Man, that was more difficult than it should've been!

So, I got back from vacation yesterday, and pretty quickly got called with work problems (boo, hiss). Not a big deal, except I couldn't connect remotely to my work computer, which makes actually working significantly more difficult.

I didn't worry about it too much yesterday, even at 2:30 am (OK, I guess technically that's today), figuring my work computer had gone goofy, and I'd just reboot it this morning.

So I got into work all bright and early today, rebooted said work computer, and be damned if I still couldn't connect!

What the heck is up with that??????

I could connect to other computers, so I knew that it wasn't my laptop. I checked the remote properties on my desktop, and it still allowed connecting remotely.

Finally, a lightbulb went off, and I tried connecting by the actual IP address rather than the computer name. That worked. So, I sat and scratched my head (figuratively, anyway) for a bit; because, of course, the whole reason you give computers names is so you don't have to remember IP addresses!

Finally it occured to me that the IP address I had a week ago had probably expired, but it was very likely that my laptop, in all it's brilliant Vista knowledge, was trying to hold on to the old IP address. I flushed the DNS cache on my laptop, tried connecting again by name, and, lo, it worked.

But I did NOT need this on a post-vacation Monday after a 2:30 wakeup call!