Tuesday 14 November 2006

Wireless not Hairless!!

First let me tell you a bit about myself! Im a fifty three year old Kid! I love the internet and like making money on the net even more.I work 25 hours a week in a "real job" and about 15 on my cyber space job.I bought my PC origially to do a University course.It was just a basic PC used really for typing up notes and assignments and the odd bit of desktop publishing etc for presentations and such like. I didnt even use the internet.

Then i upgraded the PC to a decent one with lots of memory and speed etc and got broadband installed because you know where you are with broadband.You know it is on all the time.It doesnt conflict with phone calls to other members of the household and the big bonus for me is you know exactly how much it is going to cost from day one.Anyway i was happy plugging away making some cash with a bit of this and a bit of that and my wireless broadband.I had wireless broadband installed because my wife didnt want wires all over the house!(She`d rather have 3 miles behind the TV) After a few teething problems with the initial installation i was really happy with the wireless connection (i still had hair then )

Then this year my daughter goes to University so being the good supportive parents we are we said how would you like a laptop to get you through Uni? She was off down the town centre a s quick as a flash.What about the internet says she? You can use my wireless connection says I. A reasonable assumption i thought. But i was wrong,she cant use my wireless connection because the connection is through a TV set top box and apparently YOU CAN ONLY HAVE ONE PC CONNECTED WIRE LESS. So i need a new replacement modem.Bugger me, im not paying out for that.Those buggers at broadband local provider.co.uk (mentioning no proper names as i dont want to be sued) never mentioned anything about only one PC when they sold it to me!!Plus i was told by someone "in the know" i was only getting half the speed i was paying for...something else the buggers never told me!!So no way Jose was i paying for a replacement modem!Anyway after waiting in all day the jolly broadband localprovider.co.uk engineer (how unapt is that? ..is unapt a word? well if it isnt it darn well should be ) turns up in his van.
"Where do you want it ?" says he. I says where can i have it? Oh behind the Tv is ok because the cable already comes in there. ok butttt..my pc is 25 feet away in the dining room.No problem says jolly engineer..you can set up your pc from there ..ok says i so your technical dept told me i had to have at least one pc hardwired...."BO.....@&&!!!" says he (isnt customer relations wonderful) they know Jack!! A local expression meaning they know nothing! So i can have my PC 25 feet away and i can have the PC on a wireless connection and my daughters laptop can use the same connection from anywhere in the house ? Yes says Jolly engineer! Ok so thats great do it then.Five minutes later (after waiting in all day , nearly 6 hours) he says right all done ..you can set up your wireless connections now..and off he pops...

I takes a quick look at my watch and thinks yes i have got time to pop down the local PC place and get a wireless router and i can set it up today and surprise my daughter! So off i goes. I get a router and a USB adapter in a special offer from router .co.uk..the words of the jolly engineer are still ringing in my ears.."its dead easy to set up you just need a router and an adapter" (access point, funny looking stick, aerial or whatever you want to call it and away you go, 20 minutes tops and you are away...

So gets out the instruction leaflet and flips through ....looks fairly simple enough ...and it is ....if i had 25 FEET OF CABLE TO GO FROM MY DINING ROOM TO MY MODEM BEHIND THE TV WITH THE 3 MILES OF CABLE!! because YES you guessed it YOU need the PC to be hard wired initially to enable the wireless connections to be executed .. dont you just love those jolly engineers....some loss of hair ensues !


to be continued...