The cost of mobility

I’ve written before about my mobile dilemma. Aside from the data management problems that stem from having a laptop, becoming mobile wasn’t free. Well, almost, but not completely.

My job throws away tons of computer equipment on a regular basis. They don’t resell or recycle, just toss. As part of the IT team, we hear first of the plans and thus get first dibs or the so-called “junk” before they are thrown out.

After an hour of rumaging and testing, I manage to secure a Sony Vaio and a Dell Latitude laptop. They both had their issues during the discovery. Limited battery power, missing keys, and other cosmetic problems. All in all, and plugged in, they both booted up, which was enough for me to take them home and try to get them into some sort of useful shape.

The Vaio, which I thought would be the hardest due to Sony’s proprietary mess, turned out to be the easiest to work with. Everything worked. It had Windows 98 installed but I quickly turned that into Windows 2000 and we were off and running. The size of the Vaio is tiny for a laptop and thus made it a perfect school computer for the wife. The easy of setup aside, the laptop did lack some speed. It is a Pentium III but only with preinstalled RAM. So a quick look online found additional an 128Mb of RAM for a mere $25. I couldn’t pass that up. With more memory and with Word working great for papers, there was one thing missing - the internet.

The Vaio didn’t have any wireless network card, nor did I have a wireless network, so we had to remedy that sooner than later.

Now, I was (and still am) a bit skeptical of wireless networks. Without a hard line connection, I often question their reliability and security. Nonetheless, as a good nerd it was time to dive into  that realm once and for all. Time to shop.

I picked up a wireless access point to connect to my LAN and a wireless card for the Vaio. Got it home, followed the instructions and was up and online within a hour. Not bad. Plus it was easy to configure security and find the network. Frankly, I was fascinated to find my card picked up about 3 or 4 other wireless networks within the neighborhood - some secured, some not.

With the Vaio conquest completed and the wife smiling, it was my turn to get a laptop. The Dell, which was a more normal laptop size, was mine. It also had to be plugged in to work, but had a built-in CD-ROM (the Vaio had external) and also a built-in wireless card. Nice.

With that, I didn’t have to purchase any network card for the Dell. But, as it would have it, the network card that came with it was a BITCH to configure. I scoured message board after message board trying to find a solution to get it work. I read about problems with the card itself, and also bugs with Windows XP SP2’s wireless connectivity.

After many an hour over many a day, the solution to the wireless trouble was simple. All I had to do was use a static IP instead of use DHCP. After all that time and all the trouble I’ve been reading that others have had it comes to something so simple. But whatever…it worked!

So now we’re both laptopped and wireless. Translation: We’re now in front of the TV more, watching AND laptopping.

It’s awful, frankly. The freedom of laptops (shy of finding the nearest outlet) has turned me into a bigger couch potato. But yet in the same swift motion, I’ve been reading more because I have a blog in my lap. So, almost like a book, I can read while half-watching a show and only needing to tune in when the show gets good.

Is mobility more of a blessing or a curse? That remains to be seen, but so far I see it as 50/50. It’s nice to be able to sit somewhere a little more comfortable and still compute, but data management is still a puzzle that I’m working on solving.

Total cost of mobility:

Vaio laptop…..$0.00
Dell laptop……$0.00
Wireless access point…..$40.00
Wireless laptop card…..$30.00
Extra laptop RAM…..$25.00
Increased laziness…..priceless