Wireless crap
Talking of wifi on the move, I decided to replace my aging Negear WGR614 with something providing more range and reliability (it really had neither).
(mine wasn't so big - what is this picture???)
I tried out the WNR834 ('Rangemax' N thing). And took it straight back. You see, I expect things to work when I pay money for them and this just %&$i'N'g didn't. After searching around to see if anyone else had problems, these Amazon reviews pretty much summed it up.
(it looks cool, but it doesn't work)
So I did the sensible thing and read the reviews before I went to replace the Rangemax (the only Rangemaxish thing about it is how far I can throw it). After reading these glowing reviews for the much less expensive D-Link DI-634M, I popped over to Fry's (oh man, I could did spend ages in there like a kid in a sweet shop - for the second time in two days...) and made the swap.
(a nice pair of antennas)
When I got home, I decided to use the install wizard for the D-Link instead of jumping the gun. I tell you, the difference in user experience for installation, network set up, documentation, management UI, etc (check out the emulator), compared to the Netgear experience is quite amazing - it just puts Netgear to shame. Oh, the D-Linq just worked with 100% coverage right through the house. The Xbox 360 didn't require a touch - nor the laptops, nor the network drive - nada, they all just worked (using old SSID / network settings).
It's not the first time Negear has let me down. Remember this re: the MP101?
"After 2.5 days (minus sleep, working, eating, giving family attention) of network jigging/reconfiguring, software/firmware install/uninstalls/reinstalls/tweaks/products, combing through 100's of newsgroups, forums, blogs & comments, eliminating causes and then not being so sure, downloading & speed-reading support pages, troubleshooting guides, help & readme files, working though every convievable issue that you can possibly have trying to get one of these things running, and yes, dreaming about IP addresses, firewalls, & TCP/UDP ports, I finally got the damn thing to work as advertised."
Not the first time, but it will be the last.