The Law of Intended Results

[howeird]

This morning I worked from home, testing a matrix of wireless network settings. My router not only offers every security setting there is, it explains the pros and cons of each one. One of the things it explained was the setting I had been using, WEP 128-bit encryption, was not supported by the latest 802.11N standard, which turned on the Big Light™ for me, because I had been wondering why all of my N devices were connecting at the slower G standard. As soon as I was done testing, I switched to WAP2 TKIP + AES, which is the most universal standard these days, and supports N. I'd sort of forgotten how many wireless devices needed to be re-configured because of that change.

Since I had been using the netbook for testing, it was already configured. But then  there was:

• iPhone
• TiVo
• HP network printer
• Wii

iPhone was a piece of cake. So was the printer. Wii was a bit of a pain because I had not used it in months, and the battery for the controller was almost dead and had to keep being recharged. I had forgotten that my charger only works when the Wii is powered on. TiVo was a major pain in the butt because the on-screen settings don't include changing the password for the USB wireless device, and the instructions on their web site don't work as described. Turns out the wireless dongle will only get its settings from the router, and only while disconnected from the TiVo. Pain in the butt because I had to go upstairs and push the button on the router then run downstairs and push the button on the dongle, then plug it in to the TiVo. Only then did the TiVo give me the option to enable the USB device. The good news it it really did get its password from the router.

So now everything wireless is connected, and working at the same or higher speed than before.

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After the home tests, I went to the office, where they had me do one more of them, and after that it was all reproducing bugs and answering email questions from the manufacturer about the bugs. Good questions, and they liked my thorough answers.

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Left work at 6:30, hung out at the nearby Starbucks where there was enough eye candy to justify driving home at dusk.

Plans for tomorrow:
Laundry
Maybe work on the home movies project