Showing posts with label wireless. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wireless. Show all posts

Wednesday, 28 November 2007

The Indoor War Association!


Every boy and man seems to have some unhealthy obsession with warfare, whether it's wanting to join the forces, or playing video games. Myself, I have no interest in warfare as such, in fact I think it's pointless and brutal. But that's not to say that there wasn't a time when war was actually necessary and the strategy of war was an art form. Of course, modern warfare is fought against invisible enemies, with no clearly defined outcome or objectives, fought in lands far removed from our own. It used to be the case, that you would go and fight becasue the enemy was at the gates, it was clear cut.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't a fan of "Medal Of Honour" and "Call Of Duty" and the "Total War" series. It's easy to villify the Germans in video games, because they were clearly the bad guys, same with Napoleon and his armies. All the great generals are remembered because of their famous victories, and yet they all died rather ignominiously; Hitler, Napoleon, Alexander, Genghis Khan. Apart from Genghis, they weren't very good breeders either, now I come to think of it.

Anyhow, to the point. As, I'm shortly due to become wireless and will effectively have a LAN in the household for the first time, I'm going to have a great time playing all of the aforementioned games against my son. He's way too good for most games as it is, so it will be a pleasure indeed for me to play Wellington to his Napoleon, Monty to his Rommel etc. So tell me again, how do you set up a wireless network?

Saturday, 24 November 2007

Look Ma, No Wires!


In the very near future I'm going to take a step into the unknown and set-up a wireless home network, and probably change ISP after 4 years as well. There are a few very good reasons for doing so; firstly the kids are screaming out for the Internet all the time, and my pc is the only one in the house with Internet access, secondly they both want laptops for Christmas, and thirdly, so my son and I can play games against each other on a WLAN.

I can't really afford to buy them laptops, but an opportunity has presented itself, allowing me the possibility of purchasing them without VAT, which knocks off £100 for starters. Besides which, I recently acquired a wireless eTEC Modem/Router for nothing, so I have that ready to set-up, and also, I'm presently paying £25 a month for 4Mbps DSL, and I saw an ISP advertising 8Mbps in my area, for £20, with free local and international calls. A much better offer, I thnk you'll agree, which also means that I won't detect too much slowing down of my Internet speeds, should the kids be using it too.

Well, the fact is, that I have no idea how to set-up a wireless network and it may well require some other bits and pieces to do so, but in terms of Internt use, if as I supect, the kids have to go through my computer to access the Internet, then Netlimiter will allow me some means by which to ensure that they don't slow me down noticeably. Don't tell them though, they don't need to know do they? And if I'm on a priority download, I'm sure they'll quite readily accept that there are quite often problems associated with being on a wirelss network.