Wireless Couch Blogger

That's right! It's now possible for me to blog from my couch. I don't have to walk all the way into the other room (maybe twenty steps) and leave the TV. I set up a wireless network in my condo so I guess next I'll have to open up a coffee house in here- things don't always happen in order. Using a borrowed laptop and my new technical capabilities I'm able to surf anywhere in my apartment and my TIVO has become even more powerful. TIVO now wirelessly hooks up to the internet to download schedules and I can actually look at pictures from my computer -in the next room- on my TV. I can also listen to my music stored on my computer -a few yards away- on my TV in the living room! Of course I already had to manually move all the music from the cabinet in the living room to the computer in the first place - so now I can listen to my music where it originally was.

Are you confused? Well I can understand that. The computer people don't make this wireless stuff so easy to figure out. If you haven't already set up a wireless network before, it is a surprisingly difficult task. Almost everyone I know got a few calls last weekend begging for help and advice (Human helpdesk Pete carried most of that load) If you are not familiar with IP addresses and Subnet firewalls and WEP (?) security encoding you probably have an easier time staying "wired" (Of course wireless internet still needs lots of wires- go figure). So after the initial set-up of the router I go to hook up TIVO which is usually easy. TVIO is one of the few products that actually works and almost sets itself up. TIVO is so smart that it immediately told me that the Wireless USB adapter (only one wire) I purchased does not work with TIVO. This really cracked up computer guy Pete. He had never heard of such a thing. It turns out that my new TIVO box needs a VERY specific kind of "adapter"- Its kind of the wireless receiver thingy. I downloaded a list from the internet that gave extremely detailed instructions on which thingy I could buy. I ran out Saturday evening and checked three stores but none of them had any that matched all of the model numbers and serial numbers that TIVO recommends. The one I finally found- the next day - all the way out at Franklin Mills - was a thingy made by - TIVO. Why not just tell us that in the first place?

Everything is up and running OK now, but I couldn't finish this blog on my laptop on the couch, something kept crashing the computer. So I'm finishing it here at work. But I'm going to rush home and read all the posted comments - in the kitchen - on my internet ready Toaster oven.