Embracing my inner geek
Nov. 1st, 2007 10:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osodecanelaWhen our tenant moved out a week and a half ago, he took his router with him. It got disconnected from our cable modem at the last moment, then he hooked up our old router just before driving out of here. Unfortunately, it wasn't done correctly, so we've had no ability to hook up to the net at home since. At least until now, that is.
I purchased an 802.11g router not long after he moved in, hoping it would give him service in his apartment. It didn't do that adequately, so he got an 802.11n, plus a booster receiver to use down in his space, which did do the trick. I came up to the great room this morning(two stories and one large tile floor up from his apartment) to try and sort things out and find the router he'd re-installed was not the 802.11g (which was still sitting obediently in its box along with all of its installation instructions and documentation, thank the Gods) but the older 802.11b instead. With instructions to follow on the correct installation, I've managed to re-hook us to the net.
It's been terribly frustrating having our laptops tell us they could 'see' a signal, yet neither machine was able to connect to the net. I think I would have felt better being told there was no signal whatsoever, rather than have a signal that was in essence, useless. Yes, it was the signal from our old router. We live out in the woods with the nearest neighbor, our other tenant 40 yards down the hillside still using dial-up to connect to the net. No other neighbor could be close enough for us to catch a signal from. In any event, problem solved.
My husband is a luddite. Using technology he doesn't understand, runs a major risk of leaving him enraged and screaming. If I get a call from him during the day about something he cannot get the computer(s) to do, I do my best to put him off until the evening when I'm home, as I know I'm likely the hear him growling and at times even howling in frustration. If you've ever seen the Geek Squad commercials on TV, one of the early ones had a group of perhaps 100 forlorn technophobes carrying their electronics, marching towards 3 white-shirted, be-spectacled, pocket-protectored Geeks, who tell the crowd, "We'll take it from here." My husband was the one carrying the monitor with the axe embedded in its screen.
Now I'm far from a technocrat, but sorting out the electronic troubles in this household routinely falls to me. It doesn't enrage or agitate me, as in my mind it all comes down to an issue of language. I'm clear I'm the English speaker here, and in order to get these items to do what I want them to do, I have to learn to speak with them in their language. It's as basic as that.
In addition to repairing our router trouble this morning, I've also spent time tuning his 5 year old desktop, re-newing its hardwire connection to the router. Last night, I heard him grumbling how he couldn't print anything he did on his laptop. Turns out, he was e-mailing himself anything he did on the laptop, downloading it to the desktop and printing it from there. No internet connection, no printing of documents from the laptop. Even though he had a USB thumbdrive, a 16mg that came with his old desktop, he didn't know how to use it. That too is now remedied, and since most of what he needs to move back and forth are small data and text files, that 16mg drive should be enough for the time being.
I think its time I tried to set up a home network and see if the router will support a printer connection. I don't in general have things to print here at the house, and when I do I've got my old color Epson set up at my desk in the art loft where I tend to do most of my writing. It might be nice for LJ to be able to just hit print on his laptop and have the printer receive it upstairs. Lord know how long it'll be before he loses that thumbdrive.
I purchased an 802.11g router not long after he moved in, hoping it would give him service in his apartment. It didn't do that adequately, so he got an 802.11n, plus a booster receiver to use down in his space, which did do the trick. I came up to the great room this morning(two stories and one large tile floor up from his apartment) to try and sort things out and find the router he'd re-installed was not the 802.11g (which was still sitting obediently in its box along with all of its installation instructions and documentation, thank the Gods) but the older 802.11b instead. With instructions to follow on the correct installation, I've managed to re-hook us to the net.
It's been terribly frustrating having our laptops tell us they could 'see' a signal, yet neither machine was able to connect to the net. I think I would have felt better being told there was no signal whatsoever, rather than have a signal that was in essence, useless. Yes, it was the signal from our old router. We live out in the woods with the nearest neighbor, our other tenant 40 yards down the hillside still using dial-up to connect to the net. No other neighbor could be close enough for us to catch a signal from. In any event, problem solved.
My husband is a luddite. Using technology he doesn't understand, runs a major risk of leaving him enraged and screaming. If I get a call from him during the day about something he cannot get the computer(s) to do, I do my best to put him off until the evening when I'm home, as I know I'm likely the hear him growling and at times even howling in frustration. If you've ever seen the Geek Squad commercials on TV, one of the early ones had a group of perhaps 100 forlorn technophobes carrying their electronics, marching towards 3 white-shirted, be-spectacled, pocket-protectored Geeks, who tell the crowd, "We'll take it from here." My husband was the one carrying the monitor with the axe embedded in its screen.
Now I'm far from a technocrat, but sorting out the electronic troubles in this household routinely falls to me. It doesn't enrage or agitate me, as in my mind it all comes down to an issue of language. I'm clear I'm the English speaker here, and in order to get these items to do what I want them to do, I have to learn to speak with them in their language. It's as basic as that.
In addition to repairing our router trouble this morning, I've also spent time tuning his 5 year old desktop, re-newing its hardwire connection to the router. Last night, I heard him grumbling how he couldn't print anything he did on his laptop. Turns out, he was e-mailing himself anything he did on the laptop, downloading it to the desktop and printing it from there. No internet connection, no printing of documents from the laptop. Even though he had a USB thumbdrive, a 16mg that came with his old desktop, he didn't know how to use it. That too is now remedied, and since most of what he needs to move back and forth are small data and text files, that 16mg drive should be enough for the time being.
I think its time I tried to set up a home network and see if the router will support a printer connection. I don't in general have things to print here at the house, and when I do I've got my old color Epson set up at my desk in the art loft where I tend to do most of my writing. It might be nice for LJ to be able to just hit print on his laptop and have the printer receive it upstairs. Lord know how long it'll be before he loses that thumbdrive.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-11-01 07:45 pm (UTC)That said - if you have a spare PC lying around, that could be used as a printer "adapter" as well as a home server. I don't know what I'd do without mine. ;)
Maybe it's because I take to technology like a bear to honey, but I find otherwise bright adults who have to use computers in their jobs and absolutely refuse to learn anything about them incomprehensible. Do people throw these kinds of tantrums over having to learn to drive a car, put fuel in it, and turn on the headlights when it gets dark?
Back in the days of DOS and edging into Windows ... my mother, then in her 60s, took up computers. Maybe it's because she had worked as a bookkeeper and understood the idea of going one step at a time, I don't know. She had no trouble with doing what she wanted, to the point the owner of the local computer shop she liked would use her as an example to shame younger people whining about how "computers are hard!" Of course - she actually read manuals...!
no subject
Date: 2007-11-01 08:00 pm (UTC)I think we have had this discussion before, at least in part, but I really do find many, if not most Americans refusal to learn another language to be truly analagous.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-02 06:33 am (UTC)DUUH!