Frustration is spelt 'W.I.R.E.L.E.S.S.''

Today has been my day off. I say 'has been', because it's nearly over, and what have I done all day?!

Messed about and faffed around with compauters laptops and wireless routers...

Suffice it to say that after about 5 hours I've sorted it, but I wish people would make things simple in the computing world.

The problem I had was that because we're with AOL, we received our new wireless router today. (well to be precise we missed a delivery and had to pick it up from R.M. delivery centre in Liscard Village) I plugged it in, switched it on, and typed in all the neccessary codes, etc, and had one problem after the other:

First, the router was on, but it showed no green internet light. (solution: plug in the DSL filter into the upstairs phone socket because thats actually the main one!)

Second, Meg's laptop wouldn't connect wirelessly after several attempts. (solution: switch off and restart laptop, plug in the yellow ethernet cable, get the laptop to 'recognize' the router, then unplug the cable and switch the LAN wireless circuit on, on the laptop!)

Third, my desktop downstairs using a USB wireless adaptor, would recognize the network (i.e. router) but wouldn't connect to it. After various attempts, I rang AOL who informed me it was because the particular adaptor worked with WEP encryption and the router was WPA encryption. (Solution: change the encryption software on the router via the laptop, which will result in the laptop being disconnected from the network!)

Now that encryption is changed, connect my desktop, and also re-connect the laptop, whilst making up my own encryption key so that the network is secure.

It's done, but I wish they'd tell you this stuff in the beginning!!