I'm sort of halfway here

[dancinghorse]

Since a lot of the email regulars check in on this lj, this is a general posting to let you know the new hard drive is in and the installation is proceeding, but since it arrived unformatted (ergo, hours and hours of watching the little lights flash on and off), plus the mozilla backups didn't take, there's a bit of work to do still. I managed to forward most of the critical mail to gmail but haven't had a chance to tackle a lot of it, and I may have lost the cait-brennan inbox altogether. I'll check on that tomorrow. Please be patient. I'll get there.

It doesn't help that they sent me XP Pro instead of XP Home, which is very nice, but it adamantly refuses to connect to the Internet--wireless, ethernet cable, dialup, won't do a one. Complete blind spot in that respect. Every troubleshooting step begins with a little command line that isn't there and can't be made to be there. Finally, after 'way too much time spent getting nowhere, I put the Netgear card in and, after three tries, got it to work. Every now and then it tries to take over the Windows wireless controls, but I learned that lesson right good and quick.

If anyone knows how to get XP Pro to allow any kind of direct Internet connection, I'd love to know about it. I can run the drivers as long as I've got the Netgear card in and installed. And that's it.

Meanwhile the new brain for the backup puter is here, so that can go to the factory and get its new keyboard and heat sink and get much, much smarter. And there is water finally. No wonder I couldn't find it: it was almost five feet down. The repair seems to be holding after an episode with mild leakage this morning; I've got it cordoned off with hot tape so the horses can go in the arena. That's been a welcome development after a few days in the smaller paddock.

And, you know, work? Might happen again finally, now the new drive is in. We shall see.

Comments

[casacorona.livejournal.com]

Urk. It sounds to me like the operating system doesn't know there's a wireless card in the computer. Have you looked at the hardware manager? Does it recognize the wireless card? If it doesn't, then you'll need to "add hardware" in the control panel.

If it recognizes that it's there, run the connection wizard. Tell it to look for a wireless network.

There's also the quirk of XP Pro that it doesn't like unsecured wireless connections AT ALL. So if your DSL router is running without a password, you may need to change that. But I bet you aren't running unsecured...the basic DSL setup instructions included passwording the connection. So it's probably not that. If it is, then you'll need to make a hard connection between the router and your notebook, and install the DSL software that came with the modem. Then use that to put a password on the wireless connection, which you'll have to remember for everyone who wants to connect to it.

Others may have better ideas than mine.

[smoemeth.livejournal.com]

The DSL connection is secured with a password -- I wouldn't set up a network any other way. :)

I was going to suggest looking for the internal wireless card ... I can't think of any other reason why it would work on the plug-in but not the internal.

[casacorona.livejournal.com]

I kinda thought that would be the case.

You know, I'm wondering if XP Pro installed itself with the wireless connection disabled. It's been known to do stupid things like that.

[monder.livejournal.com]

I'll snag Paul and ask him. I think he's setup xp-pro a couple of times and might have a suggestion. :-) Wish we still lived up a road, I'd love to bring him to help, and be able to come hug the herd. This week begs some hippotherapy.

ps... want some snow? we got a foot yesterday!!!

[equesgal.livejournal.com]

I feel your computer pain. ;-( I switched from aol to high-speed cable the other day and couldn't figure out how to access the internet either. I'm so used to seeing that little aol logo to click on that I didn't realize there was no cable company logo -- I just had to click on the Internet Explorer button.

[windrose.livejournal.com]

Sympathies. I wish I was at all useful with this sort of thing. I'm still trying to get the new computer to talk to my wireless router with no luck.

oy x 3

[kladruber1.livejournal.com]

good to see signs of you. sorry its been such a rotten go of it all. I think there is something in the air. No one I know is having a good time of it. wish I knew how to fix any of those things. I'd lend you my dad but I've already worked him half to death and 3/4 to exhaustion! :o\

[raithen.livejournal.com]

if Beth's suggestions don't help, let me know - I've made it work before, and can probably muddle through again....

you can always grab me on gmail and the gmail chat, though stalls need for the mucking today, so after coffee I shall be OutSide.