Laptop Redux

[billroper]

So when I went back to Fry's to return the smoked DSL filter, I wandered back to look at the laptop computers again, as I'd noticed that they had a Toshiba laptop at a favorable price. It's a bit smaller than the HP laptop that we've got now and has a substantially more durable keyboard from what I've been able to tell.

See, it would be handy to have a small laptop that lives upstairs so that I could quickly check e-mail and Internet from the bedroom while we're trying to get Julie to go to sleep. daisy_knotwise and I had discussed the subject previously and agreed that it made some sense. I called her up, gave her the info, and she agreed that it still made sense.

A couple of attempts by the salesman to upgrade me to a newer model were fended off ("Nope. E-mail, web surfing, and light word processing") and I took home the laptop, a case, and a three-year extended warranty for less than $600.

The actual laptop is a Toshiba Satellite L305D-S5890. I brought it home, tried to connect to our wireless access point and failed miserably.

After numerous attempts (during which I upgraded the security on the network and proved that it worked from the IBM laptop for work and the older HP laptop), I started to believe that I might have a radio problem on the laptop. Then I hit Google on the desktop.

I hooked the laptop up to a network wire and downloaded 41 upgrades to Vista and the machine's internal drivers. After rebooting, I connected to the wireless network with no problem.

I'm now getting software installed and configured, neutering Vista, and removing crapware.

So far, so good.

Comments

[mdlbear]

Around work the two most popular upgrades to Vista are XP Pro and Debian.

[billroper]

Well, yeah, but I just turn off most of the Vista features and things become remarkably tolerable. :)

[jrittenhouse.livejournal.com]

If you say so. A big chunk of the reason for us getting into Ubuntu is because of Vista. All of the house stuff here is either Ubuntu or XP.

[mia-mcdavid.livejournal.com]

You're running *Vista*???

[jcbemis.livejournal.com]

I wonder if Tony's notebook has a similar problem? It worked for a while on our home wireless system, then failed (He's currently using it with a wire)

[billroper]

It's not impossible, but the info I found indicated it had to do with a specific problem with communication with the router. Unless you replaced the router or WAP about the time that the notebook stopped working, I'd guess that's not the problem.

[jrittenhouse.livejournal.com]

We're coming to the conclusion that the smartest thing that we have ever done was when we redid the basement, we wired the house for ethernet. Drop in all of the main rooms. Compared to the headaches we've had over wireless reception, it's a breeze.