Telecommunications: Internet

You know when people tell you to do something, and you recognize that it is a good and reasonable thing to do, yet you fail to do it? Well, that's what I did when I got my Road Runner Internet connection. Not only the techie from work, Mark, but also my mother-in-law suggested that I needed to get a firewall. I knew I needed a firewall. It was something I knew to get before they told me. And yet it didn't happen.

When it was first connected, on September 6, it was SO fast, much faster than the dial-up we've been suffering with for the past two or three years. I was a happy camper.

Then one day about a month ago, there was an invasion so virulent that not only did it slow down my Internet connection, I couldn't even open Word documents or games. So I disconnected the RR connection, and got some McAfee software. But trying to rehook the Internet connection failed for reasons that are beyond my Luddite capacities.

Ultimately, I had to get my old friend Mark (not to be confused with co-worker Mark) to come up to Albany from down near New Paltz to try to fix the problem. His quick fixes showed that I had at least nine spyware attachments and one virus, but it didn't solve the problem, and he ended up having to wipe my hard drive and reloading Windows and other software, plus anti-spyware protection, virus protection, and a firewall.

The cool thing is that I got to see him and his wife and daughter, and we all went out to a Middle Eastern restaurant for a fabulous meal.

So, the obvious lesson, get protection. Why does that sound slightly sordid?