I Have Finally Made It Into The 21st Century

This is a bit of historic (nay, histrionic) post for me as it is the first written on my spanking new laptop (hooray I hear you cheer? Or maybe not). It's great having a portable pc, along with the freedom of being able to get my emails anywhere within reasonable reach of my wireless network.

Did I just mention wireless? That wonderful invention of the twenty first century?

Let me tell you about wireless (grunt, thump).

I'll say it three times:
Damn, damn, damn wireless.

It has taken me a day to set the bloody thing up. Don't get me wrong. There was nothing wrong with the equipment (besides the befuddling instructions which I still don't understand) - it was just the glut of totally incomprehensible material that I read on how to, not so much set it up, as secure it.

Oh yes.

Securing it.

I didn't have a problem finding the signal once I'd got the router configured (well, sort of). My laptop sprang to life...unfortunately to the keen attention of probably every other computer user in the neighberhood. Boy was I "unsecured"!

However, with the kind assistance of some people in the know (and a lot of swearing on my part), I have finally got this thing working the way I want it to. It tells me that I'm working on a secure connection and I have done as instructed, but I really can't understand why it is so tricky (no, read that as nightmarish) to set up a simple connection between two computers.

Now, I understand what a network key (please do not ask) as well as MAC thingy are. However, if you asked me to set it up again, I don't think I'd have an inkling of what I need to do.

Yes, I have made it into the twenty-first century but boy, have I aged in the process.