Okay…I need to understand this in very low-level layman’s terms, so if you reply, please type very slowly…
Mr. K bought me a laptop for christmas from Best Buy. I had the Geek Squad come out and install my modem and get me set up for wireless.
In addition to my own personal laptop, I also have a work-issued laptop, which is about 3 or so years old. It is (obviously) wireless capable and works fine in hotels.
The Geek Squad Dude set me up for my little home network. The deal was, I get two computers on the network for the price I paid. Silly me, I thought that meant my two laptops would be on the network, but in reality, my old desktop was added as one of those networked computers so I could do wireless printing (had I known this, I would have bought the wireless printer thingy right then…I’ve since purchased that, but haven’t installed it yet on account of I’m a’scared to). This would allow me to eliminate the big ol’ desktop computer altogether.
However…Geek Squad Dude said that he couldn’t put my work-issued laptop on the network anyway, because their new encryption technology won’t work on my older laptop.
How can this be?? Couldn’t I just load software onto the work laptop so that it CAN understand the new encryption technology? Did the Geek sell me a load of crap here? It’s really very simple. I want both laptops to work wirelessly at home.
I don’t understand what’s going on…can someone 'splain? Many thanks.
New encryption technology? Unless the Geeksquad is using some sort of NSA level security or non-standard hardware (they aren’t & they don’t) you were being fed nonsense. Almost all consumer level wireless standards are backwards compatible. You were being played re the explanation.
The main issue is that Geek Squad kids often have a fairly limited knowledge about how to network stuff that’s not brand new and cookie cutter. If your notebook will connect to a hotel wireless setup putting it on the home network net connection should be no big deal.
If, however, you were asking him to allow the work notebook to share files and print on the home network, this may have required some jiggering of domains, permissions and other stuff that he was uncomfortable with. As a side note if a work notebook is set up in some secure fashion playing with the permissions etc could cause trouble when you log on on back at work.
No, I wasn’t asking for file sharing of any sort. If I need a document from the work laptop, I email it to my home computer and work that way.
Ok, so I have the software. So you’re saying that if I choose to pay the money (or find someone who is confident in doing this set up for me) the older laptop should be no problem? Those fuckers. I wish I had more interest and confidence in this kind of stuff. I hate being at the mercy of those pricks. Unfortunately, I don’t hate it as much as I hate the feeling of dread and panic when I try to undertake these things on my own. It’s a problem.
I’m not sure I understond what you mean by “the software”. all Windows PCs XP and above should be capable of wired & wireless networking just with the onboard OS. If you want to setup a domain based ystem you would need the “pro” version but that doesn’t sound like your scenario,
It had to do with the modem and the encryption, I guess. The Geek Dude had a thick accent and talked over my head and confused me, but I know a password has to be entered before anyone (including me) can access my wireless signal.
Actually, the Geek Squad guy may well not be bullshitting you. There are two encryption standards for WiFi: WEP and WPA. WEP was the original encryption standard, but for a variety of reasons it’s utterly broken. On a busy network, somebody can break the encryption in (IIRC) 5 minutes or so. Once the encryption is broken they can see everything that you’re doing on the network, and join it and use your internet connection.
WPA is newer, and AFAIK is not yet broken. The trouble is that hardware made before WPA came out may not support it. It’s not a software issue because typically the hardware itself is doing the encryption, and hardware made before the WPA standard in 2004 would have no idea how to encrypt things in WPA mode.
If it’s the case that your laptop can’t connect using WPA, your choices are to either downgrade to WEP and accept the fact that if somebody wanted to, they could break into your network, or only connect the laptop via an ethernet cable.
Yes, I think this is what he was saying! He told me that even if I wanted to pay more to have the third computer added to the network, he could not do it. I do not want to go to a lower encryption standard. He said they don’t deal in lower standards anyway, due to The Big Dangerous World Out There, and therefore, I’m fucked on adding the older computer.
Some googling seems to indicate that your Think Pad has PC Card slots. If that’s the case, it should be a simple matter of buying a new WiFi PC Card and installing it in the machine(installation is easy: the ports are along the side of the laptop and you just slide the card right in). I’d take the laptop into a computer store and ask them if the laptop really does have PC Card slots and if so, to help you select a card. What you should be looking for is(if my googling was correct):
Either a Type I PC Card or a Type II PC Card
Make sure that it supports WPA – if it does, it will say somewhere on the box
Make sure that your operating system is supported. If you’re running Windows XP this almost certainly won’t be a problem, and Windows 2000 also should be supported. But check the box – it will say which versions of Windows are supported.
USB WiFi cards also exist, which plug into any available USB port and can act as a wireless card, similar to how the PCMCIA cards work. You can pick them up at just about any computer store.
You’re referring to the “air card?” Yes, I am aware of them, but I think they run around $50/month. I think if I can get permission to go the PC card route, I’ll be better off in the long run.
No, he means that you can by a WiFi card that plugs into a USB port. It would connect to your WiFi network – no monthly fee or anything. I’d forgotten about such things. I don’t usually recommend them but in your case it’d be an easy way to get WiFi access.
I’m pretty sure it’s a software issue. Get someone a bit more knowledgeable than Geek Squad Dude to install the latest wireless card drivers and if you’re using Windows XP upgrade at least to Service Pack 2 and WPA-PSK (pre shared key) mode should work.
I think the above posters are suggesting you get something like this or this .
I’m a Linksys fanboy, based solely on their exceptional customer support. They have 24-hour live chat and I’m pretty sure 24-hour phone support. Of course YMMV, and Ive run into a tech here or there that wasn’t quite up to par, but by and large they’ll stay on the phone with you until the problem is solved or will go out of their way to help with a workaround.
