wolf buys a wireless router, finally
 

Okay, so the impetus is that siswolf is coming to help with momwolf. I have avoided getting a wireless network so far because I am that darn cheap. I was doing okay with the wired connection, but siswolf will need to do work while she's here, and would probably prefer not to sit on the floor in the hallway.

So, I dashed off to the Walmart, grabbed a Linksys router package, and installed it.

It works, because I'm typing this on my mini-netbook.

What I can't seem to do is untether my laptop from the router and keep the network intact. I want that badboy connecting wirelessly as well.

Any thoughts, before I call some idiot in Calcutta who can't help me?

And yes, I could RTFM, but I don't have much faith in instruction manuals. They tend to be dumbed down to the point of uselessness.

First things first, go to the Linksys web site for your model and download the latest firmware. Then go in to the Wireless menu and configure it :).

Thank. Apparently the answer was "be more patient."

I pulled the laptop off the ethernet cable with the intention of dragging it out to the living room to spend some time RTFMing ... and I went in the kitchen to make coffee. By the time the Keurig spit the brew into the cup (Green Mountain National Wildlife Foundation blend) and I got back to the machine, it had figured it out and turned the sold red line (interruped wired connection) into a green dotted line (active wireless connection) on the big pretty picture of my network.

The end.

(I think it did that firmware upgrady thing during the initial install.)

Linksys normally doesn't do that. You have to manually do that one. D-Link does do it automatically I think.

Your neighbors appreciate the effort, Wolf. :haha:

All the bastid neighbors have their networks password protected. I assume that Comcast did the set-up.

Well, there is one guy with an open network, but his signal is too weak to use.

You should put WEP or WPA encryption on it or you'll be providing free internet for the neighbors.

Done

Wow, never realized that I hadn't gotten back to this ... the Linksys worked for less than 48 hours, then refused to connect any wireless device to the internet. I reset everything back to factory out of the box three times, with no success. I made several two hour long phone calls to some idiot in India who insisted her name was "Brittany," three online chats with someone more realistically named Sanjeev26802, and told them all to get bent when they suggested that I needed $30/hr tech support instead of the free I just bought this piece of crap kind.

Bitch went back into the box and back to the store.

That was less than a week after the initial purchase, mind you.

Which brings us to today. Because of momwolf's health condition, I need to spend more time with her, time that I would ordinarily be spending back in my room, hunched over a computer. So, off I went to the Evil Empire, grabbed the cheapest Belkin in the store (given the sterling success of the previous Linksys) and brought it home.

Five minute install, and here I am in the living room, surfing happily.

Linksys makes shit. I've been through two hubs and two wireless routers in less than five years.

Moar, is the one I sent you still working? Or do you even know since you've moved?

Mine isn't working. I have spent way too many hours with it in the last 2 days. ipconfig won't even recognize it. I am screwed. It used to work. Now it has a wep setting with a stupid password that I can't reset. How am I supposed to hack into and reset it if I can't even get the address on it? PPllllbbbt.

Some units can be reset by poking an unfolded paper clip into a small hole. Check your manual to see if yours will do this. Most will have some method of resetting from the box itself.

Oh yah that. That's broken. That is why I had to try the hard reset.