First off, what kind of brand-new computer doesn't come with a wi-fi adaptor? It's a desktop, but still. It did come with a fucking dial-up modem. There's cutting edge technology. I didn't even check when I bought it to see if it had wi-fi, I just assumed because it's the year 2008 that it would come standard. It didn't help that I got it at Office Depot, where there is no customer service. In the instruction manual, it said I could hook-up with either a modem, LAN, or via wi-fi. It said I needed to go out and buy a wireless antenna to hook up to the wireless card. So I wasted an hour and half of shopping and driving in rush hour traffic to get one at Office Max. Again, zero customer service. I get home, only to discover that there's no wireless card at all. I was presumptuous when I read the manual. It simply says I can go online with any of those three choices. It doesn't say the computer actually has the equipment to support them.
Next, I try to install the wi-fi card which was in my old computer. It neither fits nor does the software work with Windows Vista (more on that in a moment), so I buy a wi-fi adaptor that plugs in via USB at my local Fred Meyer.
I follow the instructions to install it, only to have it repeatedly fail. Finally, I realized, this brand-new product does not work with Vista. This blows my mind. Again, I did not check to see if it was Vista-compatible. That's my fault, but come the fuck on... why would they even sell a product that does not work with the only operating system available in new PCs for the last year and a half? WHY? (spare me your Linux comments, I'm thinking about it)
So now, here I am, at the crossroads. My plan is to attempt to install the many other programs I use on my old computer, to see if they work on Vista. If they do, I return the wi-fi adaptor and get another. If they don't I'm going to downgrade to Windows XP. I still have an original copy. I'm a little nervous to do that, since I'm no computer expert, but I'm going to give it a try.
While I'm on the subject, I would whole-heartedly advise against purchasing Belkin brand products. We have a wi-fi router that periodically refuses to broadcast a signal, which requires us to completely restart the router. It just so happened that happened again last night, on top of all the other problems. The previous time, I had to call for tech support. The guy was from India (not unusual, I know), and didn't really understand the English language, which didn't help. He then hung up on me before solving my problem. Now, this wi-fi adaptor fucks me over. I'm never going to purchase anything from Belkin again.
I give Vista (so far) 1 tiny Bill Gates head on a stick, and I give Belkin one giant "limited or no connectivity" message.
2 comments:
If if makes you feel any better, our brand new off-brand "Acer" purchased from Bedouins in a caravan runs Windows Vista and rocks balls. We plugged in our wireless USB thing and it worked just fine.
Wait, maybe that doesn't make you feel better....
Dude. Vista sucks ass. I tried for a few months to embrace it (I was too jet-lagged when I got my new laptop to feel like installing XP just then, so I decided to try stupid Vista), but I ended up just loathing it more and more every day. There are SO many obnoxious things about Vista beyond the myriad compatibility issues.
I personally would say you should install XP now before wasting too much time installing things on the world's most irritating OS. I plan to revert to XP on my laptop as soon as I'm reunited with it in Portland...
Don't even get me started on Vista, dude... I'm getting angry just thinking about it, even with my Vista computer several thousand miles away...
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