Here comes the chopper to chop off your network

I have previously mused on the possibility of RIAA and MPA making running a network without firewalls illegal. Doing so would allow them to prosecute anyone infected with malware that turned their machine into a file sharing zombie.

So I wasn't terribly surprised when I read about the municipality that passed a law regulating use of open WiFi networks by businesses. This was mostly to protect credit card data, and thus a good thing - I personally think there should be very strict regulation of storage of personal data. However I would not be at all surprised to hear many more reports of such laws being passed.

System restores gone wild

Doh! Doh! And triple Doh!

I have on occassion used Windows System Restore to good effect but today it let me down royally. I noticed my laptop had problems starting the Windows firewall service, not actually a huge problem for me since it is almost always used behind some other firewall, and if I started it manually after logging on it was okay. The bigger problem is that the Windows firewall service is also tied into the internet connection sharing service used by Active Sync and it just so happens my brand new T-Mobile MDA Windows Mobile phone uses that. The upshot is my phone was having lots of problems synchronizing my phone with my laptop.

After checking the Windows services log (something I suggest you do regularly) I discovered that there also seemed to be some remnants of a trial install of Zone Alarm on my machine. I tried removing that piecemeal but ended up having to delete some files in "safe" mode, then reinstalling ZoneAlarm and uninstalling it. Still no joy.

After that I tried a System Restore to about two weeks ago, before I pressed the big Okay button it assured me the process was "completely reversible". The restore worked but the problem was still there. So I tried a restore to about a month ago - that restore failed. So I figured I'd unrestore but that failed, hmmm, didn't Windows just say this process was completely reversible? Doh.

Well good job I have backups and good job I really don't keep much volatile data on my laptop. So I decided to put my faith in Dantz Retrospect which had last done a backup a month ago (because I'm no longer around at 11am when my laptop backups occur). Half a day after I started trying to fix this problem I'm pleased to report my laptop if finally back in working order - firewall starting properly and phone synching properly. Remember kids, backups - don't leave home without one!