As the guy in the family who gets the call when computers don't work, I wasn't surprised when I got the call today that mom & dad's computer lost connection to the Internet. After all the troubleshooting was complete, the DSL modem was on and connected, the computer was talking to the DSL modem just fine, etc., I said he needed to call his ISP. AT&T (rebranded from SBC/Yahoo!) in the Texas town where they live had an automated recording giving them a Microsoft phone number to call.<p>After being on hold for nearly an hour at that Microsoft number, the operator gave him a case # and said told him he could either call back in a day or two with that case #, or wait on hold for up to 4 hours - as the Microsoft techs dealing with this issue are swamped. It is apparently a VERY big issue. I can't find ANYTHING in the news about it.<p>What I did find was this: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4304820.ece. I found that highly curious, and probably related, but dad hasn't had ZoneAlarm on his machine for over 2 years, and I removed it myself.<p>I can't believe that either or both of these issues aren't getting more coverage? What's the matter...is twitter down again?
So, a recent Windows update clashes with the ZoneAlarm firewall. Workaround: Uninstall the latest Windows Update patch via Add/Remove Programs.<p>This isn't particularly surprising; Windows Update frequently clashes with third-party software (there are a lot of Windows PCs in the world and a lot of Windows programs that muck with internals). At least there's an easy workaround. No need to panic.<p>It probably would have been better to just submit the timesonline.co.uk link and skip the drama / faint condescension.