A portion of our pre-con stress was trying to make sure that the booth was set up with Point of Sale credit card processing. Purchases were made, configurations were done, but the person who did all the set up work was not at the convention to run it. None of it got used because the people on-site were unable to figure out how to make it all work. Howard hauled it all home. Now my assignment is to make it all work and train Howard on it so that we don’t have this problem again.
I booted up the laptop and plugged in all the gear includine a barcode reader and a credite card reader. It all worked beautifully. I couldn’t understand why they couldn’t make it work at the convention. The next step was to connect the machine to the internet so I can do live processing. I made a trip to a store to buy the necessary ethernet cable. Then I came home and plugged the machine in. No can do. The computer will not recognize the existence of a network connection.
Okay.
So I decided that we’d pull out the laptop that Howard has laying around. We could use that instead. A mere 20 minutes of tinkering got that one connected to the internet. Now I just had to move the software over. Except that Howard’s machine is running windows 98. It doesn’t have drivers to run the USB stick that I tried to use. It doesn’t even know what to do with a downloaded file with the extension .zip. So I have a machine that runs all the software beautifully, but which can’t connect to the internet. I have a second machine which connects just fine, but I’m unable to get software onto.
At this point some of you tech folk are probably brimming with options and suggestions. Many of them would be useful and help me sort out this problem. But the key here is: I don’t want to deal with this problem. Troubleshooting hardware and software is not something I enjoy. It is not something I am good at. I’ve spent ALL DAY and I haven’t even begun the critical task which is processing credit card transactions that took place two days ago. Give me an accounting problem please, not this mess of old hardware and software. I can figure out hardware and software, but I believe that those things should just work without me having to think about them. Yet another reason that I’ll be buying a Mac if I ever have enough money to buy myself a laptop.
I have no clue how to fix the computer which claims the network cable is unplugged when the cable is clearly attached. But I think that I can solve the issues with the other machine by upgrading it to windows xp. Unfortunately I have get a copy which will either cost time or money. Then I have to install it. Then I have to install the point of sale programs. And then finally I will be able to actually do what needs to be done. Maybe. If it all works right.
Until I can get it done it looms. Looming things are stress provoking.
Other network options
Rather than spend lots of money on XP, consider spending a lot less on a PCMCIA or USB network adapter. You can buy these for $10. Then you can circumvent your damaged port. Which is my guess, I have seen ports get physically damage through cords getting ripped out or malformed plugs (happened to my very nice macbook in fact, but it was covered by warranty).
I second what Simnick said. getting either a PCMCIA (PC Card) or USB ethernet adapter is the way to go. I’m running one on one of my laptops right now. Easy and it just works.
Software and hardware headaches are just that. Even us tech guys aren’t thrilled when something that should “just work” doesn’t . I feel your pain. Sometimes things get old and die. Other times you do what should be a trivial upgrade and it takes days to accomplish what should take hours. Technology, can’t live without it, can’t love it.
Another Solution
I am going to agree with the guys about the usb/PCMCIA cards are the way to go for fixing the new laptop
As for the older one email yourself the file and download it to the laptop. It circumvents the need for using the usb stick to transfer files. It connects to the internet just fine so that should help. Also if your Windows 98 doesnt recongnize zip files I recomend Winrar http://rarlabs.com/rar/wrar370.exe is the latest download 🙂
Re: Another Solution
Also burning it to a Cd or a CDRW would work just as well as the Email depending on the size.
dumb question…
With the ethernet cable plugged in, did you try shutting down the computer, counting to ten, and restarting it?
Sorry… I know I know… You don’t wanna think about it. I just had to ask.
And technically, this IS an accounting problem. One of Accounts Recievable… 🙂
usb or pcmcia ethernet card.
Motherboard ethernet ports fail mysteriously.
It is not worth the agrivation to diagnose. It is not worth the money to upgrade the other computer (which is likely old and slow) to xp.
Do as everyone else has suggested and just buy an adaptor for this machine.
-_ Rick
Re: usb or pcmcia ethernet card.
I agree with these, but one other option exists that may work. Your laptop may have a built in wireless adapter. If you already have a wireless router in the house it may be a simple matter to link them together wirelessly. If that doesn’t work, go with the usb or pcmcia card.
I have all sorts of suggestions for troubleshooting and deling with the headaches. Including an entire tree of steps to identify and cure the problem. But it is a headache, and even geeks don’t actually like dealing with the problems.
Since it sounds like you just want to deal with the stress, and not have heaps of advice provided I will bite my (virtual) tongue and merely commiserate with you. I hope that you reach an acceptable solution and that everything works out in the end.