Confessions of an addict…
…no not drugs or drink, but wifi internet. When do you realise you have a problem? When you have no access to the addictive ‘thing’.
My realisation hit when my laptop sputtered on the broadband network via its wifi [wireless] connection. I can’t tell how many times I hit repair, find the wireless networks around, repair, etc etc ad infinitum almost. It was infuriating! No longer could I sit in the comfort of my loungeroom in front of the television and surf the net. No longer could I read and answer emails in the morning while listening to the radio in the same loungeroom. I was at my wits end! What’s a girl to do!
Trot off to the office, find the ethernet cable and connect that way. What? Fire up the desktop computer? I’m a laptop junky too now. But I will admit that I did fire it up this afternoon, a full five days after the first blips started. Ethernet on the laptop works. So that’s not the problem. Maybe it’s the network card in the laptop that controls the wireless radio. Maybe it’s a heating problem [laptops tend to run pretty hot]. A dear friend in Adelaide with whom I communicate regularly on Skype — oh, yeah, that’s another one of my addictions: near immediate access to my other online friends — Brenda said she’d send me a new network card and a new adsl modem. All arranged to arrive on this coming Wednesday.
But this afternoon I think I found the problem. A cable that had been connected in the same way for the past two years was causing lots of static on the phone connected to it in the office. It was so bad, that when I placed a call, the modem shut off. What the? I started pulling cables apart, took off the phone entirely, replugged things, rebooted, disconnected the ethernet cable and: voila! It works!
Of course I was sitting 2 feet from the modem. The real trick would be if I could establish a connection in that infamous loungeroom. After a reboot of the modem, a reset of the dns finder to automatic, I closed the lid, unplugged the power, and relocated myself and the laptop to the lounge. Replugged the power, lifted the lid, hit the space bar to wake things up again, and: voila! It works! I’ve been sitting here ever since loading up webpages, sending emails, and oh yes, Skyping with Brenda.
My fix is back where I need it. Addicted I may be, but this is also my lifeline to my latest adventure: teaching two subjects online. More about that in another article.
Oh, and it’s my birthday. So what better present could a net addict get than a working wifi connection I ask you?
cheers! Now to find that bottle of red……
[Update: later I read this: http://www.themillions.com/2009/08/the-technology-fails-essay.html ]