Category: hardware

I seem to have more trouble with routers and wireless access points than I should. My first WAP was an original Airport (flying saucer model). I think I was actually still on dial-up when I got that, and had it plugged into a phone line. It worked fine for a couple of years, then just died. I replaced that with an Airport Express, used in conjunction with a Linksys router. The router was fine, but the the Airport Express started flaking out at some point. I found that I could use it at work with no problems, so I took it into work and got a Linksys WRT54G for home, and used that to replace both the old Linksys router and the Airport Express.
In the office, the Airport Express was fine for a while, until it got fried from a power surge. I replaced it with a D-Link WBR-2310 that I got off Woot. That worked fine for me up until we got kicked out of our building a couple of weeks back. (I’m now working from home.)
Back at home, the Linksys WRT54G worked fine, until I got an Apple TV a year ago. It just didn’t work right with that. I replaced the firmware with DD-WRT and tweaked a few parameters, and I got it working acceptably, though it was still a problem to copy large files from my desktop computer down to the Apple TV.
Well, the WRT54G died last week. No clue why; it just stopped working. Since I’m working from home now, I really need a working router, so I hooked up the D-Link that I’d been using in the office. It’s been a bit flaky. I’ve made a bunch of config changes, so we’ll see if it holds up today or not. If not, I’m thinking about one of these two routers. They both should accept the DD-WRT firmware, and have some good reviews out there.
I think my frequent router issues probably have something to do with the variety of equipment I’ve got hooked up, and the density of WAPs in my apartment building. I’ve got a Tivo, Apple TV, PS3, iPod Touch, PSP, Wii, and three notebook computers sharing my wireless. And I’ve got maybe a dozen other wireless access points that I can see from my apartment.

After considering a few unlikely scenarios as to how I might create the factory restore DVDs for the Aspire One, I just broke down and did the obvious: I went out to Costco, and bought an Aspire accessory pack. It contained a USB DVD burner, wireless optical mouse, and a simple case. I didn’t have any trouble hooking up the DVD burner or the mouse. I went ahead and made the restore DVDs, no problem. Then, I also created an image backup of the drive to DVDs, using Acronis.

I also removed the trial McAfee software today, and replaced it with F-Prot. So, at this point, I think I’ve got the thing all set up and configured the way I want it.

I just got the Acer Aspire One that I ordered from Woot last week. I didn’t have any problems getting through the initial setup stuff. I’ve got all that done, and I’m letting it download Windows updates right now. My initial impression is that it’s workable, but I’d never want to use it as my main computer. The keyboard is cramped, but usable. I don’t think I could touch-type on it though. (I’m typing on my MacBook right now, and I’m pretty quick on that keyboard.) The trackpad is really hard to use. I hooked up a USB mouse, and I’m using that instead. The screen is small enough that it’s hard for me to read stuff on it, depending on the font size. So, basically, I think it’ll be a good machine to take with me on an overnight trip, for instance, where I just need to check e-mail, and I want something more than just my BlackBerry and/or iPod Touch. I think if I was going on a week-long trip, I’d still want to take my MacBook or Inspiron.

I didn’t have to uninstall too much bloatware from it. Both Microsoft Works and Office 2007 Home & Student were installed on it. I removed Works. I own a copy of Office 2007 H&S, so I just entered my product key on that. Google Desktop is installed too; I may remove it, or I may keep it. For anti-virus, it’s got the usual 60-day McAfee license. I’ll probably remove that, and go with F-Prot, which is what I use on my desktop PC. Or maybe I’ll pick up this package from Amazon for $20, and just keep using McAfee.

I bought an Acer Aspire One from Woot today. I’d been thinking about picking up a netbook for a while now. I was in Costco earlier this week, and they had both an HP Mini and the Aspire One for sale. Costco’s price wasn’t bad ($330 or $350, I think), but Woot’s $260 was low enough to convince me to actually go ahead and buy.

Looking around at what’s out now, the standard netbook config seems to be an Atom processor, 1 GB of RAM, a 160 GB hard drive, and a 10 inch screen, all running Windows XP. Most of that is fine, but I really wish I could have gotten one with 2GB of RAM, or found one that’s easily upgradeable to 2 GB. Most of the netbooks either aren’t upgradeable, or they require some serious disassembly to upgrade. The Aspire One seems to fall into the latter category. CrunchGear posted a video how-to on upgrading the Aspire One, and it’s pretty scary. If I’m understanding the situation correctly, the model I’m getting has two 512 MB chips in there, and one of them can be replaced with a 1 GB chip, for a total of 1.5 GB. My main worry with the RAM is that I’d like to be able to run Windows 7 on this thing eventually, and I don’t think 1 GB is going to be enough for that.

This guy has a write-up on how to install the Win 7 RC on an Aspire One. It doesn’t sound too difficult. I may look into partitioning the drive and experimenting with it. Long term, I guess I need to decide if I want to buy the $50 Win 7 Home upgrade for this machine, or just keep it on XP. The $50 thing expires on July 11, I think, so I need to figure that out soon.

[ UPDATE: This post at the Woot forum makes it sound like it’ll actually be pretty easy to upgrade the RAM in this thing. Cool. ]

About a week ago, I mentioned that I was sending some stuff off to Gazelle. It looks like everything worked out OK on that. I got an e-mail from them a few days ago, letting me know that they’d received my stuff, and I just got another e-mail with an Amazon gift code for $27, which is actually $4 more than I expected. So, overall, a good experience, and a relatively painless way to get rid of some stuff that really wasn’t worth anything to me.

I was considering sending them my old PlayStation 2, but it looks like they’ll only give me $19 for it, while I can probably sell it, plus the second controller I never used, plus a few games, for maybe $50 on eBay.

I just packed up an old digital camera and my old Palm i705 to send in to Gazelle. I’m also going to toss my old MotoSLVR into the box tomorrow, after I get my new Storm. Gazelle will recycle the i705 and the camera, as they apparently have no resale value at this point. And they’re giving me $23 for the old phone, which I guess is more than fair. I haven’t used Gazelle before, so I’ll report back on whether or not I actually get the $23. Either way, I’m getting rid of some old tech that I really don’t need anymore!

Happy New Year! I’ve been hearing some good things about the Zune over the last year or so, but now, Microsoft reminds everyone why they shouldn’t be trusted with making consumer electronics devices. Guys, it’s not like leap year logic is difficult to figure out or anything! Did they just think the product wouldn’t last until 1/1/09, so they didn’t bother with it?

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