With or Without Wires?

Dropouts have been killing me. That is my desktop computer would drop off my wireless network and wouldn't reconnect unless I restarted my machine. That is so annoying. I'm always downloading stuff and I'm always checking my e-mail since that's where my work comes from. When I can't connect to the internet things come to a stand still. I have to stop what I'm doing, close all my programs. restart, and open all my programs up again. It's just a waste of my time.

I don't know why my computer drops the connection. Reading up on the problem via the web reveals that it's a common problem that nobody really has an answer for. It could be a million things. I tried a couple of solutions and the problem went away briefly but came back. What does that mean? Who knows?

So I decided to hard wire my computer into my network. I didn't want to do this because I like the concept of wireless. If you could see the back of my computer you'd know why. It's like a rat's nest back there. I've got about fifteen devices connected to my computer and they are all are connecter by wires of various types. I actually have to label my wires. I take some tape and write the name of the device on each end of the wire. Otherwise I have no idea what I am unplugging if I have to unplug something.

Most of the devices have to be plugged in to an electrical outlet too. What a mess that is. I also have to label the power cords. I've got at least twenty five wires in the back of my computer. You can see why I didn't want to hard wire my computer to my router.

The first thing I had to get was an ethernet hub. Luckily my friend had an extra one and some spare ethernet cable. Of course the hub has to be plugged in and I had no spot for it on the surge protector. I had to juggle some things around and find an extension cord to plug in an electric clock further away but I managed eventually.

I need the hub because I already have my Xbox 360 plugged into the extra ethernet port on my router. I never got my Xbox to hook into my wireless network (and what a pain it was to try) so I never even bothered trying to get the Xbox 360 hooked up that way. After all the ethernet cable was already in place. Now two things had to be plugged into one port so a hub it was.

My friend had given me the hub a few days before but I wasn't motivated to hook it up until I was watching a TV show that was stored on my computer, playing on my TV via my Xbox 360, and it stopped playing because my computer dropped off of my network. Finally the annoyance became too much.

Of course when it comes to computers annoyance is always followed by more annoyance. I have my router mounter on the wall and I couldn't get the Xbox ethernet cord unplugged so I could plug in the hub. I tried taking the router off of it's plastic mount but broke a plastic piece off of the mount. I got the Xbox ethernet cord unplugged but couldn't put the router back on the wall. Annoying. I also couldn't find the piece of ethernet cord I needed, and knew I had, to hook up my computer. The Xbox 360 was still hooked up fine but not the computer.

Did I mention that I started this all at about 10:30 at night? Never do that. I knew better but couldn't stop myself. I had to stop and go to bed with things half finished. Sleep wouldn't come easy as my brain was still problem solving and didn't want to turn off. I was thinking about how to mount my router without using the broken wall mount. I had the idea to hang it like a wheel of cheese in a mesh bag. Since that was my best idea I decided to try and fix the wall mount.

The next day after finally falling asleep I managed to use a drill to attach a bolt where a plastic rod used to be on the mount. With that I could place my router back on the wall but it didn't hold as well as it used too. Fear of it falling made me place a strategic piece of tape on it too. I hope it holds but there is a solid chance that it will come tumbling down some day. That would annoy me but gravity gets the best of us all eventually.

So now I'm all wired in and my computer can connect to my network two different ways. I'm getting a little more download speed on the wired connection so that's good. Now I just have to decide wether to get a wireless card put into my new computer when I get it in a few weeks. I also have to decide wether to upgrade my wireless router to one of the new faster ones. After all I do like the idea of wirelessness. As long as it doesn't drop out on me. Life's a bitch. Ain't it?