Wireless network

I spent a disproportionally large amount of time last night and today getting the domestic wireless network up and running.

"Be up and running within 30 minutes of taking it out of the box", it enticingly and misleadingly promised.

We already have a domestic network, with the three computers wired together and a spare cable for the occassional times I need to connect the laptop to the home broadband. I say three computers, but the oldest machine has suffered a terminal(?) hard disk failure and is currently with our techy guy for fixing.

The office network, which is both hardwired and wireless, had been set up by self-same techy guy, so I was pretty much in the dark, albeit using the same brand of USB adapters and router to perform the same function.

Machine 1, which remained hardwired throughout, was a doddle, and it really was under 15 minutes between connecting the USB adapter and getting on line. Admittedly, that was about 1 hour after I took the router out of the box, for the second time. The first time it took me an hour to get the cabling sorted, and then I had to stop and revert back to the original system as there were some pressing needs to get on-line (Ebay etc etc.)

The second time, I wired everything to everything else on Friday night, and found neither broadband (hardwired) nor phone (cordless) were working, and incoming calls weren't coming through. Spaghetti junction under the desks, and behind the table, and around the phone sockets quickly (hah!) told me that I had plugged everything in to the wrong sockets, the wrong way. A simple piece of engineering demonstrated that the reason the phone wasn't working was (1) because the phone cable was now connected to a disconnected/spare phone cable that didn't connect to the outside world , and (2) the phone power source was disconnected. One hour, some swearing, and a large glass of wine soon sorted that situation.

The second computer, which is the same model as the first with a few extras, resolutely refused to connect, despite repeated attempts to install and connect the USB adaptor. Tonight I solved the problem. The simple slogan is: RTFM. Read The F Manual. I got the install disks from the office and it worked at the next attempt. Secured, encrypted and connected. Now to annoy someone else, wirelessly.