Scarlet,
Tuesday, is the bad day, isn't it?
I decided that I should convert my HP printer from being hard-wired to my desktop computer via a USB cable to using WIFI from my router. That way I can. at least in theory, also print from my new laptop computer when it arrives in a week. I googled looking for how to do that and eventually found instructions from HP. So I tried doing what it said and it kept saying I must first connect the printer to my computer. But it was connected. I eventually figured out that also meant the printer had to be turned on. So I did that and followed the instructions. After it was completed it told me to disconnect the printer from the USB cable. Well, there are two cables to the printer: the power cord and the USB able. Of course i disconnected the wrong one. I didn't realize that I did that, but when pulling the tangled cable from the mass of cables under my desk, it eventually got to the surge protector. At that point I knew I disconnected the wrong cable. So I reconnected the power cord and disconnected the correct cable. I heard a funny beep and didn't do anything, just continued tracing the USB cable which I eventually removed completely. At that point I realized that the funny beep was my landline phone saying there was no landline to it. I looked at it, and there were two wires. This time i correctly figured out which was the power cord and which was the data cable. I traced it and it was not connected to anything. I eventually realized that what happened was that when earlier pulling on the printer power cord, I had somehow removed the phone line from my surge protector. (The surge protector has phone in and out, and I had long ago decided that it couldn't hurt to run the phone through there.) Anyway, i reconnected everything and it all seems to work.
Why did I decide I needed a new laptop computer? I only use it normally when traveling which I didn't do since the fall of 2019. At the end of the month I am going to NYC. I decided over the weekend to test it. Besides for the battery being completely discharged there are many network sites, including USCHO, which apparently don't support Vista anymore. (As I said I don't use the laptop often.) So, I decided to get a new one, and vowed that i would use it more often.