with the shoddy service for another 23 months.

Oh well, till tomorrow when hopefully I'll have happy news and something uplifting to talk about. I wish you all an absense of computer gremlins and a Murphy-Free week.