Last week, in common with perhaps millions of PC users all over the world, many of my customers lost their Internet connections.  The problem was caused by the Microsoft security patch for Windows, KB951748, when installed on  XP and Windows 2000 machines.  Unfortunately, the update clashed with the very popular ZoneAlarm firewall and denied Internet access.

 

As it happens, the problem was quite easily fixed by temporarily changing a setting within ZoneAlarm, but most people who were affected had no way of finding out the fix because... they had no Internet access!  So everybody rang me.

 

At one point, it seemed as if the whole world was ringing me for help.  I put a message on my answerphone detailing the fix and let the machine cope with the onslaught while I went out to work.

 

The makers of ZoneAlarm wasted no time in releasing a new version, which cured the problem permanently.  It can be downloaded from here.  Be sure to select ‘ZoneAlarm Basic Firewall’.

 

 

As if this wasn’t enough, early this morning, I noticed that my own Internet access was becoming slow.  Before long, it stopped altogether.  The usual rebooting of PC and router made no difference, so I was fairly sure that it was a problem beyond my control.  Shortly afterwards, my phones (landline and mobile) started ringing and, once again, I was barraged with phone calls from customers with no Internet access.  This time, it was a BT problem, detailed here, but, once again, with no Internet access, how could they possibly have known?  Perhaps we should have a Town Crier, with a bell and a very loud voice, walking the length of Main Street, broadcasting news of the latest interruption to the service that many of us rely upon.  

 

Any volunteers?

 

 

Monday 14 July 2008