Yep. Sounds like the monitor is bad.

I did a hard reset on the phone (a scary or useful feature of the system tools folder) and it fixed the problem. I just had to synch up all my contacts and favorites again.

MM, this might seem obvious, but I know I forget about it... is their dust caked on the glass? With all the static electricity, it could be caked on something fierce. A low tech solution??? Just an idea. Odds are you already wiped at it. Odds are better that the monitor is doing the happy death march to the volcano.

Does anybody have experience with using radio for wireless broadband? Turns out I've got a local company that has it available. I'd be getting about 1 Mbps (for $40/month), but I'd assume it'd have to be better latency than satellite, right? Satellite could give me 1.5 Mbps if I were willing to pay $80/month. But the latency problems would prevent me from using VOIP.

Right now I'm getting 3 Mbps with cable, so it'll be a drop for me either way, but cable's not available out there.

If the radio were mobile, letting me connect anywhere within sight of the tower (which is most of this town & neighboring) it'd have been a no brainer. But it's a fixed antenna on my house, so it'd be comparable to a satellite connection. But the equipment is much cheaper, the monthly is half the price, so if I can use VOIP and avoid laying in the phone lines, I think it'd be worth it.

okay, so I have a dilemma. As we know, I've moved. I have my desktop computer in the house, but haven't hooked it up yet because i haven't unpacked the monitor, plus I don't have a place to put it. I also have a laptop. is there anyway to hook the two together so that I can get a file off of the desktop. Can I use a serial cable?

A serial cable is the "old fashioned" way to do it. I'm not sure if Windows comes with the utility for that anymore. Plus it's way-slow.

You can do it with an ethernet cable (if both computers have a port). You might need a special type of cable (the kind used to connect two hubs) or maybe one or the other computer can adjust for the less-standard way of connecting you want to do. (I forget what exactly this issue is called.)

They're both PCs, right? With Macs it's ungodly easy.

eta: Oh, so you'll be unable to connect a keyboard, monitor, etc to the desktop computer? That complicates things - ideally you'd want to change the network settings on both computers to do this. Maybe you can do it if you know what settings the desktop currently has and adjust the laptop.

You could use a crossover cable to connect the ethernet ports of the two machines. Then you should be able to see both machines on a little two machine network. Details depend on the OS, and how you have the machines configured.

eta: Which is Tommy's option #2.

I looked for the serial port option Tom mentioned in XP, and can't find it. I think it may have been obsoleted.

I had fits trying to connect a computer running XP to a computer running an older version of Windows. I wouldn't recommend it.

Oh yeah - crossover cable.

Many hubs can tell if you're connecting two hubs together with a normal (non-crossover) cable and adjust accordingly. Are there any PCs that do that (if you connect directly to another PC)?

For many computers, a crossover cable is not necessary; the computer will detect what kind of cable is being used and do the right thing.