Subject: Re: PSA: Simple Wi-Fi gateway killswitch that works with OpenVPN config files

On 7/17/2026 7:32 AM, Maria Sophia wrote:

PSA: Simple Wi-Fi gateway killswitch that works with OpenVPN config files

Just uninstall that stupid OpenVPN!
No need to play with kill-switch!

Why do you use VPN? What are you conspiring?


--

@~@ Simplicity is Beauty! Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch!
/ v \ May the Force and farces be with you! Live long and prosper!!
/( _ )\ https://sites.google.com/site/changmw/
^ ^ https://github.com/changmw/changmw
The game is afoot... Meow...

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Re: PSA: Simple Wi-Fi gateway killswitch that works with OpenVPN config files

On 2026-07-17 01:35, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

On 7/17/2026 7:32 AM, Maria Sophia wrote:

PSA: Simple Wi-Fi gateway killswitch that works with OpenVPN config files

Just uninstall that stupid OpenVPN!
No need to play with kill-switch!

Why do you use VPN? What are you conspiring?

He is our resident paranoid :-)

Said with a smile. Humour intended.

--
Cheers,
Carlos E.R.
ES??, EU??;

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Re: PSA: Simple Wi-Fi gateway killswitch that works with OpenVPN config files

Maria Sophia wrote on 7/19/2026 9:29 PM:

Paul wrote:

Sometimes I wish I knew what would happen before I mess with things

Just sometimes?

My luck isn't that good!

This is why we have backups.

I don't make a lot of backups, but I tend to make
safety backups before something blows up on me.

A "safety backup" is something you delete three days later,
after it turns out nothing got destroyed by one of your
experiments.

The tethered boot SSD is backed up right now, so I
can restore it later.

Paul & croy are right. I wish I had a backup. I've been offline for a day. For a decade or so, I haven't "bothered" to make backups. Now I wish I had.

I destroyed Windows so badly that Wi-Fi will never work again, unless I do something drastic where I already ran DISM & sfc scannow to no avail.

I'll bet I put Windows into such a state that NOBODY on this ng has ever seen, in that the entire Wi-Fi infrastructure is crashing when utilized.

I ended up plugging an old DD-WRT bridge-mode router into the RJ45 port,
just to get the pc back on the net because even Windows settings crashes.

Can you believe that?

I press "Win+I" and then go to "Network & Internet" and in a second, it crashes, every single time. I have no Wi-Fi icon in the notification area.

In all my decades on Windows, I've never seen *that* error before.
Have you?

It sounds like you finally outsmarted yourself.



--- PyGate Linux v1.5.18
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Subject: Re: PSA: Simple Wi-Fi gateway killswitch that works with OpenVPN config files

On Sun, 7/19/2026 10:29 PM, Maria Sophia wrote:

Paul wrote:

Sometimes I wish I knew what would happen before I mess with things

Just sometimes?

My luck isn't that good!

This is why we have backups.

I don't make a lot of backups, but I tend to make
safety backups before something blows up on me.

A "safety backup" is something you delete three days later,
after it turns out nothing got destroyed by one of your
experiments.

The tethered boot SSD is backed up right now, so I
can restore it later.

Paul & croy are right. I wish I had a backup. I've been offline for a day. For a decade or so, I haven't "bothered" to make backups. Now I wish I had.

I destroyed Windows so badly that Wi-Fi will never work again, unless I do something drastic where I already ran DISM & sfc scannow to no avail.

I'll bet I put Windows into such a state that NOBODY on this ng has ever seen, in that the entire Wi-Fi infrastructure is crashing when utilized.

I ended up plugging an old DD-WRT bridge-mode router into the RJ45 port, just to get the pc back on the net because even Windows settings crashes.

Can you believe that?

I press "Win+I" and then go to "Network & Internet" and in a second, it crashes, every single time. I have no Wi-Fi icon in the notification area.

In all my decades on Windows, I've never seen *that* error before.
Have you?

You can try a Repair Install, using the same version of DVD as
"winver" tells you is currently running.

There is no guarantee that will fix it, but the hardware should be rediscovered, and maybe the TCP/IP stack will be returned to nominal conditions.

Even Repair Install has its dangers. I tried to Repair Install the
Test Machine a few weeks back, and as soon as the first phase reboot
was attempted, the machine "bailed" on the install... without cleaning up!
And what this means, is every subsequent attempt to Repair Install,
will fail the same way. The cure for that, is to pretend to do a Repair Install, and bail out before giving it permission to proceed, and
when it says on the screen "cleaning up", it's actually cleaning up
the little mess that was breaking it.

Then, the next step, is you have to flatten the FAT32 ESP, and
repopulate it.

ESP repair:

format K: /fs:fat32 # use "diskpart.exe" to assign partition 1 the letter K:
bcdboot c:\Windows /s K: /f uefi # This rebuilds the K:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot folder and makes a new BCD

Paul


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* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)