Miss me? Don't answer that! (But I do have a question)

[Bossy Monkey]

Vanished for a couple days there when the dialer wouldn't get a valid phone number. Was going to call Earthlink to yell at them, but first was going to go online at the public library to check the news to make sure there wasn't some kind of systemwide problem. However, by coincidence, their network was down, too, so I assumed instead that there was a citywide phone line problem. However, today their service was back on and mine wasn't, so I took my courage in my hands to call Earthlink Service. Fortunately, the automated system gave me a new access number so I didn't actually have to talk to "Tony" my friendly neighborhood (ie, same planet) rep, and here I am.

Thus to the question: How dat happen? I didn't change the number. Presumably even Earthlink isn't idiot enough to change their access numbers without advance warning. I don't see what the percentage would be for a virus writer to create a program to change people's access numbers, thereby preventing them from getting on the Internet so the virus could do whatever other nefarious things the writer might want it to do. (Might be something a freeper would do to DUers, but they don't have the brain power.) I guess my old sorry dialer just crossed itself up somehow, but I don't see how. Any ideas? I'm stump-ed.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

1. Yes the virus writers can get some pleasure out of it. Do you

what the dialer was called or what number it was dialing to?

[Bossy Monkey]

2. Very, very close to the actual number. Identical except for the last digit

which was only 2 off. I got the Out of service recording. If the possibilities are a) my 4-year-old dialer is crapping out; b) Earthlink are incompetent niwits; or c) somebody with way too much time on their hands wants to write a virus that changes my access number by two numbers, I have to bet on one of the first two.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

3. Virus writers pull that kind of nonsense. Run a virus scan and

adware scan on it.

[Bossy Monkey]

4. Checked my dialer's event log. The number that no longer works had

been the correct number for some three years. Now, of course a really devoted virus writer might have also set up his virus to change every entry on my event log, but I have to pull out Occam's razor and assume that Earthlink just changed the number without telling me. Of course, the fact that I haven't updated any Earthlink software since I joined due to many many online warnings about spyware, malware and scumware packaged with their stuff might have caused me to miss some kind of "new access numbers" announcement. But I still think they should have emailed.