Sunday, February 17, 2008

Techno Wizard I'm NOT!

OK, I got a laptop for Christmas. Howard gave it to me. I had wanted one and he says I even voiced that once, and lo and behold, it showed up Christmas morning. Now, I know in order for it to work, we needed to get a router. That much I knew. So, I called the trusty local Cox cable company and explained I needed a router and Mr. Helpful on the phone told me I could stop at either of the local Cox offices and buy one. The alternative was to have them ship me one @ $100.00. I'm thinking, no thanks, I'll stop by on my way home from the Temple, the Saturday after Christmas. When I got to Cox, I was told, "We don't sell routers. Never have". Thanks, Mr. Helpful at Cox! So, I truck off to Best Buy. I consult with a guy, AFTER getting ignored for several minutes. I guess "Ms. Not-so-techno-savvy" showed all over me. ANYway, I got the router home. And it has set on the high chair ever since. I was afraid to tackle the installation. All the while, I've been getting lots of comments about my not using my new-still-in-the-box- super cool-laptop.

So, tonight, I determined was the night. I opened the router box. BIG label that says, "put in CD first". Ok, it's a walk-you-through-the-process-DUMMY instructions. Cool. Step one: Connect router to power. Okey dokey. So far so good. Step 2: Disconnect cable from computer and plug in the router (it shows animation so you make sure you put the right plug in the right hole). Ok, I check the back of the computer to unplug the cable. Hmmm... Cable is NOT there. We have some other cable, that doesn't fit into the router hooked up to the computer, that's coming from our current modem.

I called Howard in (I REALLY wanted to hook this baby up on my own and didn't want to have to get help). He identifies some cables, etc. but as I point out, they aren't the type that will fit into the router. He says, "call Doug or someone who knows how to do this." Which, is WHY I haven't done it before now. I hate to bother Doug with this stuff, but he's super smart when it comes to this stuff and I'm an idiot. He talked me threw it on the phone, back in December, and it sounded easy enough, but here I am, 6 weeks later. Stuck. Daniel, can you come to Vegas, please?????

So, even though I'm pretty glad I was born in 1955, I'm thinking about right now that being born in 1985 might have been a better idea and maybe I would have learned a little something more about computers, routers, modems and crap like that.

So, please, I don't want to hear anything else about my not using my super-cool laptop! This is why. Not that I don't want it or like it or think it won't come in super handy. I'm really looking forward to having it in my life. And, can some one tell me how you can set a wireless laptop up to a printer that is already connected to a PC? That's my next wonderment.

Computers...can't live without 'em, can't live with 'em!

And, while I'm at it my ineptness is why my sewing machine is still NOT in the new cabinet that Nathan and Howard put together and my quilt frame is still in the box in the garage. I wish I was the WOMAN-WHO-CAN-PUT-CRAP-TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But, I'm not. I'm ready to call 1-800-handyman!

3 comments:

Marsha said...

Ummm 1-800-Handyman...don't think we have any in Idaho. I know how you feel, I'm like ready to hire one of the girls from the ward (Jr. High is a good age) again 3 times a week, that doesn't mind repeating. I'm thinking brain cells are flowing out when I sleep!!

Stac said...

this is Nate

I might be wrong here, but I think you'll probably end up connecting the printer to the router too. But I'm not even sure about that. The only other thing I can think of it that you'd just have to wire connect it to the printer (which kinda defeats the point of having a laptop with wireless abilities.) So in other words, I don't know.

barlows said...

If you have the same Emachine we had (like, it's over 5 years) you have to do some fancy connecting to get your router to work since most people update their computers more than every 5-7 years. It's do-able, but we had to hire it out for that very reason. It's worth a call to Doug since we paid $85/hour. Good luck.