if it ain't broke...

while i was surfing the internet this morning, my high-speed connection went down. completely out. i reset the modem, rebooted the computer, etc. still out. i figured it was a widespread temporary outage, but i called my provider to be sure. after 25 minutes on hold, i gave up. hours later, still no connection. i called again, and sat with the phone on speaker while i watched tv... when the tech answered, she said all was well with my connection, so it must be my computer.

"what operating system do you have?"
"windows 98."
"well, that's your problem! NOBODY uses THAT anymore. comcast doesn't even support windows 98. you'll just have to buy a new operating system like 2000 or xp."
"but the guy who installed my cable/internet said 98 wasn't a problem. and it has worked for eight months. when did comcast stop supporting 98?"
"oh, quite some time ago."
"as in, long before THIS MORNING when my connection went out?"
"yeah...he probably didn't know we didn't support it when he installed yours. you should buy a new operating system to make your connection work."

i decided to click around myself and see what i could do. turns out, some box had unchecked itself on the connections page, don't know how. i re-checked it. the connection came back.

looks like i can continue in the operating-system-dark-ages for a while longer.