The Frisco Chronicle relays a columnist’s troubles with setting up a little one-computer Wi-Fi network at home:
But setting up a Wi-Fi network is still full of pitfalls for the novice user. Indeed, even veteran computer users often need to spend minutes — or hours — on the phone with tech support to work out an array of minor bugs
It’s a sad tale of woe, all because the writer runs Windows 98, a pre-WiFi operating system, and he hasn’t kept it up to date with the latest patches, let alone the extensions enabling WiFi support. So he had problems he didn’t understand, which he resolved by updating system files one-by-one until it worked. Having installed a half-dozen different WiFi products on Win2K and WinXP, and not having run into any of these problems, I wouldn’t be discouraged by this poor boy’s experience. Just keep your system up to date, or use an OS released in the WiFi era, and you’ll do fine — I hear even Macs support WiFi now.
Yes, I agree. A more modern (implementation of an) OS is more helpful. When I purchased a Linksys “wireless router” and an Intel PC Card 802.11b adapter, the installation could not have been easier.
All I did was to plug in the Linksys, configure the access point to use the 128-bit encryption, insert the PC Card, and configure it using the New Hardware Wizard. Windows XP told me that it had found an access point, and asked if I wanted to connect to it. I said yes, provided the WEP key and I was done.
Macs was the first to support WiFi, silly boy. Airport access points and Airport 802.11b cards are now several years old. And, like most Apple products, they are plug-and-play. Duh.