Work Computers

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

My wife has a work computer that she brings home. Since we went wireless in the house she has apparently been unable to unplug the ethernet cable from my router and plug it into her computer... she basically yelled at me yesterday because we dont have a second router with ethernet outs...

My current router (Apples airport express) is he size of a pack of cigarettes, and has a single USB out for the printer as well as a digital out for a stereo, after all we live in a 2 bedroom apt, and both have primary computers with apple airport cards (802.11g). Up until now we didnt need a cat 5 cable to come out of the router for anything. Its set up so we can plug the printer into the usb, hook the stereo into the audio out plug. Thats all we should need (especialy since her computer has Microsoft officeand entorage and thats what she uses at work.)

Well she needs to use her work computer and it "needs" to be hooked up the he internet, so I go out and browse routers today...

The cheapest I could find that I trusted was about 35 bucks, and came with crappy cat 5 cables. So I thought about it and sprung for the extra 20 bucks and bought her an 802.11g wireless ethernet card. So she gets home and yells at me because she cant put the card in her computer, not physically cant, but wont because its a work computer...

I dont know if the IT dept at her office has told her this, or if she just assumes its true, but man, does that make it incoveinent to use a laptop in a buisness environment. Like its hamstringing the purpose of mobility...

So now I have to take it back which is a shame, because it would have let her do all sorts of work improving things, like take the laptop to Panera across the street from her office at lunch and work without the fear of someone coming in  and multitasking her with their work, or bothering her to chit chat idlely when she's working on a spreadsheet.

It was a nice card too,... Belkin makes nice stuff...

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I did buy a wireless bluetooth keyboard which I have christened Tom, Tom is the companion to my wireless mouse Jerry. I mention it because the trip to the computer store wasn't wasted.

[Mistress of Darkness]

That's actually very common, Jeffe. Because the work computer is company property, you are never allowed to make improvements to it on your own. A lot of companies don't allow you to even install something as simple as Trillian without going through the correct IT channels first. It causes a lot of problems if the person inadvertantly breaks something, or installs a virus, or corrupts the system, etc.

And then, when it was time to return the computer, there is also the "well that's my wireless card in there" issue. Why invite trouble.

There is the possibility that your wife could request a wireless card be added to her laptop, especially given the set up of your residence's online situation, but the paperwork and follow-up needed is often daunting.

[stacer]

They used to say that at Houghton, but the IT department didn't care that people put Itunes on or messengers, as long as it wasn't taking away from work time--they had to add them on their lunch break or whatever. They only had the capacity to back up 8 Gig of each 100 Gig hard drive, so they partitioned it off so that work stuff went on the 8 Gig partition, and Itunes music went on the Scratch disk. That way, if your machine crashed at all, the work stuff would be backed up, and you had the responsibility to backup anything personal on the scratch disk. It was a very nice arrangement, I think.

[Mistress of Darkness]

That does sound nice.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I know, I know, I was just ranting,... it just seems kind of ridiculuous that I have to screw up the nice networking job I did to provide access to this alien beast. I didnt want wires going everywhere, to trip on and get in the way... now it seems like I have to get them and a router that I really dont have any place for.

Cursed thing... it could have been so easy.
Still on the bright side I guess I can hook up the Xbox permenantly....

grumble grumble.... I just didnt want to have to move that huge entertainment center...

[Mistress of Darkness]

There, there.

/me gives Mad Dr. Jeffe a consoling pat.