My frustration levels with technical problems aren’t exactly a well kept secret.
I’m about ready to go from 0 to breaking the sound barrier.

For the next few days if you send email, please be patient.
I suggest you use Bene_Diction at hotmail dot com.
If I can keep the computer from crashing ( I can’t:^(, and if the ISP and MSN can get their act together, I should be able to access that account inbetween crashes.
My ISP is ungoing major changes, upgrading, and where I live, hard infrastructure. Right. Like the perpetual road construction crews on the main highway.
This switchover of the ISP to MSN shouldn’t affect the day of day of my ordinary life, but it is, along with thousands of other less than happy Canadian customers.

I could use some sound advice from someone technical. Please.

Norton and MSN Canada aren’t very proprietary.
The ISP and MSN Canada partnered up and only told their service technicans last week.
arrrggghhh.
Byte me.
The ISP upgraded me without my permission because of their changes to DSL. Fine. I’ll have to live with forking out the extra bucks a month if I want to keep blogging.
But I cannot afford the ISP security package, and I wouldn’t take it anyway.
There is still far to much spam coming into mailwasher and their track record is lousy. This bundling nonsense from companies has got to stop. What part of no don’t they get? Delete about a hundred a day for awhile and get back to me with how terrific your service is.

For about two weeks email access has been sporatic. The account settings change all by themselves. So, my problem has been bumped upstairs.
They have 72 hours.
If the email is not fixed, I’m apt to get churlish with an upstairs person.
Meantime, I need virus protection and a firewall.
Norton is history.

I don’t have a choice. Norton has to be uninstalled, it’s like a superbug munching back the new changes.
If I see that blue fatal error message screen one more time, I’m shutting this machine down.
I understand why so many people give up on their computer. I’ve been troubleshooting for two days. I just can’t anymore. I don’t know what I’m doing, and it’s taking to long to do whatever it is I can’t.

I couldn’t get through to tech support today, so I waited til night time. I sat on hold at 1:30 am for nearly an hour. And we couldn’t fix the email when I did get the tech. They can’t assure anyone things will smooth out soon, it’s been two weeks of big and bizarre burps. Email is only one the the glitches in the change over the ISP is undertaking. MSN Canada needs to get it’s act together quick. I hate it when two large corporations merge, and the customer is in the middle of it.

Many of us live in areas where we don’t have a choice of provider.
So, I’m going to have to tough this out.
The email accounts are web based. Sounds simple right?
Nope. The pages aren’t working either, let alone email getting to many people’s computers.

Here is what I need.
Can someone tell me what virus protection and firewall I can get ASAP?
Free if possible, I can’t afford to pay for a tech or software, if I know what security software I have to buy, I can save up for it and do so in time. I’m singing the blues. But I’m not ready to quit blogging and turn this machine off in spite of the problems. One glitch at a time. Anyone?

Politicans and their web pages
This article in The Globe and Mail has me laughing.
Partly because I can identify, but mostly because after reading it I don’t feel so stupid. It’s a rather funny look at the web presence of New Brunswick candidates. No one is spared.

Supporting local — or even Canadian — business doesn’t seem to be a big issue when it comes to an electoral Web presence. For those candidates with their own websites, the choice of hosting locations is literally all over the map. Jeanleblanc.ca (Jean LeBlanc, Conservative, Moncton) is hosted in Phoenix, Ariz., while herron4mp.ca (John Herron, Liberal, Fundy) is hosted in Menlo Park, Calif. Meanwhile, bobmcvicar.com (Bob McVicar, Conservative, Saint John) is hosted in San Antonio, Tex., in a chunk of commercial Net space blocked by some servers because it is known as a source of spam.

National hosting companies can’t get their act together.
This is Canada eh? Even an aspiring politican blanches at forking out the kind of dough needed for a stable host.
How the heck is anyone going to find a local one that has it’s act together and doesn’t cost most of the campaign budget?

Security often leaves something to be desired on candidates’ political sites, too. Mr. Herron’s site, for example, included a link (no longer available this afternoon) to make a campaign donation “using your credit card online.” The link led to a simple e-mail form, an insecure way of conducting an on-line transaction. Mr. Herron’s campaign office said in an e-mail reply to the reporter Thursday that the link was meant to allow people to apply for a fax-in donation form that would be e-mailed to them.

Sure it is.

Then there’s content…Asked if any candidates have permission to use the Irving chain’s material on their websites, Telegraph-Journal publisher Jonathan Franklin responded with an emphatic “No. And if they are, they shouldn’t be.”

Oh good grief. The link is purple.
Like I want to read a Globe article on a purple page.
That is one thing I can change. It seems NB politicans need some serious internet and computer education too.