A Cautionary Tale....

Make backups of geeky things as well as personal things.

or

Got home last night and switched the PC on ready to have a blog. All booted up ok but every website tried yielded a DNS error - it couldn't be found.

Suddenly realised my Zoom ADSL router/modem/firewall/vacuum cleaner (one of those is a lie) was sitting looking rather poorly. Rather than it's normal array of Blackpool-like illuminations there was only the power light in place. Tried the #1 tech fixing ploy - turn it off and on again - and still the same.

Decided to connect into the modem and give it a kick software wise but this didn't work either - for some reason I'd been blocked from it's internal webserver front-end.

Only choice was to uninstall the software and drivers and go in from scratch again. Great Monday evening fun.

Did this and then remembered that the settings that had taken me about 4hours to get right were in the same folder as the Zoom software - yes, the folder that had now gone.

Another sigh - this time deeper.

Fiddled around and got the basics done then came to put the ISP settings back into the flash ROM so it could dial out on it's own when needed. Guess where I'd got these from in the first place.

Yes, hilariously, they were entered from the web. The very place I couldn't get to - catch22 anybody ?

Cue leafing through old printouts, scribbled notes and the like. Managed to find the DNS addresses and basic logoin style and, as you can tell from me posting this, got back on again enbough to grab the full details again and get back in action fully.

So, dear readers, go to your PC and grab pen and paper (or, if you are suitably set-up, a printer) and MAKE A NOTE OF THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ON YOUR PC.

Saving your word documents or eMail addresses is one thing but configs, settings and the like may just prove as important some day !!