More complications

So yesterday evening....

Joy was having trouble sending e-mail.  Like, couldn't connect to the outgoing server.  She'd just upgraded her antivirus/firewall software, so we figured maybe it was that; I've encountered security software that blocked access to unapproved mail servers.

But then I tried sending, and got an error.  Hm.  Well, I know Exim is running, 'cause inbound mail works.  Check the server log.

failed to connect to socket /var/run/courier/authdaemon/socket: Permission denied

Er... what?

Seems that when I recently did an apt upgrade, the permissions on /var/run/courier/authdaemon/ got changed, and Exim no longer had access.  So I fixed that, and outgoing mail resumed working.

Meanwhile, though, Joy's laptop decided to start doing Win10 stuff.  Like, it didn't recognize her password.  Oh, wait: instead of her local password, it was now demanding her Microsoft password.  Apparently this is something Win10 does from time to time.  And then, after she managed to log in but before she could try to accomplish anything, the dreaded Win10 update loop got started: alternating update screens, one saying that it'll take just a few minutes and one saying that it's taking a little longer than expected.

By the time she gave up, in the wee hours of the morning, she'd decided it was time to do a system reset and hope that her files wouldn't get clobbered in the process.  I'm not sure where things stand now.

Software as a Service: not even once.

Comments

[Rob]

How often do you back up your files? I try and do it once a week...try being the operative word. I just copy all my personal files to an external hard drive.
I have two external TB sized drives, I keep them somewhere else other than the house. (I do now, after the fire :-)

[Eric Wilner]

My files are mirrored daily, and backed up weekly, though the arrangement isn't as redundant as it should be... according to the original plan, by now I should have had a redundant file server in the barn, plus some sort of off-site storage of the last few weekly backups.
Joy has been backing up her files to portable hard drives occasionally. Right now, she has the drive of the malfunctioning Windows machine plugged into my laptop (rebooted in Windows for the occasion), and is copying her files onto portable drives.
At least she didn't have her Windows system set up with whole-volume encryption or some such, so the files are recoverable, as long as the drive itself is working (which it is).

[Rob]

Both my back-up hard drives were in the desk when my house burned down... I grabbed the laptop off the desk as I ran barefoot out into the snow.
Now the back-up drives are stored elsewhere...