Looping the Hen

Error is between keyboard and chair...

So umm...I feel a little stupid. Okay, maybe a lot stupid. Like, umm, Duh kind of stupid.

So after all the headaches in backing up my files and reinstalling XP, once I was back on line I had the same issues (Not sure if I had gotten into them in a previous post, but basically I was unable to download any files (although I could surf, which is why the whole thing was weird) and my Internet was horribly sluggish). Doh!

My next call was to Comcast. The Comcast guy was here for near 3 hours, doing all the same troubleshooting I had done over the last 3 weeks. I tried to tell him it wasn't IE related (as I had had the same downloading issue with Mozilla), but he worked through all the IE fixes I had Googled.

After all was said and done and he couldn't figure it out, I suggested switching the cable modem out, as I had started having the trouble when a lightning storm had killed the prior modem and they had replaced it. Well, this line of thought (which I should have had 2 months ago) led me to think, if the storm whacked the cable modem, could it have affected my internal wiring? (My brother set up my house to have 4 network outlets, one in each bedroom, one in the living room and one in the dining room)

So I suggested to the cable guy that maybe we should try running the CAT-5 directly from the modem to the PC. Ding, fixed. Ugg.

Anyhoo, as my brother said my computer was all sorts of kluged after having been using it for 3 solid years without a wipe, and a reinstall has been good for overall response times and the like. Still, the idea that the fix was that simple confounds me. In the last 7 years as I have gone from a technical lead position at work to an administrative one, my once-decent techie skills have atrophied to the point of non-existence.