John's Blog and Stuff

While troubleshooting what I *thought* was a problem with my Linux DHCP/DNS/File/Gateway server today, I found myself knocked off the Internet. I wrongly assumed something in the Linux box had broken (will I ever learn?) and focused there. It wasn't until I tried shutting down ZoneAlarm on my client (Windows XP Pro) machine that the Internet came back. Very weird, since ZoneAlarm didn't seem to update or anything prior to the problem.

I've been building up for a blog-rant over this issue for weeks...

"Windows recently downloaded and installed an important security update to help protect your computer. This update required an automatic restart of your computer."

That's the message you get when you leave your Windows machine sitting overnight, when Windows has downloaded something _really_ important, shut itself down, and wiped out all the work you had in progress. VERY annoying.