[Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)]

OK guys.... I screwed up. Big time.

BACKGROUND: Two boxes upstairs, Win98 and XP Pro, connected through a 4-port SMC switch to my 4-port Linksys router (BEFSR41) downstairs, via my own computer (XP Pro) and connected to a DSL line through an EFFICIENT Speadstream 5360 DSL modem. It's worked finr since August last year. However...

MY SCREWUP: While we all use MSIE for browsing, I keep Nutscrape on our machines for (a), mail and (b), checking web pages we produce (web use is 90% MSIE now, but we have to account for the other few). A week ago I upgraded my MSIE to 6.026 (or whatever - the latest anyway), and no problems. Then I decided to upgrade my Nutscrape to 7.02. BIG mistake.

Suffice to say that this action SCREWED my machine (if a Netscape guy showed up at my door right now, I'd feed him his testicles severed with my extremely dull but original 1944 Fairbairn-Sykes commando knife). What happened was that after the usual reboot etc, it started taking up to FIVE minutes to load applications, and my local network connections were buggered. So...

WHAT I DID: I said "screw you AND the horse you rode in on", and uninstalled Nutscrape 7. No change in performance. I uninstalled my original Nutscrape 4.78, then reinstalled. No change. I reinstalled my MSIE 6.026 upgrade. No change (reboots in between btw).

Bright boy that I am, I said to myself, "Self, time to upgrade XP to SP1. That'll fix it." And I did. WOW! She booted, fast. Everything loaded, FAST. Cool. Problem solved.

Er.... except that now I had no connectivity through my router, and STILL couldn't see either of the other two machines on my network. Oops. Well, a reboot's in order I reckon...

WRONG. Sort of, anyway. Back to five minutes to load apps (with a 1.8 P4, 60Gb HD and 512Mb RAM?), internet connectivity HERE, but no connection to anyone else on the network. And here's a hoot... my Windows network setup shows Broadband DISCONNECTED, even as I submit this for your consideration!

Obviously my Windows is pooched and needs a fresh install. What I'd LIKE to do is somehow reestablish network connectivity so I can back up my machine on one of the others, then format and reload everything here (except Nutscrape, of course!). I can burn CDs if I have to, but the fact is, without internet access on the other two machines in the interim, I will likely get my balls chopped off and fed to the cats by three very pissed-off women in my house. This whole Nutscrape thing has obviously buggered some shared files, perhaps some WIndows DLL files, and certainly some network files.

BTW, is there any XP equivalent to the old 98 "SFC" application? That would probably solve most of my troubles.

WHAT HASN'T WORKED: Reloading My ISP's DSL software. Reloading the Linksys firmware (the first try even deprived me of I-access here on this machine, only got back here by connecting my machine directly to the DSL modem and re-reinstalling the ISP's software). In short, I'm SCREWED... and likely to be talking in a high voice before long, if I can't fix this (YOU try living in a house full of hormonal women!)

OK... so... HELP! Save my testicles! Seriously, I'm pulling my hair out by roots here....

I HATES THESE MEECES TO PEECES!