Storms and Network Cards
Last night I came home to find out that the network wasn't working for Liza's computer. Thinking it was yet again the Cable Modem, I went downstairs after dinner to investigate the problem. I was surprised to see that it wasn't but disheartened to find that the NIC in opus that connects to the internal network was dead.
Totally dead.
I mean it worked well enough to pass what little POST the drivers do, but nothing extensive and while opus could ping himself, he couldn't see anyone on the network, nor could anyone on the network see him.
I checked the hub and it appears that we have at least one dead port - probably caused by the storm we had yesterday. Liza said the lights dimmed a couple of times, and the UPSs wouldn't protect the hub from induced voltages on the cables. Anyway... the hub now has a dead port and the NIC and hub agree that there's no link between them.
I checked the cable/hub with another machine - link was fine, looked good. I opened the box and cleaned it up a bit, then reseated the card. No difference. I unloaded the drivers and re-installed them. No difference. So I'm convinced that we have a dead NIC. The problem is that I don't have the time to get to CompUSA to get a new NIC until Saturday and until I do, the internal network in the house is down. I moved Liza's machine to the Cable Modem network, but that's not going well, and frankly, I'm not surprised. What I need is a new 10/100 PCI NIC.
Liza mentioned that she'd go to CompUSA today and call me on her cell phone and I could tell her what to pick up. I thought about this on the trip into work this morning, and think that with the CompUSA web site, we can probably pull this off. I've picked out a NIC for her to get, and I know they are in-stock at the local CompUSA. I can give her the exact part number so there shouldn't be any problems. This might work out well. Then, when I get home tonight, and after the kids are asleep, I can do the swap and get the network back to where it should be.
Here's hoping that it's going to work as well as I've planned...
It's nice when work isn't full tile but at the same time, there's things to do. I've been working on a feature set at work and while it's nice to have goals, it's a pain when your deliverables are totally dependent on someone else's work. It took two weeks for a feature that should have taken 3 days. Oh well... now that it's done people are happy and things are returning to normal.
It's also nice not to be so new and get to the point that I'm not under such incredible examination all the time. Maybe it was all in my head, maybe it wasn't. But it's nice to have at least one good success to get things going and then move on from there.
It's been a verygood day!
Well... it turns out that Liza didn't go to CompUSA today. She says she'll go tomorrow. Looks like it'll be another day before I get the networks back in shape. Darn!