Wifi Adventure #4

Ok folks, you remember the last time, Wifi Adventure #3 right? Time for a new installment…

One of my neighbors asked me to come over and help them figure out wifi on their new Dell laptop. They told me they could see a few networks, but could not connect to them. Yes, it’s a Windows machine, and I still said I’d help. (This is the sign of a true friend, because if I am not really your friend, I won’t try to help you with Windows.)

So I get there and we stumble through the dialogs in Windows, and eventually I ask where their “wireless access point” was located. This confused them, so I asked where their “router” was located. This confused them again. I then realize they have neither. Oh, they do have a cable modem, it’s plugged into another Dell that sits on a desk. Ah, I get it…

See, they are about to take a trip, and want to be able to log in from cafe’s with wifi, etc. So, they just plugged in the card and tried to join a network. Mine showed up, but since I use encryption (and the signal was too weak) they couldn’t join it. We also saw the network named “linksys” which we (still) assume is another neighbor, but it seems that they’ve since protected their network as well. (See Wifi Adventure #2 and Wifi Adventure #3)

I told them everything appeared to be working, they just needed an open network to connect to.

On a sidenote, my neighbor also said that he’s bought 5 computers from Dell, and he completely, with all his might, hates Dell. I’m working on turning them into “switchers” every time I help them with Windows…