HUMOR: User "debugging session"

[Galaxy Star Systems <isp@galaxy.galstar.com>]

I recall a "debugging session" with a user who had an interesting problem.
It seems that he was having a great deal of trouble with his PPP
connection under Chameleon. He was able to connect just fine with a PPP 
session, but he had a great deal of trouble communicating with other sites.
It was like it would "go to sleep" for a while, then come back.

I pulled out my trusty "ping" utility to check his connectivity and saw 
something rather strange. Packets would go through just fine for a short 
amount of time, then there would be a long period of time between 
returned packets. It would be normal again for a small period of time, 
then quit again. Very strange.

I walked him through various things on the phone. Check this... Okay, 
what do you have for that...

I was absolutely stumped why only packets would go through some of the 
time. Usually in these sort of situations, either you see constant
packets, or nothing it all.

I told him to check something else...

Then it struck me. As I was telling him to check over various things, the 
connection would "come alive". But as soon as he finished, the connection 
would die again.

I told him to move his mouse back and forth across the screen. Sure 
enough, the connection came alive once again. I told him to stop. The 
packets stopped.

As it turned out, he had an interrupt conflict! The only way he could 
push packets onto the network was to push his mouse around the screen. :>

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