Problem solved……

It was my Linksys router. Man, this sucks. I have no way of buying a new router. I have had the thing for years. The warranty has long expired. This means no hardware based firewall and that I have to rely on the crappy built in firewall of Windows XP sp2.

I ran the network cable directly from my computer to the cable modem. I then called my ISP and read to them my new MAC address and they updated it. I rebooted my cable modem, computer and presto, things are fine now. It is always the simplest thing first when working on computers. I was thinking it was my ISP’s fault but it was my router.

This sucks because I use my router to network two computers. One computer I built myself out of parts when I was a truck driver and had a good income. The other computer was an older one that my neighbors had put by the roadside. All it needed was a new ATX power supply that I had on hand from another junky, non working computer and it booted up fine. It looks ugly though as the power supply just dangles outside the back of the case as it would not fit the proprietary design. But, hey, it worked well for being my word processing, blogging computer and just an internet browser.

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I got my weekly allowance yesterday; the grand total of $75 bucks. I spent $55 dollars on groceries and I spent $17.99 on a carton of cigarettes. No superfluous things for me this week as I am broke until next Monday. I am going to have to borrow $5 bucks to get enough gas to get to Waverly next Saturday. I hate borrowing money. Mom offered to give me $20 dollars but I declined. She thinks my father is giving me too little money. I think it is a good thing as far as the no drinking thing goes. I have no money to tempt me. I either eat well or I can be stupid and get drunk. The decision is simple.

I am waiting for my lunch to finish. I learned from my grandmother that you can take a cheap cut of meat, add some onion, salt, and pepper and boil the shit out of it. It will taste delicious after about three hours.

Today’s menu is country style ribs that I picked up reduced for quick sale @ $2.49 a pack. This will feed me two times and I will freeze the rest for next week. I am going to fix some “starch in a box” mashed potatoes and some biscuits. I am hungry and ready to eat. I am going to finish it up now.