Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. -- I believe that this was uttered by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle via Sherlock Holmes.
I bring this up because I had my own "impossible/improbable" scenario over the last few weeks.
After being violated by the world wide web, I decided it was time to toughen up the security at the old digital hacienda. I would let no unescorted digit past without proper authorization.
In the short run it meant a few extra clicks here and there, no real problem, just a minor inconvenience. For piece of mind, what's a few extra clicks here and there?
I went through our entire home network and all the computers and upped the level of protection to the maximum settings. I even put a password on my wireless router. I really didn't care if some passerby needed a hot spot for their iphone and used my connection. That's great. I am getting more use from my connection than I pay for. Being that I only expect the four of us in the house to be on it at any given time. There is plenty of bandwidth left for a passerby or two.
As a side note. My fingers are much more active now that I have a laptop and oddly enough a lap to put it, when I am watching TV! Since we don't have a lap-cat anymore....
So, with the new security measures comes new problems.
Most recently Andrea was not able to view her blog. We dismissed it for a day or 2 as a problem the website must be having. After all they have a lot more to go wrong with their system than we do, right?
Well, the third day came and went and we still couldn't get to the website. Wow, how can they be down that long and not have people complain. I would think that they may need to do a serious overhaul if this continues.
The fact that NONE of the house computers would go to the site was not entirely lost on me, I just chose to think that it couldn't be a problem here.
Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. This kept running through my mind. Like it has many times before when I was chasing a problem. I chose not to believe that nagging little voice in the back of my head. After all, our system had been working. I hadn't changed anything in the last 24 hours to cause this problem. It must not be MY problem.
No matter how many times I told myself this I knew the reality of a large website being down that long were very improbable.
Today, after the email back from customer support. Emails from friends saying that they could see the website, my chicken of despair came home to roost.
I even briefly thought for a brief moment that our ISP could be at fault, only for an instant though. Why would everyone try to keep Andrea from going to her blog? What sort of sort of sadistic computerised world has it become that "they" want to keep you from your blog?
Well, once I put on my aluminum foil hat and blocked out all the interference(probably from my own wireless internet router) I was able to see through the maze of wires, electrons and the whole improbability of my thought process.
Maybe I should look and see what I can do from here.
I looked into the one thing that all the computers, that could not view the website, had in common. The router.
Go figure. I reset the router. Checked and updated all the firewalls and low and behold I had found the keystone in my own conspiracy.
The router did it. I just don't know at this point if it was working alone or if it had an accomplice.
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3 comments:
Was it the infamous "ghost in the machine"?
You know, those routers can be downright nefarious! We've had our try to wrest control before. Gotta keep an eye on those puppies! Glad you figured it out.
Oh, ack! MY computer just seized control! I didn't intend to post anonymously. That was my comment that just went up! Look out, Wesley! ;)
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