"Works out of the box"

[adrianxw]

So today at about 10:00 I put a "works out of the box", "plug and play", "no setup required" NIC in one of my machines and spent about 3 hours trying to get the damn thing to work.

I then plugged up my new "works out of the box", "plug and play", "does it all for you" router and have spent the next several hours getting to where I am, (both machines can see the net, but they cannot see each other).

Who are these marketting idiots trying to kid?

[ober]

It's like trying to make software that works "out of the box" (which I'm having difficulty with at the moment)

What NIC card?

[adrianxw]

>>> What NIC card?

SMC 1233A-TX. Wasn't actually my first choice, but it had the advantage of being in stock.

The router is not what I wanted either. I ordered a DI-704 but what they delivered was a DI-804. This is 300 kroner more expensive, and loaded with features I have no use for, but lacking the printer port which I did want.

At this point both machines can share the broadband, but cannot see each other to share the printer. Fed up with it for the day, wine required.

<grumbling>surrounded by incompetents and idiots</grumbling>

[ober]

soo.... why not send the router back and get the one you wanted? Or was that out of stock too?

[adrianxw]

>>> Or was that out of stock too?

Don't know, it was in stock when I placed the order, (or at least, their web site said it was).

>>> why not send the router back

I need it working this weekend for a demo. It'll do if I can get the printer working from both machines.

[adrianxw]

Problem was software. I had ZoneAlarm running on both machines. I guess they were protecting me from malicious port scanners, but now the h/w firewall is doing that. Turn ZoneAlarm off and I can ping and ftp. A little socket client/server I knocked up works fine.

I guess ZoneAlarm is out now. After they had fixed the Apache II problem, I had no problems with it, liked it in fact, but, ... all good things... <fx>remembers there is a star trek thread to check</fx>

[ober]

Good to hear it. I'll have to keep that in mind for the future