technology gets to me again!

[Freedom]

I just spent my entire Sunday getting a wireless connection to work.

For the last 7 months, I was able to 'piggy back' on a neighbor's connection. Connectivity was always "very low," but the laptop worked fine. Well, last weekend, he put in security.

So this morning I went to Staples and bought a Netgear router. It "SAYS" it takes 20 minutes to set up.

After 3 hours, I called my cable co. they walked me through a bunch of stuff, and it worked. Hung up the phone, clicked on "home," and lost the connection! Could NOT get it back. Call the cable folks again. Half an hour and they had it going. Hung up the phone, went to start lunch (which was RATHER later! 0 and i was off when I walked back in the room. All this, and I was just trying to get the wired desk top to work, hadn't even TRIED the wireless laptop yet!

After lunch, I called Netgear. A very nice man in India took me through dozens of things over and over and over. Finally he told me to throw away th install CD that came with it and only use the installation wizard from their web site. After an HOUR AND A HALF, we had it working. He made sure I had the laptop going as well

Thank goodness I didn't pay for THAT phone call.

Now I have the laptop working. Connectivity is either 'Excellent," or "Very Good," but each time I try to change from one thread to another I get "Internet Explorer cannot display the web page." And it is not just the Pet Talk site, either.

Bah!

[krazyaboutkatz]

I'm sorry to hear that you had so much trouble.:( I have a desk top and have comcast as my HSI provider. My roommate just bought a laptop and wanted to get a wireless hook up for it. She called comcast and they told her that she could plug it into my modem and they won't charge me any extra for this.

She went to Best Buy and bought a linksys wireless-G 2.4GHz broadband router. I put the disc that came with it in computer and followed the directions. It was very easy to hook everthing up. At first I couldn't get any internet connection but then it worked. She then tried her laptop and it didn't work at first because she had to turn on a switch and then click on the linksys box on her router options. It then worked and is still running great. It now seems like my connection is even faster than it was before.:)

[ChrisH]

Now I have the laptop working. Connectivity is either 'Excellent," or "Very Good," but each time I try to change from one thread to another I get "Internet Explorer cannot display the web page." And it is not just the Pet Talk site, either.
Bah!

Why not try Firefox? http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
Just a thought. :D (I hate IE!)

[Puckstop31]

Why not try Firefox? http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
Just a thought. :D (I hate IE!)

Mehhhh... Before IE 7 I used Firefox. Now, I like IE 7 WAY better. The tabbed browsing is smoother and easier to use.

:)

[Puckstop31]

[Comic Book Store Guy]

Best...Wireless Access Point...Ever!

[/Comic Book Store Guy]

http://www.apple.com/airportextreme/

It is expensive (hey, Mr. Jobs has an ego to keep fed) but it is worth it. My company installs these at all our clients who need one. With a high gain antenna you can get SICK range out if it. We cover a 8000 square foot, steel frame office with just 2. WAY more reliable than any of the cheap Netgear, Linksys stuff. Yes, it works with PCs or Macs.

Just an FYI. And yes, Mr. "MCSE" just recommended an Apple product. Hopefully Bill's thought police don't show up soon. LOL

[Freedom]

Well, I left everything ON overnight.

Got up this morning and the router was not connected to the internet. Sigh.

I had to unplug and replug everything in.


I think I may talk with Staples about a Linksys and send this all in to Netgear for a refund.

I don't know much about electronics, I just USE the darn thing!

[Sirrahsim]

Linksys is the BEST! It's what we use and we never have a problem. I have my desktop PC wired and my hubby uses his wireless laptop :) I have the same model as KAK :)


edited to add: We have used this same router on slow crappy DSL, cable internet, and now high speed DSL :)

[Kalei]

Wow, that would be annoying..I know what you mean by sponging off a neighbors wireless;)

I hope that your wireless will start working properly, its always annoying when you get Page cannot display all the time.

[Sirrahsim]

I mean no offense at all to you but I'd be pissed off if someone was using my connection!! I pay for a certain speed and if someone else is stealing my connection it will take away a portion of my speed and in turn my hard earned money!!

On the other hand if your neighbor wasn't smart enough to use security from the start it must not have bothered them too much :D When you do get your connection working please please please set up security!! My husband's wireless card is the ONLY wireless card that has access to my router and I check it regularly!

[Puckstop31]

I mean no offense at all to you but I'd be pissed off if someone was using my connection!! I pay for a certain speed and if someone else is stealing my connection it will take away a portion of my speed and in turn my hard earned money!!

On the other hand if your neighbor wasn't smart enough to use security from the start it must not have bothered them too much :D When you do get your connection working please please please set up security!! My husband's wireless card is the ONLY wireless card that has access to my router and I check it regularly!

+1

Another way to "cheat" and still have security... (Sometimes, using WEP or other encryption makes the connection less reliable...) Assign your computer a static address and then turn off DHCP on the router. Thats what I do. I use a non-standard IP scope (i.e. NOT 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x) and have all static addresses. But, I am a geek and know how to do that. Of course, then there is the non-retail hardware firewall... LOL