Just after 12 last night, my internet stopped working.

Now, this is a common occurrence in our place - usually we just have to switch the router off and on again and it somehow fixes whatever the mysterious problem was.

However, last night I didn’t bother, figuring it was about time to go to sleep anyway. Then, this morning, I do the usual thing… and nothing.

I tried all sorts of tricks, but I couldn’t get it to work! I was getting mildly concerned by this stage - but I had a few people I had to go out and meet, (you know, in the ‘real world’), so I tried not to think anything more about it.

Got home this afternoon. Still wasn’t working. Getting more concerned by this stage - but I had to go to the gym, so I left it again and did my work out. Man, I think I overdid it on the weights today - I’ve still got jelly-arms…

Home again. Tried again. No go.

Starting to get really concerned now. Tried all sorts of trouble-shooting, then started to think about what programs had access to the net - and what could be making something go wrong. The word finally drifted into my consciousness…

firewall… firewall…

Ah ha!

I opened up ZoneAlarm, looked at my settings and thought - perhaps if I change this something might happen… and boom! Twhirl piped up, the page loaded and I breathed a sigh of relief.

However, my anxiety at the lack of internet had prompted me to think about this. Perhaps it is something I should consider?