Thursday, November 15, 2007

Technology reconnect

You will recall that I've been having serious problems with AOL, attenpting to get broadband in my new home. Last month, I finally persuaded AOL and BT that I deserved the broadband connection that I had been paying for, only to discover that the telephone cabling in the house refused to cope with this new 'treat'. Hmmm, what to do?

Whilst visiting Nottingham a few weeks ago, Liam, Ros's nephew, raised the notion of wireless access via a router. Intrigued, I attempted to find out how this worked and concluded that it might be the solution I've been looking for. Despite getting little sense out of AOL, I finally went to Carphone Warehouse on Sunday, purchased a Netgear router and stood back whilst Jamie (Ros's son) and Liam tried to install it.

They gallantly struggled with the unhelpful nature of the AOL software and, eventually, got the network up and running. However, we had real problems getting the computers to then connect up to the network and reach the internet. Telephone calls to friends in Gibraltar and elsewhere got us closer, but eventually, a brief call to AOL allowed us to make the breakthrough, and I am delighted to note that I now have internet access throughout the house and can finally function like a normal bureaucrat (albeit for a given value of normal appropriate to a bureaucrat).

With that, my new office is complete, and I'll post a picture of it soon...

No comments: