[Felix The Assassin]

Ouch on both mishaps. God speed to you and your recovery.

You mention chief and state. I'm wandering into you either are a state employee or have access to the state provided LAN. I don't want to get on a tangent here, but what did the fine print state about your privacy on a government unit? Or, is the unit yours, and you briefcase it to and fro the business office and home? I'm at the federal level and know I have absolutly no personal privacy on my unit.

What makes me tink on this is why you. You also may need to look at this from the flip side, some new trojans out there are hi-jacking PCs, and not just for silly stuff. Some of the more malicaious code recently released are looking for a nice fat HDD, and a good quick always on connection. These just sit and wait, and do not draw attention to themselves, until the unit is needed. Then bam, your system has just turned into what you hate. A spam sender, a cc grabber, a porno server, just think of what you hate most about the net, and thats what could be happening. I don't think he has set you up, but he might be, setting up for the rope-in. And in doing so, is allowing you to be found innocent by limiting your options, so when BB comes knocking, he can prove your unknowing, and inability to conduct these dark trades. By allowing the remote to be left open, he can then establish all the data required to finalize the lasso.

My advice is do not put any type of internet block, app on, or use any other type of net monitoring apps. I would also be seeking conversation with the boss on why the IT has put a strangle hold on your system. Especially if you have a suspense on a project that you are not going to make due to not being able to compute.

Good Luck