/dev/zero

I hear that’s an old adage in the medical circuit. It applies in computer science / IT as well.
Yesterday our cable connection went down. My router couldn’t get an IP address from the cable network. My laptop suddenly wouldn’t get an IP address from the router. I tried connecting my Linux server’s second Ethernet interface directly to the cable modem and configuring it to use DHCP. It couldn’t get an IP address.
I called Comcast. They insisted that I take the router out of the loop and connect my laptop (Windows XP) directly to the modem. No good. Didn’t work. “Your modem is just fine. Try reinstalling your ethernet interface drivers.” Sure, blame it on the customer’s equipment. Blame it on Windows. Uh-hunh.
Well, the laptop wasn’t getting an IP address from the router either, so I figured, what the heck. After several attempts at reinstalling the drivers, I remembered this is XP and simply restored from a previous save point. Hunky dory, now the laptop would get an IP address from the router. But the router still wasn’t getting an IP address from the modem. Neither would the Linux box.
Another call to Comcast (Oh, listen, it’s after hours and it’s an Indian guy answering the phone. Gee, wonder where the service center is? Wonder how much of the previous trouble ticket he bothers to read? None, from his reaction, though he’s at least willing to entertain the idea that a customer could have a router (the first guy wouldn’t even talk about it. “Take out the router. We don’t support routers.”) Still no IP address from the modem. Oh look! Suddenly it works! And suddenly it’s on a completely different Class A network (was 67.something, now it’s 24.something) Gee, think they did some network maintenance? Think they screwed up, then tried to blame customer equipment? Yeah, I think so. It just took them something like 6 hours to fix it.

So in my second “horses, not zebras” moment of the day, Mom launches Outlook and can’t seem to get her mail. There’s no “get mail” button, nothing in her “actions” menu (a menu I’ve never seen before, since I don’t use Outlook, least of all Outlook ‘03). “Something you did to the network yesterday has screwed up my Outlook.” she says. Uh… no. I didn’t touch your computer, and nothing I did on the modem, router or my laptop would screw up your Outlook. click, click, close Outlook. Mom sees the Outlook Express icon. “Wait a minute… (click click). Oh, there’s my mail.”
Horses, Mom…