Sep 13 2005
My Home Network. Fiddling.
<boring entry>
Initial set-up:
- old desktop replacement HP laptop runnng XP SP2 Professional (Tinkerbell).
- combined wireless base-station router (gateway?) connected to a DSL modem.
Problem space:
- Recently Tinkerbell started making disturbing ‘whirring’ noises intermittently. Scared the kitties. Spooked me. A ‘tap’ on the side stops it.. …but its a mystery…
- Tinkerbell could provide a useful resource on trip to the UK, homes with wireless networks and limited access to PC’s…
Requirements:
- Back-up digital music & photographs ‘outside’ the laptop.
- Storage accessible over wireless network (don’t want to plug it into my laptop).
- Easily add a photo-quality printer to the Network.
- Cheaper than replacing Tinkerbell.
- More storage than I currently need.
- No complex labeling and filing systems to manage (e.g. burning and maintaining a complex CD catalogue).
- Opportunities beyond my & the kitties current imagination…
The solution is not immediately clear to the the kitties and I.
Research:
- Searching online stores. Reading descriptions of Network thingy’s. Trying to work out what those descriptions meant and if they were good for the kitties and I.
- Verified research by asking specific questions of a store assistant (Fry’s).
Implementing the solution
- Purchase a network storage drive with printer-server (photograph attached).
- Follow instructions. Everything set-up ok… …then…
- changed the name of my remote storage folder…. ….things got too messy to describe here… …in time, i managed to ‘recover’.
- Searched XP help for ‘Back-up’. It wasn’t helpful. Later discovered it would have been helpful if I’d typed ‘backup’.
- 3hrs copying files from laptop to the remote storage - I havent got much ’stuff’ yet!
Now Tinkerbell can ‘pop its clogs’ any old time. I can save for a light-weight, pretty, kitty-fur-repellant, replacement laptop. A small object of desire rather than a whirring functional brick!
Meanwhile, the brick will come to the UK with me. That means you’ll get more ‘verbose’ blog entries than if I used my phone…. Hooray! After all, it is all about you.
<boring entry finished> 
My Home Network. Fiddling.
