About a hundred years ago, I bought a router for my home network. It was either a D-Link or a NetGear. After several days of mis- and re-configuration of the settings of the router, the Windows NT Server, the laptop PC cards, the Windows work stations and my wife's expectations of when our internet access would be permanently back online, I returned it, and brought home a LinkSys.
The LinkSys router, though a little more expensive than the first one, was the same brand as my laptop PCMCIA cards. Hours and hours, spanning days, were required to get the all of the components correctly configured and the computers properly connected. Eventually, after a bit more mis- and re-configuration of the settings of the router, the Windows NT Server, the laptop PC cards, the Windows work stations and my wife's expectations, the network was finally properly configured, and I owed my friend Philip a lifelong debt of gratitude for his expertise and good natured guidance. The hardware needed to be reset every little while, but was maintainable.
I have replaced that original hardware a few times now. Network hardware lasts a surprising long time. Each generation is a bit simpler than the previous one; each new router seems to require a little less configuration than the previous.
Last week, my administrative assistant drove to Best Buy, bought a Belkin wireless router, and plugged it in. An entire conference of software engineers was connected in that instant. Zero Configuration: The total required time, including the drive to Best Buy, was but a tiny fraction of my first experience.
New computer components are getting easier to install and configure with each passing year. They sit virtually ignored for years.
Pet Rocks are much more functional than they used to be...
...but
they
require
the
same
level
of care.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
