So early this morning, being at home watching Katherine for the day, I started checking out some problems we’d been having with Margie’s PC. It’s been showing a lot of Internet activity, and ZoneAlarm has been acting very flaky.
Well, long story short, I decided that we were getting some significant intrusions, quite probably the infamous UPnP attacks via TCP 5000 and UDP 1900 (and, boy, doesn’t that sound impressive?).
I screwed around with ZoneAlert for an hour or two, trying to plug the holes, then gave up and upgraded us to ZoneAlert Plus, which has, from what I can see, significantly better controls.
I then spent a large number of further hours, trying to get our home network working again, so that I could access the Internet from my machine. After getting quite tired of walking from one machine to another, I finally moved my notebook over next to Margie’s PC.
Ring-ring. It’s Margie, calling to say she’ll be on her way home soon. Huzzah. “How’s it going?” she asks.
I make various disgruntled noises.
She expresses her sympathy, wishes she could make things better, then runs off to another meeting.
And, hey presto, just like that, our PCs are talking.
The lesson here? If you have a technical problem, don’t call me. Call Margie. I’ve only got the job title. She has the magic.