Well stone me. It seems as if the computer saga has now finally come to an end. Fingers crossed, clove of garlic to hand, and touching lots of wood.
Got home last night, full of trepidation and trembling in every limb and rang up Eclipse my new ISP.
'Ok we have to reset your router I see' '
Yes' says I
'Right' says he 'have you got a paper clip?'
'Pardon?'
OK now I was expecting all sorts of things and tech speak but I was not prepared to be asked if I had a paper clip to hand. As it happened I did not, but did have a baby screwdriver, the sort that comes in a Christmas cracker and he said that would do. I had to bung this in a hole on the back of my router, push it in and hold it for 30 seconds. Fearing I was about to go up in 1,000 volts I did so and waited.
' Lots of lights are flashing now' I said
'That's good'
Up comes the Wizard to set up the router and I am guided through it. I was asked if the router had the 
AOL logo plastered on it, no thank goodness said I, apparently they do that on some models and then they are useless for all other purposes. At one stage through the wizard I had the choice of clicking next to some esoteric number and was told to choose the other one and Under No Circumstances use that one because it was used by AOL and would cock everything up. No fear of that thought I.
Now all is well. When I asked about their home page, a la Yahoo and AOL, he said 'Oh we don't have one. You don't have to use us for anything, we are here pure and simple to provide you with a good no frills service'.
So in future I will remember that and also if ever I have to call them, I will make sure I have a paper clip to hand....
Mark you, I cannot attach my printer to the computer. Guess what? It doesn't like Vista. But I will worry about that another time, for the moment I am a happy woman.
