Number 254 - July 2004

How to safely troubleshoot your system
by Siles Bazerman, User Group Columnist, Orange County IBM PC Users' Group, California
As long-term readers of this column are aware, I belong to a number of special interest Yahoo groups. Over the past few months I have been having a problem on several of them opening files. It finally dawned on me that it was with one particular file server (for lack of a better word, as I really do not know if it is a real server, a virtual server or a file folder at Yahoo). As Yahoo groups have grown they have been adding areas for storage. They now have f1 to f6. My problem was with f4 files.    Questions submitted to Yahoo Group Help were of no help at all as usual. This area is preprogrammed and will answer questions regardless of whether or not the answer is related to the question you asked. Apparently you are only supposed to have problems that fit in their preconceived program. This was not one of them.    By the way, this is being written not to show how clever I am at problem solving, but to show an example of how to problem solve. The most important utility to use is the one behind your eyes and between ears. Before you take any action think carefully, back up, and think again. Then take one step at a time. If you do several at once and it fixes the problem which one was the fix? What can be restored to before the fix?    Back to the task at hand. I did try to view the files using both HAL and Barbie. I received the same error on both; page cannot be displayed at this time. This occurred also in safe mode with networking where no drivers are loaded and most programs are not started. Even turning off all startup items was no help. Accessing the files from my son's computer was successful. This indicated the problem was at my end and not a glitch at Yahoo.    Now it was time to think. Even though both HAL and Barbie are both running Windows XP Pro, they have totally different programs loaded. This included the anti virus programs. So, why the similar results? Then I realized they both use the same router to access the DSL line. The next logical step would be to disconnect the router. Before we do, let us take a look at the rule of unintended consequences. What will happen if we connect to the Internet without the router?	First, my network would go down. No big deal as that is a temporary condition restored with the router reconnected. But, the router also serves as a hardware firewall. This function would be lost, and in today's atmosphere I would never run on the Internet without a firewall, even for a short test. There are just too many flakes out there trying to cause as much damage as possible. So, I made sure my anti virus program had the latest updates. I also updated Ad-aware, and Spybot - Search and Destroy. I also enabled the built-in Windows XP software firewall. Then I created a new restore point and also backed up my C drive with V2i Protector. If I did somehow become infected with a worm or Trojan I had a way out. Since there were no other problems that I could see I removed the router and tried to view the files again. Success!    In order to protect the system while continuing to troubleshoot the problem I reinstalled the router. I also disabled the Windows XP firewall, as I really do not like it. It does have its functions however. The next step was to go to the web site of the router manufacturer, D-link, and see what information was available. Although there were no FAQs covering this problem, there was a firmware update. I downloaded the instructions for performing the update.    I printed out the instructions, as the upgrade cannot be accomplished with much else running. This is an online update that requires a reset of the router and a reconfiguration of it. I then reconnected with the web site and updated the firmware. Reset and reconfiguration followed. Now for the moment of truth. I again tried to access the problem files, and could now view them perfectly. I still do not really know why only some files were inaccessible before, but I had the cure. I can only assume that there was something in the address of the section that the router did not like.    I hope I have shown you something about how to proceed with trouble-shooting and about the hidden traps to look out for.    There is no restriction against any non-profit group using this article as long as it is kept in context with proper credit given the author. The Editorial Committee of the Association of Personal Computer User Groups (APCUG), an international organization of which this group is a member, brings this article to you.
Number 254 - July 2004