Originally Posted by drwpk

Your advice worked like a charm! Seeing that there was a Windows update on 3/12 (the day that I started having the problems -- See 3/13 message above for details) and also one on 3/10, I rolled back to a 3/9 safe-point... and the tethering started working again. THANKS!!!

I recommend that "tethering users" be wary of whatever Windows Vista updates occurred around 3/12/09. However, if you already have been a "victim" of the update, and your tethering no longer works, you can do what "justjimjpc" recommended to me, by typing "System Restore" in the Start-Search field, and following the instructions there, to go back to an earlier point in time of your system, prior to the problematic updates. (As he also recommended, you first can choose to create a current safe-point, by clicking on the "open System Protection" link near the bottom of the initial "System Restore" window, prior to rolling back.)