Adventures in IT Tech Support

So, Tuesday morning I was browsing through my daily webcomics, when I discovered that I couldn't get to QuestionableContent.net. Hmm, seems the internet connection was lost. Oh well, I'll just try to reload . . . to no avail.

Crap.

So, heading off to work, I imagined all the horrendous possibilities. Did I download a virus? Not that I've been to any sites that might expose me to such a thing, heavens forbid. Did my router die? Surely, I just needed to power everything down and reboot . . . .

Nope. Tuesday night was spent fiddling around to no avail. But, I figured I'd bring my work computer home Wednesday night and log on to the internet, just to check and see if the router worked. Yep, no problems there.

The router said it could see the computer, but the computer said it couldn't see the router. I ruled out a bad ethernet cord, and I ruled out the router. That meant either some weird frakking virus, or . . .? Can an ethernet port go bad?

Yes, it can. Specifically, the ethernet card can go bad. So, I wandered into our favorite big blue box store with the big yellow sign and looked for an ethernet card. $18.99 later I'm outta there. Thank you, Dynex.

Now, I'm not a computer person. I barely remember to clean the dust off the intake filter on my poor computer. The thought of performing surgery was a bit daunting. But, I took a stab at it.

Turns out, my ethernet port is mounted on the motherboard (I think). The PCI slot I popped the new network card into used to house the dial-up modem connection-thingy. Propably won't need that in the future . . . .

But, now I have a connection to the outside world! WooHoo! Mrs. Workshop is happy, too, since she can keep up on Facebook with all the people that she doesn't get a chance to see anymore since we moved out to the boonies.

Special thanks to Fred for the advice, and the offer to help should I get elbows-deep into the surgery only to discovery I don't have a clue what the hell I'm doing.

Whaddya know? I done learned something!