One of the most irritating things in the world has to be trying to do work on a computer that doesn’t function properly. Computers as a rule can be extremely exasperating at the most inconvenient times, lagging (running very slowly) or even hanging (screen freezes, computer doesn’t respond and you can’t do/move anything), but nowadays, it’s even easier for these problems to occur, with the outbreak of viruses, adware and spyware, which can attack your computer at any moment, even if you have a firewall.

And when you’re rushing to complete work, having these problems can really bring out the violence in people – come on, haven’t you ever whacked your computer or dreamt of doing something really violent to it?

Well I sure felt violent when I logged onto the Internet this evening, I discovered that either my Internet browser didn’t work, or my messengers didn’t work. Thinking that my connection was down, I tried reconnecting. After a few tries, I managed to get the browser to work, but if I tried to access a site outside Singapore, each page would take 15 to 20 minutes to load. This was really bad, because if I couldn’t access international sites, then I couldn’t check my email, and if I couldn’t check my email, I couldn’t start doing my work.

So I figured, maybe my computer had been infected by spyware or adware, or perhaps even a virus. I proceeded to thoroughly check my computer using anti-spyware programs like Spybot Search & Destroy. I updated my Norton Anti Virus, did a 45-minute computer scan, cleared my browser’s cache of Internet files, and even called SingTel (who insisted there was nothing wrong with their server) – all to no avail. But I had to do my work, so I kept trying – logging into Yahoo! mail, waiting for ages, clicking Inbox, having the page freeze…

I ended up taking nearly 4 hours to finish checking my email, and I was nearly at my wits’ end. The computer was driving me up the wall! I had found nothing – no viruses, no adware, no spyware – nothing! For the first time, I’d done everything you could possibly do, and the Internet still didn’t work properly, and I had no idea why. I was convinced that there was something very wrong with my computer.

But at the end of the 4 hours when my dad came home from work, he looked at my computer, and amazingly, he fixed it in just 10 minutes!

I just couldn’t believe it – I had done everything that I could possibly do, and yet my dad fixed it almost immediately. Turns out it was a very simple problem… our proxy wasn’t correctly configured because SingTel had switched proxies, and all he did was turn some option on.

It’s really incredible how 1 little setting can make such a difference, and how life can give you such a bad lemon, torture you for such a long time, and then suddenly give you sweet, cold lemonade instead.

I’m just glad that I was struggling myself only because there was no one around to help. It would have been a lot worse if I could have asked for help, but was so determined to get it right by myself that I put myself through unnecessary trouble.

It’s a storyline you see very often on American sitcoms, and a stereotype of men who refuse to ask for directions when they’re lost, but I was amazed to hear from a friend how her dad kept trying to tinker around with her faulty computer until the monitor blew up! Fortunately for my friend he got her a new one in the end.
Anyway, the Internet’s now back to normal, and I can finally finish my work. And of course, my dad’s totally my hero now, and from now on, if I ever have problems like this again, I’m definitely not going to sit and try to fix the computer for 4 hours, I’m going to go grab him!

::Mary-Ann Russon::
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