 Number 271 - December 2005 |
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| The Saga of My Foray into WiFi | |
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by Joan McIlmoyl Cleghorn, Big Blue and Cousins: The Greater Victoria PC Users' Assn, September 2005 | |
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Well, it was educational
to say the least. It took all afternoon and a good part of last evening
to get a wireless PCMCIA card to function properly in my notebook
computer! And that was with the assistance of Ron De Beck and Ron Kehn
both of whom have notebooks with WiFi.
Admittedly, my notebook isn't new (5 years old) and uses Win98SE as its OS, however, according to the package info, the card I purchased should have installed with little problem. The first problem was the instructions--it was very unclear whether one should install the software first, then insert the card or vice versa. It turned out when I later found an electronic copy of the manual on the CD, that for Win98SE, it was recommended that one install the software then insert the card when instructed. Well, that sounds simple right? Wrong! At no point did I ever see a notice to now insert the card. Hmm. So, we tried it both ways, neither of which was successful. One of the major problems would come with the installation of the driver--it would cause my whole system to freeze so we were never sure if it had installed properly or not. Well, apparently it was `not'. Finally, just before 5, both Ron DB and I thought to check on whether there was an updated driver available. When I checked on the version I was installing, it turned out it was two years old. My immediate reaction was No wonder we're having problems!'. Ron proceeded to find a new version to download (it also included the software, not just the driver) and downloaded it for me. After both Rons had to leave I uninstalled everything and started again with the newer software--no joy as the download was apparently corrupted This time, there was no problem installing it and, lo and behold, I was actually instructed when to insert the card! Everything went well with the |
install with Windows recognizing the new
hardware and promptly installing the newly loaded driver. (Along with
all the other problems, I also needed to use my Win98SE CD during the
install which I don't have as another Club member received it by
accident with some other CDs so I had to borrow a CD from another
helpful member--thanks Rex.)
Once it was clear that the installation was successful, it was time to configure the setup. Well, we had done this over and over all afternoon so it should be a piece of cake right? Wrong! The entire configuration screen had changed with a new look and new info! After making some extremely uninformed decisions on what should be set and/or entered, I tried to connect. Nothing! I tried a few changes--still nothing. It's now after 7 pm and I've been at this since just after 1 pm. You can imagine how thrilled I am with the whole process I rechecked the settings and decided to change one drop down of two choices to the other choice. This was one of the new ones we hadn't seen before so I really had no idea which it should be. The minute I changed it, lights flashed, my Avast! Antivirus started downloading a new version and I was clearly online at last! I clicked on Firefox and up popped my home page and I was definitely ready to take my notebook with its WiFi off on my 3000 mile bus adventure next week. The point to this story? Before you even bother to attempt installation of a new piece of hardware, check to see if there's an update to the driver and software--it can save many, many hours of frustration! Special thanks to both Rons as well as Jack, George and Stacey who continue to demonstrate our "Members helping members" principle--without you, I suspect I would have given up and taken the blessed' card back and continued to limp along with only getting access where I could plug in while on my travels. Copyright (c) 1990-2005 by Big Blue and Cousins: The Greater Victoria Personal Computer Users' Association. www.bbc.org |
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Number 271 - December 2005
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