A few years ago, I was at my parents' place for Christmas, and they were having problems getting their internet connection working. They use Rogers, and were on the phone with them, trying to make it work, and had me take over for my Dad, who had to go off and do something. I've dealt with network problems before (and had worked for a manufacturer of telecommunications equipment for about 10 years at this point), so I knew some tricks and techniques. I tried a few things, told the customer service guy what wasn't working, and at one point he said, "Well, it looks like you'll have to re-install Windows." The hairs on the back of my neck stood up on end, and I said a large loud "Whaaaat???" in my in-my-brain voice. "Uh, why?" I asked. "Well, sometimes software wears out." Stop. Right. There. I'm a professional programmer, and am also the son of a professional programmer. I know software. Software does not, and can not, 'wear out.' Hardware can break, databases and registries can get filled with cruft, but software is not like a brake pad or an emery board. I started looking around at what was connected to the computer under the desk, and noticed that at least a couple of the modem's blinkenlights weren't blinken. I crawled further under the desk, turned the modem around as far as I could, and poked around at its cables. It turns out that the cable that went off to Rogers was still inserted, but had come unscrewed a bit, probably due to the modem having been moved over time. I screwed it back in again, and everything started working fine. I told this to the customer service creature, and he said, "Oh, yeah, I should have asked you to check that first." You think? Not only did he skip basic steps on what I assume is his script, he was recommending re-installing the operating system, which would have been hard (even for me, but especially for my parents), fraught with difficulties and perils, and, ultimately, wouldn't have worked at all. Aloha, Brad