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peterbirks... is that I hate things that are computer-related and I hate IT people who tell me that things will be simple, when I know that they won't (and I am invariably proved right).
It's been a crappy day all round and I have a headache. I spunked away $120 in the 50c-$1 PLO on Ultimate (well, not quite spunked it away, since it took me two hours to lose it). I should stick to the fifty-buck max buy-ins for sure. I suspect that I was a little bit outclassed by a few of the players (although not all of them) in the $100 max buy in (as happened when I played in the same on Betfair). On the other hand, nothing seemed to go right, and the game was slightly distorted by it going mad in the middle. At one point I was the short stack with $110 in front of me. One guy had $490 and another had $160, down from $400, and so was on tilt. This made for raises every hand, and none of my calls or reraises came good. So it goes.
I scraped $20 back playing two tables of $2-$4 limit over 90 minutes. All of this at least added about $20 to my Ultimate Bet Bonus. They offered another 50% redeposit bonus (up to $100) today. I hope that they haven't got cashflow problems, because I now have $1400 sitting in there, $1200 of which is mine and only $200 of which is winnings. And I need to work of another $280 in bonus money, which by my estimate will take me about 30 hours of double-tabling.
Anyway, things got slightly worse when the junk-shit DVD recorder that I bought from Brian Walker (thanks for that direction, John) decided to fail to record the movie Dead Man after I had spent two hours moving it over from video. Oh, and then the disc (which had another movie on it) wouldn't finalize. About 50% of discs are now failing on this heap of crap. I'm buying an 80gb hard disc recorder and consigning the old recorder to the junk shop. £150 wasted. And, worse, it ended up in Brian Walker's pocket.
So, in a generally piss-poor mood all round, I foolishly entered the world of techie hardware. Within the next few days my company will be installing an office computer at homes, with a "secure client connection". Needless to say IT failed to explain things properly at any point here, but it seems to me that this computer, if I hump the box around, can function from anywhere where I have a broadband connection, not just from here (home). If this is the case, then it is good news.
Anyway, I told them that I already had an ADSL connection, but that I wanted to be able to use my home computer online at the same time as the office computer. If they couldn't manage that, then I would want a second broadband connection. "No problem" they beamed. We'll give you a router!
And that is the box that I opened this evening. Well, to be frank, it might as well be in fucking Greek. For a start, I quite clearly don't have all the bits needed to get it working, For my desktop I need a wireless G USB adaptor and for my notebook I need a wireless G Notebook Network card (or maybe I don't -- perhaps the notebook is already wireless enables, how am I to know?)
Notwithstanding this minor point, the pictures that the Belkin provides seem to bear no relation to the ADSL BT hardware that I have in place. My current system is the famous "Mantra fish" BT thingy, whereby a phone connection fits into something, which connects to the Mantra fish (the bit with the flashing lights when you turn on the computer) and another bit connects to a USB socket on the desktop.
Well, the Belkin router makes no mention of a USB connection. Does the router REPLACE my mantra fish? And where and how does the router connect to the desktop? There IS no ethernet connection, just the USB thingy that I use for the BT line. But my laptop has an ethernet connector. All too confusing.
Anyway, I guess that the machine that the office will supply will have an ethernet socket, but the Belkin has FOUR of these sockets. So is it a wireless connection or an ethernet link, or both?
And this is before we come to the technicalities of connecting the bloody thing to the phone line.
For example, how about this for some helpful Belkinesque advice? "Belkin strongly recommends that you enable wireless security to WEP or WPA and change SSID to something of your own". You couldn't make it up.
I despair.
On the plus side, I picked up the Naxos edition of Bruckner's Third (The "Wagner") in 1877 and 1889 versions. The second, much shorter version, in particular, is an absolute dream, right up there with the best of Bruckner (say, the 4th). Bruckner had a habit of writing 70-minute symphonies, as if he was frightened to leave out the kitchen sink. For the reworking of the third in 1889 he shortened it from 70 minutes to 49 minutes, and it's a much stronger piece as a result.
It's been a crappy day all round and I have a headache. I spunked away $120 in the 50c-$1 PLO on Ultimate (well, not quite spunked it away, since it took me two hours to lose it). I should stick to the fifty-buck max buy-ins for sure. I suspect that I was a little bit outclassed by a few of the players (although not all of them) in the $100 max buy in (as happened when I played in the same on Betfair). On the other hand, nothing seemed to go right, and the game was slightly distorted by it going mad in the middle. At one point I was the short stack with $110 in front of me. One guy had $490 and another had $160, down from $400, and so was on tilt. This made for raises every hand, and none of my calls or reraises came good. So it goes.
I scraped $20 back playing two tables of $2-$4 limit over 90 minutes. All of this at least added about $20 to my Ultimate Bet Bonus. They offered another 50% redeposit bonus (up to $100) today. I hope that they haven't got cashflow problems, because I now have $1400 sitting in there, $1200 of which is mine and only $200 of which is winnings. And I need to work of another $280 in bonus money, which by my estimate will take me about 30 hours of double-tabling.
Anyway, things got slightly worse when the junk-shit DVD recorder that I bought from Brian Walker (thanks for that direction, John) decided to fail to record the movie Dead Man after I had spent two hours moving it over from video. Oh, and then the disc (which had another movie on it) wouldn't finalize. About 50% of discs are now failing on this heap of crap. I'm buying an 80gb hard disc recorder and consigning the old recorder to the junk shop. £150 wasted. And, worse, it ended up in Brian Walker's pocket.
So, in a generally piss-poor mood all round, I foolishly entered the world of techie hardware. Within the next few days my company will be installing an office computer at homes, with a "secure client connection". Needless to say IT failed to explain things properly at any point here, but it seems to me that this computer, if I hump the box around, can function from anywhere where I have a broadband connection, not just from here (home). If this is the case, then it is good news.
Anyway, I told them that I already had an ADSL connection, but that I wanted to be able to use my home computer online at the same time as the office computer. If they couldn't manage that, then I would want a second broadband connection. "No problem" they beamed. We'll give you a router!
And that is the box that I opened this evening. Well, to be frank, it might as well be in fucking Greek. For a start, I quite clearly don't have all the bits needed to get it working, For my desktop I need a wireless G USB adaptor and for my notebook I need a wireless G Notebook Network card (or maybe I don't -- perhaps the notebook is already wireless enables, how am I to know?)
Notwithstanding this minor point, the pictures that the Belkin provides seem to bear no relation to the ADSL BT hardware that I have in place. My current system is the famous "Mantra fish" BT thingy, whereby a phone connection fits into something, which connects to the Mantra fish (the bit with the flashing lights when you turn on the computer) and another bit connects to a USB socket on the desktop.
Well, the Belkin router makes no mention of a USB connection. Does the router REPLACE my mantra fish? And where and how does the router connect to the desktop? There IS no ethernet connection, just the USB thingy that I use for the BT line. But my laptop has an ethernet connector. All too confusing.
Anyway, I guess that the machine that the office will supply will have an ethernet socket, but the Belkin has FOUR of these sockets. So is it a wireless connection or an ethernet link, or both?
And this is before we come to the technicalities of connecting the bloody thing to the phone line.
For example, how about this for some helpful Belkinesque advice? "Belkin strongly recommends that you enable wireless security to WEP or WPA and change SSID to something of your own". You couldn't make it up.
I despair.
On the plus side, I picked up the Naxos edition of Bruckner's Third (The "Wagner") in 1877 and 1889 versions. The second, much shorter version, in particular, is an absolute dream, right up there with the best of Bruckner (say, the 4th). Bruckner had a habit of writing 70-minute symphonies, as if he was frightened to leave out the kitchen sink. For the reworking of the third in 1889 he shortened it from 70 minutes to 49 minutes, and it's a much stronger piece as a result.
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ADSL Modem/Router nightmare
You seem to be suffering from ownership of the Modem with USB output.
Without knowing exactly what you have I can't recommend a precise solution. Yes, WEP/WPA is confusing even to me.
Hardware and the Tipping Point
Date: 2005-04-14 08:46 am (UTC)I think I'm in the same boat. Our house now boasts 2 PC's, Nicki's Powerbook and my laptop, so I bought a box with a router modem in with the intention of cabling up the place and replacing the freebie USB ADSL modem. It's still in the box. I can't make head or tale of it and my local techie friend tells me it's not really his cup of tea.
I have the theory that we all get to a certain age/point when you have a piece of hardware/software/technology that you don't understand. From that point on you're lost. You stop paying attention to the explanations for the next piece of kit and so you don't understand that and you end up like all those 50 somethings who can't program a video recorder.
For me it started with mobiles. I can use them, text with them (albeit at a speed which causes the girls to pull their hair out) but if I want to do anything beyond the basic, then I just hand it to Nicki who puts me right - or rather she does it for me. She could explain, but I'd forget so I just have the delight of being patronised by my kids. Mind you - they are still rubbish with video programming.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-14 09:40 am (UTC)When we moved, I switched from the turquoise Marineland BT thing to a Netgear wireless ADSL modem/router thingy (DG384G, I think) that was the subject of a special Amazon offer, which threw in a USB dingus for the PC (no PCI slots free in my Shuttle box, so external connection needed). About £100, I think, probably cheaper now. COnfiguration has to be done with a network cable and is web-based: the router exposes itself at a "local" IP address (from memory: http://192.168.0.1) and there isn't much to do other than tell it how to connect and set up the WEP security. It's relatively fresh in my mind because I stuffed up the client end on Sunday and had to hook my Tablet PC up physically to get the WEP password out. While WEP has documented weaknesses, I figure it's Good Enough as (a) I don't see my home network as having much value to warchalkers and the like and (b) there are at least 4 unsecure WiFi networks visible at various times from my desk.
If work has just sent you a router, I don't think it will work with the BT ADSL modem: the router's almost certainly going to want a network connection, which the manta-ray thing doesn't provide. If they've got it right (hah!) then the old ADSL modem is redundant.
Have fun...
Mike
Re: ADSL Modem/Router nightmare
Date: 2005-04-14 09:48 am (UTC)Having thought about the whole thing logically (and sans headache), I suspect that I have a better idea of how the whole thing is put together. The Belikin is BOTH a router and a modem (well, not a real modem, but a DSL modem) and it is BOTH a wireless router and a hard-wire ethernet router. At least, that is my current guess. And we still haven't approached an attempted installation!
Routers
Date: 2005-04-14 09:54 am (UTC)However, I am going to be more cunning. I plan to enable the laptop, my new computer from the company, and the new Dell that I plan to purchase for myself next month, via the Belkin DSL modem/router, and to leave the old desktop as an emergency reserve for a few months, using the Manta Ray. All I need to do is change one DSL jack for the other (old) DSL jack. That will mean that I can be online either with three computers (laptop, new personal Dell, new office Dell) or one (old personal HP Pavilion).
If everything goes smoothly, then I'll dump the manta ray and put an ethernet network card onto the old desktop and plug that into the new network.
Ideall, of course, I'd want the laptop to be wifi. The other three are all in the office, so they can be hard-wired.
Re: Routers
Date: 2005-04-14 10:28 am (UTC)I have a cable modem daisy chained into a Netgear Wireless router myself. I've always found Netgear stuff is as close to Plug & Play as you can get.I had to do this as the children expect their own PC in room networked to broadband. Whatever happened to hoops and sticks?
Being a mug, everybody in the hose has got LCD monitor recently to save space.