I Love Windows
Okay, I have been a bit short on the blog of late. And I have made a few disparaging observations about Microsoft. I apologize.
Microsoft makes wonderful products and I am privileged that Microsoft allows me to use them. I am even more grateful when they work from time to time.
Let’s take last night. I could not access the Internet from my laptop on my home network. I spent roughly 5 hours trying to troubleshoot the problem.
I run a home area network with a Linksys wireless router (G-class) and two 8-port switches. I string 10 nodes off the home area network including multiple PCs, Macs, an XBOX and a couple of devices in my recording studio. I last used my laptop to access my email through the Internet the day before. I had made no changes to anything in my home environment nor did I make any changes to my laptop.
I connected the laptop to the home network using a docking station. The Linksys router provided me with a valid IP address as well as a valid set of DNS server addresses. I could ping websites using IP addresses but I could not ping websites using URLs. Neither Firefox nor IE browsers would load pages (unable to connect to server or DNS error).
I am up to date on my virus and spyware definitions. No viruses. No spyware. The machine is clean.
I flushed my DNS cache. No effect. I released and renewed my IP address. No effect. I reset Winsock. No effect. I disabled proxy scripts. No effect. I power cycled my DSL modem and my router. No effect. I used the wireless LAN card instead of the wired docking station. No effect. I did a direct connect to the router on a different port, one that was successfully accessing the Internet through another computer. No effect.
All other devices on the network worked fine.
I googled “dns error”. Only 6,400,000 hits. I should be able to work through those references in a few years. And at least I am not alone with this particular problem. I am comforted by that.
I also read this. Thank goodness I auto update the Microsoft patches. I value the security and peace of mind that comes with the unattended patching of Windows.
And the laptop connects just fine at the office. Microsoft has done me a favour. I won’t have to work from home ever again.
I love Windows!
LOL.
There is an old sales saying: ‘Make 1 person happy, they will tell 5 people. Make 1 person unhappy, they will tell 250’.
Guess it is a good thing that you did not pay for that patch.
Haha…
In my last year of highschool I took a computer science course that focused heavily on php and c++ programming.
You could imagine some of the bizarre problems we had, using less than mediocre machines, all outfitted with Windows 98. Our MySql server crashed once or twice daily. Imagine if we had been designing real world database applications…we would be in big trouble!
I guess I’m stuck with “Windows X-tra Problems,” until I get smart and buy a Mac. After seeing their reliability for hours of recording sessions in your studio, you really start to see a difference.
I’ve had “good” PCs crash on me when doing low quality home recording, and that’s just sad. lol
This is why so many people I know usually solve even the smallest windows problem with a complete format and reinstal of windows. Either that or just find a way to live with it. I often wonder how something like a computer, which is supposed to be entirely based on logic, can make absolutely no sense. Oh I love technology. Good luck.