It started when i tried to post my bLog.

The FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client

built into iWeb failed to communicate

with my website host's server.

It was an intermittent problem.

2 of every 3 FTP upload tests failed.

At best, only part of my bLog entry

would transfer.

A call to my web site host assured me that there

were no problems with the host server.

I doubted that it was a problem with my ISP, Time Warner cable,

but i called them anyway.  

Tier 2 support assured me there was no problem at the cable company. 

OK, where is the problem?

This worked last week.

What changed?

i remember iWeb unexpectedly quitting just before this problem began.

Could the iWeb data file have been corrupted?

Were iWeb preferences damaged?

Did a system software update make iWeb suddenly incompatible?

Everything worked so well last week and years previously.

Something had changed.

It was time to employ split-half discovery.

"How often have I said to you that

when you have eliminated the impossible,

whatever remains, however improbable,

must be the truth."  

-- Sherlock Holmes, "The Sign of Four"

i went back in time seven days in my Time Machine

and brought the iWeb data file forward.

i made a small edit and tried to post the site.

FTP communication error.

Not a problem with the data file.

i backed up to Time Machine

so my backup was current.

i then restored the entire computer as it was

seven days prior (the time of the last posting success).

The upload to my host's server failed.

Communication error.

Not the data.

Not the software.

Not the system.

i plugged directly into my Time Warner Cable modem

to take my router out of the picture.

Communication error.

This FTP communication was via TCP

(Transmission Control Protocol) port 21.

Could Time Warner be blocking port 21?

Another conversation, this time with tier 4 support, assured me

it wasn't Time Warner.

"We do not block ports," they said. 

A call back to my host revealed that he was in touch with Time Warner

about this problem.

After my host was escalated to tier 5 at Time Warner technical support

the cable company discovered something at their data center which,

when resolved, cleared up the problem. 

i reverted my computer back to the present, most recent backup.

Posting my website worked perfectly.

So, after coming full circle in the trouble shooting process,

the problem turned out to be outside of my control.

It was the cable company after all.

In the words of T. S. Eliot:

"We shall not cease from exploration,

and the end of our exploring

will be to arrive where we started

and know the place for the first time."

-- “Little Gidding - Four Quartets”