Drakkenfyre's Journal: Tech Support--Neither technical nor supportive, Part 2

I forgot to mention, all that time ago, why e-mail wasn't working. It all started with a bad Norton Anti-Virus configuration. You see, NAV can be a kitchen-sink application with a footprint the size of Manhattan Island. And, unless I'm mentally feeble, it doesn't like to have individual components turned off. Anyhoo, just because I have a Gig of RAM, doesn't mean I want to use it for anything that doesn't start with "Adobe".

So I did a dumbly thing... I just used the version of msconfig.exe I ripped out of my friend's XP install (can you believe Win2K doesn't come with it?) to alter my startup processes. I turned off everything Norton but the part that scans new files as they're added to the hard drive. And it was probably at this time that I tried to trim out unneeded parts of the program by tossing them in the recycle bin.

And it worked... mostly.

Let me make a brief aside and let me explain that I don't ususally do dumb stuff like this with any resonable expectation of success. But I don't remember what I was thinking at the time, so I'll just move on.

Anyhoo, I was so busy being pleased with myself that I didn't notice that was when I started having intermittant problems with e-mail.

As it turns out, Norton figured out that some parts were missing and stopped me from sending any e-mail at all. And boy, did that stump me.

Until I phoned this wonderful fellow working the late shift at my ISP's help desk.

I wish I could remember his name (David?), because when I asked him what the common threads could be between all the different applications I tried, he said, "Hmmm, did you just install an antivirus program?"

Smart man.

I thanked him, hung up, and ten minutes later was back sending e-mail. Trust me, that's a good thing.