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Category: Geeky

Disconnected, Part III: Attack of the Spambots

After a week of delays and two whole days wasted on tech support calls, I was finally online. I was ready to write a damning invective criticizing Apple and an encomium praising the Computer Shoppe. I pointed my browser to my blog, when what to my wondering eyes should appear but a notice:

Your account has been suspended. Contact billing/support.

What? How could this be? Did we forget to pay the bill? I called my webhost immediately and learned that our account had been suspended because of a “massive amount” of activity on b.rox.com.

It appears that b.rox was under attack by spambots.

Without getting excessively technical, I’ll try to explain this in terms my grandma Mildred (may she rest in peace) could have understood, insofar as I even understand it myself.

Disconnected, Part II

When last we left our story, we were at something of an impasse. I couldn’t connect my trusty iMac to the internet. Cox said it was Apple’s problem. Apple said it was a conflict with Cox’s modem.

At Todd Kleinke’s excellent recommendation, I took my poor little iMac to the University Saturday morning and plugged it into the local network. Nothing. Damn. Not even a dynamically assigned IP, which I’d at least been getting at home.

Next stop: The Computer Shoppe.

Disconnected

I seem to have been consigned to the deepest circle of Internet Hell. Pity me.

Actually, I am typing this post in my own home. I’ve got internet on a computer here for the first time in over 15 months.

And yet I’m not happy. And therein lies a convoluted tale of woe.

Tomorrow’s Newspaper

I heard a thump on the porch and went out to see the newspaper had been delivered. Ordinary enough, you say, but here’s the rub: It’s Sunday’s paper being delivered at 5 PM Saturday afternoon. I opened it up, relishing the notion of reading tomorrow’s news, but was disappointed to discover sections A, B & C are missing. I called the Times-Picayune’s automated system to report the problem, but of course they only have options for today’s paper and yesterday’s — not tomorrow’s.