Tech headaches
17 October 2014 | Stevensville MD
Rainy and cold
Today has been an exercise in frustration. Technology may be a wonderful thing but it can be a headache too. We did finally manage to get the sat phone to work as a phone, the supposedly activated phone was never activated. Over that hurdle next up get it to work as an internet hot spot. For that connectivity we needed a second piece of equipment , a wireless router. It all sounded so easy when we were at the boat show. When the said router was removed from its box it came with no instructions zip nada helpful ? not so much. With the wimpy internet connection the marina supplies, I googled the device. MMMM the plot thickens, looks like there is some software involved here. Fortunately for me, not him, the person I bought the device from at the boat show e-mailed me that yes we would need to download the mail software from their website. Okey dokey, so I go to their website and find that this software has a price tag and a subscription requirement this was either a sin of omission on their part or my ears weren't hearing correctly at the show. Right now I've got a lot of very expensive equipment that isn't working and a rep on the opposite side of the country. Not a happy situation at all. So I bite the bullet, go sit outside directly below our marina's wireless antenna and download the software install executable that was well over 50MB in size. This took a good part of an hour. Now in order to install the software you also needed a current internet connection. Can anyone see the Catch 22 here???? I did manage to do the install and now we have yet another e-mail address. Oh joy that makes 4 in total. Does this solve the problem with the router noooo. There is another program to run to let the satellite phone act as a modem so the router can use it to connect. Of course when I start that program it doesn't recognize the phone So now I sit waiting for a return call from the rep who sold me all these goodies so I can please dear Lord get this thing up and running before departure.
And yet another technical challenge awaits in that we won an Ipad mini yesterday that needs to be set up as well. Oy my head hurts I think it's time for me to go back to pencils and slide rules.
The picture was taken on one of my bike rides this summer.