adventures in frustration

Big storm last Friday. I got home that night around midnight to find the computer fine, but the router/modem completely fried, and having taken the ethernet port out with it. The 320GB external drive I bought a about two weeks ago was also toasted to golden brown uselessness. Sigh. My powerboard claims to have a surge protector, but I'm sure you can understand my skepticism.

Saturday I bought a Belkin model, only to find that they have a protocol problem with exactly one internet provider in Australia: TPG. Guess who I'm with... TPG also has issues with NetGear. These are, naturally, the two most popular brands, sold everywhere. Somewhere around Wednesday I found a computer store that sold NetComm and finally our net is up and running again with newly bought surge protection in place.

To use my dad's favourite reward when I was a kid...a golden nothing to the first person who can guess what the computer guy found in between two little panel things in the computer when he was putting in the new ethernet card!!