I'm quite the creature of habit (which I'll be talking about in a future article) and I like to get certain writing tasks completed on certain days. That way I never have think about it. I never suddenly have to think "Did I write that article for Writeaholics.net?" Nope. I just know it's been done because I have a set day to do it.
Anyway, this week my usual routine has been monumentally disrupted because...my computer has had to go into the repair shop so I don't have access to my usual files and my usual software.
I know that something is wrong with my computer because it's slowing down and having a few issues, but it is 4 years old and I usually replace my computer every 3 years, but my current Mac Book Pro has been such a great computer that I hate to part with it.
The problem began when I started having issues downloading some of my emails. I phoned my hosting company, Netregistry.com.au, and they discovered that some horrible person has created fake email accounts on my website and is trying to download them every time I try and download my legitimate emails.
The fake email accounts are attempting to download to several different IP addresses, none of which are mine.
Now you'd think, wouldn't you, or at least I would, that with such a hacking attempt going on with my account that my hosting company would do something about it immediately.
But no. It's now been several days - today is Wednesday and they discovered this hacking attempt last Thursday while I was on the phone with the so-called tech support department - and still not one damn thing has been done to put things right despite my making 3 phone calls and sending 2 emails to them.
And in the meantime I cannot download my emails for that particular website (my cheritonhousepublishing.com site) because every time I do, the hackers automatically try to download their emails too and all the IP addresses get immediately blocked from the account, including mine.
So then I can't access anything and I have to ring up NetRegistry.com.au and ask them to unblock my IP address so that I can at least log into my website control panel. But first of all they go through loads of rubbish asking me to send them screenshots of my failed login attempts, etc and I have to keep explaining that it's not a fault on my computer, it's their system automatically blocking me out. It usually takes me about 20 minutes to get them to understand this.
I-Yi-Yi!
In the meantime I wondered if all this is what is affecting my computer. Have the hackers got into it somehow? I'm not sure how online hacking works so I don't know what people have the capability to do.
The computer store rang me today and said that my computer hard drive is corrupt and had some adware on it. They've removed the adware and are cloning my files so that they can install a new hard drive and put all my clean files and software back onto the new hard drive. I should get it back today, at a hefty price, but it will be worth it.
I'm currently using my Mac Book Air which is the computer I use if I want to work away from home.
I do sometimes like to work in the park or at the library, or sometimes at a really nice lookout (that has toilets and a drinking fountain) that's not too far away from here. That's one of the good things about living in the mountains. The views are fantastic.
I don't keep anything on this computer just in case it gets damaged or stolen. I don't have my emails on it and I don't store personal or business files on it. Only files that don't matter if others see them.
And it's password protected which means that once the lid is closed, a password is required to use the computer again. I really use it as nothing more than a glorified Word Processor.
And it doesn't have any of my software on it or passwords to my internet accounts.
I like to stay safe. Yet still there is adware on my main computer which I'm usually really careful with too.
On the upside of all this, I've managed to get plenty of writing done because I don't have much else to do while my other computer is AWOL.
I can't do a lot with my writing because I can't upload anything without my passwords and I don't want to use them even once on this computer just in case it remembers them. I can however, log into this blog and make a new post. It's one place I am auto-logged into on this computer.
So I'll keep waiting till my Mac Book Pro returns and in the meantime I'll just keep writing and writing.
My usual routine may have been disrupted but at least I'm getting plenty done.
There really is no excuse not to write.
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