I’m expecting an important email this morning, so naturally I awoke to find Murphy lingering around my computer. My NT 4 VMware session was complaining that it’s DHCP lease could not be renewed, and Windows XP was telling me that a network cable was unplugged.
I fumbled around the back of my computer and unplugged the ethernet cable. When I tried to plug it back in, something was wrong. It felt like I was plugging it in to an empty slot. I glanced thru the window on my PC, the ethernet card was where it should be and properly screwed in. I shut down and pulled the card. The RJ-45 port was missing. I found it on the bottom of my case.
Being a Systems Administration type, a little problem such as this can’t keep me down for long — spare NICs are like loose change to me. Murphy did play a minor trick on me by relocating a pair of virgin NICs from their resting place for the past year, but I eventually discovered where they were hiding.
We’ll see if I can get an RMA out of Intel. The particular model I have was discontinued shortly after I purchased it, in Germany, and the receipt isn’t easily locatable. Intel NICs come with a lifetime warranty, so in theory the German bit is the only thing that might matter, and we’ll keep that as our little secret.
