Numbers that control almost everything

The church where I work has moved our internet service to EBPfi.  For those of you reading this from outside the Chattanooga, Tennessee area, EPBfi is an internet provider.  They use fiber optics that connect directly to the customer, providing the highest speed available anywhere.  The installation changed us from the local TV cable provider, to the new fiber optic system.  We switched yesterday.

The church has an electronic sign in the yard that is controlled by software on the office computer.  Our telephone system is internet-based.  The copy machine in the office has been set up as a network printer that will print from all of our computers.  It will scan documents to PDF or JPG that can be automatically sent to any computer in the building.  We have two separate wifi hot-spots that serve those of us that also use laptop computers or other wireless devices.

When EPBfi hooked us up, suddenly none of the above worked properly.  Why?  We had more powerful and faster internet than we did previously.  Isn't that enough?

Not enough.  At all!  In fact, all it took was the change of a few numbers to cause conflict in the system.  The numbers had to all line up correctly so that there was no conflict.  These numbers are the most powerful, influential numbers to be found as part of the internet, or of any network.  Know what they are?  IP addresses!  These addresses are a series of numbers divided by decimal points that look kind of like this:  123.456.789.12

EPBfi had assigned us an IP address that did not work with our configuration, and everything had to be reset.  And once the numbers were no longer in conflict, everything worked smoothly.

So what can I learn from this?  Are there little things in my life that cause conflict with others?  Perhaps there are some small things that I can adjust that would help to improve relationships with others.  An IP address points a domain name to a certain web page.

If I was an IP address, where would I be pointing?  Would I point others to myself, or to the One that has saved me?  Something I need to think about.