We might not be in Kansas -

Ah, the learning curve sometimes gets sharp and there may be no information signs along the high speed internet. 

Case in point:  Elder Sister and her sons were at the house when I arrived from work yesterday-eve.  They left shortly after I arrived with some Chinese take-out and we all sat to a meal in our separate households.  Once dinner was a distant memory, I booted up the lil' red ACER and double tapped Internet Explorer.  Instead of springing to attention and opening my home page, I was told that IE could not take me home because I was offline.  I may be off  the mark and off my rocker but I certainly didn't see how I could be offline.  Wasn't my daughter just using you, snarled I! 

Cursor just sat waiting.

I tried another website  - and another.  I made sure the check mark wasn't on under the Tools menu next to where it says "Work Offline".  I tried a few other sites and then turned the ACER off and  went to the desktop computer where I was rudely informed that I was off-line there, as well.

I check the router and antenna.  All seemed as it should be.  Both computers could see the router but neither was able to gain access and sail off into the Ethernet. 

Frustrated, I chalked  it up to weather conditions and - turning off all computers, I toddled off to watch me some Fox News and  go to bed.

Next morning, I turned on the little red netbook and met the same conditions.  Offline.  I tried the desktop standby. Offline!  WHAT?  Am I never to surf the 'net again? 

Oh, woe is me! What a whirl, what a whirl, I moaned, channeling the Wicked Witch from Oz.  And my eye  fell on the instruction manual for the Wildblue modem.  Vaguely I recalled a discussion about DNS addresses and that their being missing from the modem meant it couldn't go online. 

Same thing as Offline, eh?

What's the fix, what's the fix, Dorothy, I asked!  Dorothy snickered rudely and suggest I try reading the manual.

Three minutes of reading later, I pulled the modem's power plug and waited the requisite one minute before I plugged the power back in. Two minutes later the modem lights clicked three times and twinkled back on, I tapped the IE icon.  My home page opened like it had been there all  the time; just hiding behind some curtain. We zoomed off like a hot air balloon in an updraft - high over the information highway.

This must be why they call all those helpers that install various and sundry software - - - Wizards?