Connection Issues

Nothing dries up blog inspiration faster than a non-cooperating internet connection.

The video card issue prompted us to upgrade to a new box; but, since the upgrade the (dial-up) internet connection has been extremely temperamental. Like, it'll work for about 3 - 5 minutes, then suddenly quit. It doesn't exactly disconnect...everything still appears to be connected...but there is nothing coming in. Eventually, I'll get a timeout error, but I have to physically disconnect/reconnect to get the connection moving again...for another 3-5 minutes.

Which means I can view about 2 pages before going through the routine. Sure makes doing anything on the internet long and tedious.

This is, however, intermittent. I may spend a day disconnecting/reconnecting every 3 minutes, and then sit down that evening or the next day and read everything, post pictures, in general, run uninterrupted for 2 hours or more.

DH has been in contact w/our ISP people two or three times; their best guess is that somehow we've picked up some kind of virus or spyware that is hosing our connection. I've run Spybot, which didn't seem to help any; the ISP folks had DH attempt to run an online program but it wouldn't stay connected long enough to finish it.

Not sure what the outcome is going to be; this is really getting annoying. Not to mention it's cutting into my sewing time. ;)

We may have to wipe the hard drive and start over.

Grumble grumble grumble

Maybe I'll be less aggravated tomorrow ;)