Pesky technology

Stupidly I have installed all the course software form MT262 on my laptop and not on my PC.  I intended to set up a wireless network at home so that I could have access to the course website and FirstClass conference from my comfy chair.  My comfy chair is where I read the course material and it seems logical to extend this functionality to other parts of my study regime.

I have therefore purchased a Netgear DG834G ADSL Modem Router with super whizzy firewall and a jolly WG111 dongle for The Hildy’s old laptop.  I set it up last night and was about 3/4 the way through the installation when I was prompted for my IP address.  “What?”, thought I.  My ISP is Tiscali and they provide a dynamic IP address every time I connect to t’Internet.  Best I ring them up and ask for a static IP address.

You’d think it would be easy to do this.  You’d be so wrong that I’d need to sing the Wrong Song at you.  An obviously very busy lady from the call centre informed me that Tiscali don’t provide static IP addresses except to businesses.  “Arse”, thought I as I began my quest for a new ISP.  She was very polite though and her English was impeccable. 

Having commented on the quality of her English I should point out that my assumption here is that she was Indian and that Tiscali have an Indian call centre.  She could well have been sitting in a call centre in Dublin.  Anyway, I’ve always disliked call centres but she was so enthusiastic that I just had to smile.

After undoing all the changes involved in setting up my super whizzy new Netgear rocket propelled ADSL router I finally got back onto t’Internet and started my research.  Rather than change over to BT (yuck), AOL (ha ha), or someone similar I decided to keep my existing email address and upgrade to a business account.  A business account has the option for a static IP address and is exactly the same price as a consumer account but with double the bandwidth.

Now I’m waiting for them to send me the details.

*twiddles thumbs*

Why didn’t I sort this out weeks ago before my course started?