Why do we expect to do “difficult” first?

I just left 24 hours of pure frustration behind me.
It started yesterday afternoon when I uploaded some changes in a website of one of my clients. File Transfer was not possible. The web builder got stucked between gathering files and uploading to the server. 100% CPU…. My first “Grrr….”
I updated my web builder SiteSpinner, hoping that this would solve the problem. No. My second “Grrr..”

Was it the program or was it my laptop, because it is getting old.
Uploading to my blog wasn’t possible either. I rebooted the laptop and to my joy the blogging was done in seconds. Back to SiteSpinner. Again no joy.. My third and very loud “GGGRRRRRR……” (and many to follow).
I went through various options, visited the Users Forum, found a similar post from 2004 which ended after Support asked the poster for more info. No reply.
Back on my own.

A system restore came to mind and it looked like a wise thing to do.
I went to the system restore screen and clicked “restore”. A very annoying window popped up telling me this wasn’t possible because “framedyn.dll” was not available. Not available????? Since when??? Yesterday all was fine!!
I downloaded and installed the dll file and tried SiteSpinner first. Wow Whoopee, it worked!
In the meantime it was close to 1 AM and I was a bit sleepy. Glad the site was fully up, I walked my dog and went for a good night sleep.

This morning I needed to add a link on the home page of the website.
And NO!!! Not again…… same problem as yesterday night. Why oh why had I shut down my laptop.
Strangely enough, blogging was possible. OK, it had to be the program.
I ran RegistrySmart and found many problems. But even after restoring, I could not upload.
I ran the Virus and Adware scanners as I suspected a nasty Trojan Horse. Nothing of it all (fortunately).

OK, still the restore which with the fixed DLL would be a piece of cake.
Yeah…… you think so….. All went well until after the reboot. A screen popped up and told me there was no restore done. Nothing had changed on my laptop. I was advised to look for an earlier restore point.

I tried several and got the same message over and over again. I became a bit desperate by now but was happy the website was up and the link could be added after I managed to solve my problems.

Then my client phoned: “Hi Ike, I try my website but I see a completely white screen. Could you give it a try from your PC?” So I did. Can you imagine how I felt when I too saw nothing else then a white screen? Immediately I checked the site via preview and everything was still in good order but not visible on the web. Of course the next question of my client was “It is still there is it? Don’t tell me it is all gone!” No, no, it is still there but I need to get it on the web. (Glad there wasn’t a webcam running, my cheeks were a bit blushy).

I asked my wonderful supportive Beta colleagues for help. They came with various suggestions; I tried them all but nothing helped. I sat behind my desk in despair. What next???

I posted my problem on the forum of Virtual Mechanics and went back to the site builder.
I went again through the options and wondered if the upload file at the server was correctly entered. I clicked the “browse” button and the web builder froze. I now knew it was the program, not my laptop, or??

Where I first browsed the forum for “100% CPU”, I now browsed it for “freeze” and found a thread from 2003. Though somewhere in this thread was a tiny little sentence “On the FTP Publisher, under the FTP tab the instructions state: If you are having problems connecting, try turning 'Use Passive Mode' On or Off.”
Wouldn’t hurt though, I thought, to tick the Use Passive Mode box.

It worked, it really, really worked!! I was the happiest kid in town, phoned my client who yelled in my ear "It’s up, it’s up, yaheeeee!!!”
Phew, one problem less. Leaves me with the huge system restore error.

Poor laptop, I think she heard me ordering the new one. I hasted to tell “oldie” she would stay with me for some more years. Neatly at home and not packed in a travellers bag anymore.
I can be mistaken, but I thought I heard a “sigh” and I saw a quick smile with her. Or did I go to bed too late???