Weird, weird, weird.

[doire]

Firefox can't connect. The wireless adaptor icon shows that there is no connection. Viewing the available wireless connections shows the main one is disconnected. It seems I can't connect to any of the others.

But IE work. I download Chrome and it works. I can connect the VPN to work although it doesn't put up the connected icon in the system tray and doesn't give the connect message. I can't get its status in Windows but a DOS command reports it's running. I have to go to DOS to disconnect as there is no way to disconnect in windows since it's apparently not connected.

I try Firefox again and get a page not found error and now Chrome can't connect.

And now the screen grabs don't seem to work any more!

There's a surprise, my obscure email client can connect. I can ping Google. I can ftp.

So
possibility 1 XP has got it's knickers in a twist and all will be all right after a restart.
possibility 2 I haz something nasty.
possibility 3 Recent IE upgrade has stomped on my wireless set up.


Who needs a connection?

Comments

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Close the Windows, open the Windows, as ever. But my money's on 3.

[doire]

It doesn't seem to be permanent. A restart cured it, but only after I ran a six-hour thorough scan just in case.


IE did break my work system recently. All the text went fuzzy. It took nearly two weeks to find out that it was " sub-pixel anti-aliasing optimisation" turned on by its upgrade.

It puts coloured stripes down the sides of test (or any other sharp colour change)in bands across the screen. And quote "Some users may be more sensitive than others to this affect."

Indeed, most people (including the IT dept) couldn't see anything wrong, but I spent the time trying to focus and not being able to. Thanks Microsoft.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

sub-pixel anti-aliasing optimisation

Dear god. And where does this beast lurk so I can turn it off if I have to? (In fact maybe that's what's wrong with this system, that i thought was simply my monitor...?)

[doire]

Open Internet explorer
Tools
Options
Advanced tab
Down to the multimedia section (about halfway down)
and un-tick "Always use Clear Type for HTML"
Okay

It takes effect after you restart.

Some sources suggested that it affected MS Office too, but mine seemed okay - it might have been too old to use clear type.
MS do provide a tuner which may be worth a go. I was just so glad to have found out what had happened that I turned it right off.

It seems wrong to hope that you do have this problems; Let me phrase it as I hope you've now got a solution.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Oh dear dear dear. No, it's on and staying on, because they're right-- it does improve visibility with my LED screen, incredibly so. The lack of it in Firefox is why I can't bear to use Firefox-- thin pale pixellated fonts that strain my eyes. Oh well. Nice if it had been that. And I don't get coloured stripes so I'm OK that way.