let my preface the end of this story with the fact that it wasn't my intention to write a book here, but the great creator sometimes takes us in directions we never dream of. it now appears that i made the often made and often horendous "it won't happen to me" mistake. i was having issues with the anti-virus software interfering with zip downloads and running the vst-adapter so i deleted it not thinking that i'd get hit with any viruses. afterall i hadn't been attacked in four years.the progression of problems went from corrupt installation file downloads to only being able to connect to the internet for about 30 seconds to getting stuck in a continuous loop and not being able to boot the computer to msn giving me the error message that my modem was either not working properly or not installed.
ok bought new updated virus software but couldn't get on line to use it. ok bought new modems but still got the same error messages. finally yes i bought an xp book which taught me how to get into the bios so that i could boot using my recovery cd from the cd-rom drive.
got the computer booted up and recovered xp and decided first to go the repair root. still kept getting the modem error messaged. through out all these ordeals i was on phone with msn support for help. after talking to about 8 of these creatures it was suggested to me that perhaps adware was the culprit and that i should have someone download the free addware removal software at the mirosoft site. i tried this but to know avail. it was getting close to endgame time.
finally endgame was here. had to do a complete clean install of xp and reformat the c drive in the process. i made sure to back up what i could on dvd before hand and then went at it. i also decided to remove everything from my pci slots and then one at a time reload them and their drivers. finally modem worked and i redownloaded msn but not without problems. just being on line my new anti-virus software was finding virus after virus. in the end about 20 in all. fortunately the anti-virus worked and now i'm adware and virus free. i'm still however in the process of having to reauthorize alot of software. good news. i did get the rhino 2 update and it's working fine.
i hate to admit it but mr. spe3ds assertion about a dedicated internet computer appears to be spot on. with that in mind i chose the opportunity to create further havoc in my life by purchasing an imac g5. still having issues with the vst-adapter and anti-virus software on my one machine but my new computer will arrive sometime this month and all should be ok.
of course given that i only have to electrical outlets to work with there will probably have to be some patching from time to time.
well that the end of this story i'm certain there will new and greater ones to come. later!
