If you've dreamed of sitting on your couch, watching T.V., listening to the radio, and surfing the internet, while completing your homework, book report, or class assignment or maybe completing your PowerPoint presentation for that all important lecture you will give tomorrow ... then you have probably dreamed of going wireless, cutting the cords that bind you.

My dream has been to move away from the desktop and curl up on the couch. Actually, I'd love to sit on the beach and surf the web but let's not push it.

Unforutnately, my nightmare began with the purchase of a D-Link DI-524, not because it is a bad product but because the timing was against a smooth installation. The DI-524 unit sells for less than $100 and it seemed like a way to add to my growing home network without too much hassle. After all, this is sold as a wireless router for 802.11g, which is fully compatible with 802.11b. It should work, right?



As soon as I arrived home, the package was ripped open like packages are torn on Christmas Day. Ah, it was exciting. I read the directions (because you always should read the directions) and then pondered the best way to hook up the router.

Present Configuration
Initially I wanted to connect the new wireless router to my existing hub. There was a Linux box acting as my DHCP server that connected directly to the DSL modem. A different Ethernet card then connected this DHCP server to my existing hub. All machines went through the hub.

After reading the directions it became clear that the DI-524 must sit between the DSL modem and the existing hub. And this is where the fun began.

My Decision - My mistakes
Everything was turned off and unplugged. I then connected the DSL modem to the DI-524 and one desktop with MS Windows XP Home Edition was connected to the DI-524 through a cat5 cable. Software was installed on the desktop which allowed me to connect to the DI-524 and set up parameters for the network through a browser.



The wizard walked me through setting up the software and it seemed like everything was set correctly. The PPPoE information was correctly put into the dialog box but I no longer was able to dial out to Earthlink. In fact, I noticed the light was not solid for the connection between the D-Link and SpeedStream 5360 DSL modem.

:bawling:

D-Link tech support walked me through several settings and it turned out that the connection between the DSL modem and the D-Link DI-524 must be manually set to 10 Mbps and not 100 Mbps (select WAN settings under Tools -> Misc). The connection lights now showed but the DSL modem lights were not correct.

:wacko:

A call to Earthlink tech support immediately explained that select locations in California were down for PPPoE connections. No wonder. Therefore, I waited and waited and waited. Three days passed before the connection to the internet was restored.

Now that I could surf the web again with the single desktop hooked up to the wireless router, the original hub was then hooked up and one desktop was attached to it through a cat5 cable. However, upon starting up of that desktop, an IP was never assigned and the internet was not reached. Drats.

More fussing with values in the DI-524 software finally allowed connections. Now it was time for the wireless show to begin. Three days of build up really had me drooling.

Hooking up the Tablet PC
Tatung has been more than kind to allow my high school to look at their unit. One of my goals is to get the school completely wireless and on Tablet PCs. Each student, teacher and staff member should have a Tablet PC.

Regardless of my goals, the Tablet PC was started and after logging in there was no connection to the network. A big red X overlayed the icon for wireless connections. Hovering the pen over the icon showed text which red, "Ha. Ha. You can't make this work." Naw. It said there was no network connection. Same thing.

A double tap on the icon opened network connections and then holding down the pen on the larger icon opened the properties menu. Everything looked fine to my neive eyes. I tried to reconfigure the Intel 2100 software so that 802.11b was only available but the red X still appeared. I lowered thresholds, increased thresholds. I stood one foot from the antenna. Heck I was so desperate that I would have stood on my freaking head. It was insane because everything I pushed, pocked, and screamed at only returned a big fat X. I hate that X. Someone should redesign the icon to be more calming.

Another phone call to tech support brought tears to my eyes. The technicians had never heard of a Tablet PC and couldn't help. We went through setting after setting and nothing worked.

I reran the wizard for the wireless hub, set the SSID, chose the channel, enabled WEP, set the key type to HEX value, and entered a Key1. It all seemed correct.

Sheepishly, I asked the technician if there was a way to tell if the adapter was turned on for the Tablet. At that moment it dawned on me that there is a little button on the Tablet PC which must be depressed at least 2 seconds to turn on the radio signal. Oopsie.

I pressed the button, held my breath, and the red X went away. A new icon appeared in my desktop panel which showed a signal strength. A double tap opened up an application I'd never seen before. A few options were changed for the network key and I was online and surfing the web.

Wireless at last. Wireless at last. :w00t: