Mrs. Uncle: destroyer of the internet
My wife has an uncanny ability: any computer she touches will lose its internet connectivity. She won’t touch any settings. Just turns it on to check email or write something and our household internet connection goes poop. Sadly, I think there’s a gene that causes this and my son has it too.
November 13th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Mostly likely she visits some website that screws with your settings without permission. Maybe increase the security settings?
November 13th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
i hadn’t thought of that.
November 13th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
You are lucky. Any computer my wife touches dies. Includes satellite boxes and almost anything that has electric bits in it.
I spend about 80% of my free time fixing things she killed. ( not furry and inedible)
November 13th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
But the son does it too. And he just visits Thomas the Tank Engine.
November 13th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
If your using firefox as you’ve stated in the past that you do then this is very unlikely. If your using IE, then gg.
November 13th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
she does use IE
November 13th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
The ever-indulgent wife has occasional computer problems because of her remarkable patience. If the computer doesn’t respond instantly she’ll whack it again.
I’m sure it’s unrelated but I’ll pass on a lesson we learned when we added some new computers to our home network.
IP6 does not play well with IP4. If you fire up a new computer and your network goes down for five minutes or so, check the new system to see if it’s trying to use IP6 and the old ones to see if they’re doing IP4. Make sure the whole system is set for just one of the two.
Paul
I’ll bet she has a big problem with static in the winter. I can usually keep my DeathTouch under control but it’s there. Some of us just have more ‘electrifying’ personalities then others. I know I can spike a security screening metal detector with no metal on my body (one of the many reasons I’m reluctant to visit anything on the far side of one).
November 13th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
have you seen this yet?
Once had a CEO at a startup that had the same issue and being a small company I always had to figure out what the problem was. Terribly annoying.
November 13th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Thats my Mom too. She seem to have the ability to kill any computer she touches.
November 13th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
I ran into something similar recently… wireless router would only allow one wireless connection at a time. If 2 connected all communication would stop (but would still show connected).
Upgraded the router firmware and it fixed the problem.
November 13th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
I have cable internet and my problem is the coaxial cables tend to work loose over time and the connection goes down. I have to shut down everything, unplug the modem, tighten up the cables everywhere between the wall and the PC, plug in the modem, wait for the 4 top lights to go all green again then restart my machine. It seems to do this once every 2 weeks at least, sometimes more. Sometimes it’s not the cables, but the modem just needs to be switched off and back on to get a fresh signal from the server. Keep wondering if DSL would be more reliable.
November 13th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
I think Breda has the same issue with Mike.
November 13th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
manish, linked a WSJ bit earlier this week
November 13th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Maybe she has amps in her pants?
November 13th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
JJR: It ain’t the cables.
You’re probably losing your DHCP lease.
ISPs do that … they won’t buy more IP addresses, they just pick someone else’s DHCP lease at random and expire it without warning. The fix is to turn everything off … PC, internal firewall/routers, and cable/DSL modem, and then turn on just the cable/dsl modem to get a new IP address ( and at the same time expire some poor schmuck across town … high tech musical chairs ).
Once the cable/dsl modem is happy, you can turn on your firewall/switch and then the PCs.
November 13th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
The other fix is to rent a fixed IP from your ISP … something they don’t like to do.