Wirelessly

Somewhat belatedly I have joined the wireless generation.

Not that I am a complete dinosaur. After all I have been using mobile phones, texting and occasionally emailing from them for yonks now and mobile phones are wireless aren't they? But until now I have resisted turning wireless with my home computer.

It's not that the opportunity wasn't there. A couple of years ago the dreaded Telstra sent me a wireless modem completely unasked apparently as a reward or bonus for me sorting out my duplicate accounts with them. Why it should be left to me to sort out the duplicity and not them cleaning up the duplicity I don't know but that's how it transpired.

So one day the postman left me a card notifying me to collect a parcel from the post office and when I did, there it was in a plain box - a wireless modem. At the time there was no need for me to activate this cute looking little toy. My home computer, a grand production, was constructed by a knowledgeable IT friend who had great fun spending my money purchasing the most expensive and latest components to complete the project. This lumbering concoction was far too large and weighty and bound to my desk to be remotely considered for, or converted to, mobile use.

So my wireless modem remained firmly and unconsidered in it's box.

And then, just before my recent overseas trip and completely unplanned and on a whimsy I went to my local shopping centre and three hours later I came home with a newly purchased and totally unresearched HP laptop or notebook (or whatever portable computers are now called).

Included in all the bits and pieces of extras I purchased with my gleaming new laptop came one of those portable USB wireless modem connection thingies which I had added to the purchase without any serious consideration. Now this USB modem connection certainly made the laptop connect to the internet but of course there were all sorts of drawbacks. For one thing the connection was very poor. I only realised when I got home that the service provider was a rival to my existing provider (the dreaded Telstra) with worse reception. Furthermore I was paying for this USB connection; a ridiculous situation given that I was already paying (much more) for the dreaded Telstra to provide an existing (and superior) internet service.

I knew I had to rectify the situation. On my return from the trip I recovered the unasked for wireless modem gift from the bottom of the cupboard where it had sat in it's box for the past two years. I read the instructions and was reassured that I would be wirelessly connected easily within minutes and so went to work. Of course it didn't prove easy...for me. An hour later, I gave up and telephoned the dreaded Telstra for assistance.

Naturally, being the dreaded Telstra one call to them wasn't sufficient but eventually I was connected to someone who seemed to be genuinely offering, and capable of providing, assistance. Almost unprecedented in my dealings with the dreaded Telstra I was offered next day home service - for which I will be charged. The next day a technician turned up - an hour and a half late - and he completed the installation and connection in thirty minutes. The technician did have to make several calls to complete the work, which I would never have known to do.

So pleased was I with this unexpected display of efficiency that I forgot to check with him about connecting the printer until a minute after he departed. Drat! But here is the icing on the cake. I pulled out the printer disk and downloaded the wireless connection with the printer myself...successfully. (Well, I think it was successful, I haven't actually printed anything yet!)

PS - I now have tested the wireless printing using a certain photograph of footballer Nick Riewoldt and it worked. Yay!