Post date: Jan 26, 2013 2:32:03 PM
Friday was my day to accomplish what I have been trying for a week with little success.
Bucknell sent down to JHC some very nice computer network equipment. They have been waiting for someone to install it, and I am that person. Except that I am not really a network guru.
So early this week I took a new wireless router out of its box, loaded the setup wizard disk into the old computer we use in the dorm, and failed to configure the router. What a disappointment! I got the error, "Connection error." No specifics. Don't know where the connection is broken, because the computer is old, the cables are old, there is a (potentially) competing wireless router at my left hand, and I am not connecting directly to the cable modem or DSL modem as the wizard assumes. I tried again later at a different computer with the same bad result under the same problematic conditions.
Meanwhile we changed the old computer in the dorm for an even older one, and when I used the setup wizard this time I recorded every step, intending to write an email begging for help. Whether the router condescended to work correctly due to the threat of (remote) techies ganging up on it, or whether I just followed the instructions more carefully, or whether some part of the various equipment worked better - it really doesn't matter. I quickly configured the second new router, recorded all the settings for my successor, and gave thanks. That took until 8:30 am. Then I tried to find an old router that I could use between the Internet provider's antenna (Yota WiMax) and the new routers, each of which defines security for two sub-nets. Lo! I was able to get two that test good.
A JHC member pointed me to several other old laptops and asked me to find if they worked and clean them of old files and programs so we can install them in the clinic. Altogether I got four routers and three computers ready to go.
Saturday morning I will install three routers in preparation for Yota (the Internet provider) to take his router on Monday. Then I'm off to visit the Jesuits in the afternoon and maybe find a fish restaurant on Sunday.