From the depths of despair to the peaks of self-congratulation

Whew. I so remember now why I quit working in IT and swore I'd never go back. After I got that site certified the other day, I was riding high on puzzle-solving endorphins. I came crashing back down the next morning when I discovered that our overall goal was still not accomplished (the certificate was one part of a larger puzzle, and although I thought it was the final piece, I was incorrect). I spent three hours onsite yesterday, and several more online last night, only to find that not only had I NOT fixed the new thing, I'd broken a couple other things that had worked before. Lame lame lame. That's when the awful feeling came back, the one I remember from my working days, of stomach acid and burning eyes and desperation. Knowing you have to fix something and don't know how and there's nowhere to turn, you just have to keep plugging away at it.

Here is yet another foray into really arcane and uninteresting computer crap. I was trying to set up RPC over HTTP access so the clients could get email using their Outlook software over the internet without opening extra firewall ports. This is a built-in function of Exchange, and Microsoft gives pretty easily followed steps for setting it up - configure the service, set up the access, change a couple ports, add a certificate, configure the client. Kind of a lot of work, but not hard once you find the directions. Unfortunately, it doesn't work. I did everything I was supposed to, tested, and...nothing. Went back over every step, assuming I missed something, typed something wrong...nothing. Went to discussion boards, googled "RPC over HTTP sucks" and...nothing. I undid settings and redid them, removed DNS zones (that I'm grossly unqualified to be mucking about with anyway), called my network engineer friend for a consult, yelled at my husband, lost sleep I desperately needed, and... NOTHING. Finally, I followed all the steps again from the beginning, as if I'd never done it before, but this time added about twice as many port entries as Microsoft calls for and changed the authentication method in the client, both per some random guy on the internet's suggestion, and...success! What???? WHY???? Stupid. Fucking. Microsoft.

While I am happy and relieved that it's working, I'd feel more comfortable about it if I understood WHY. Still, this has been a voyage of self-discovery for me. I have put my husband on notice that any dreams he may have of me ever contributing financially to the family again should be laid officially to rest. Work and I just do not get along.