New Laptop

I spent last weekend in London. I desperately needed to buy a new computer and seeing I couldn't stand the thought of using a French keyboard, I headed north to pick up a middle of the range laptop. Not that I really like the English keyboard either but at least it's similar to the one I'm used to. I set it to the international keyboard setting anyway so I think it's ok.

I really wanted to get the latest and greatest computer but at 2000 pounds, that was a bit over my budget. In the end I went with an Acer laptop with 17 inch screen, 1.6 GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD, and who knows what else, for 700 pounds. It's not the best on the market, by any means, but it is significantly better than what I was using. The increase in speed in incredible and so is the LCD screen.

The first thing I had to do was set up a network so Ferbent can use the old computer at the same time as I use mine. It took me ages to figure out how to do but in the end it was very simple. Here are the steps for adding a computer to an existing network using the Livebox and internal Wi-Fi. This is really just for my reference because I think I'll buy another computer in the next month or so for Ferbent. The old has so many problems and he's helping me with my marketing efforts and he needs a new computer to be more productive.

Full instructions with screenshots can be found at Orange.

1. Push the little button on the bottom of the Livebox, next to the connection for the electricity. The opens up the network to allow you to connect the new computer.


2. On the new computer click Start - Connect.


3. Select the number of the Livebox (which is written on the bottom of the Livebox.


4. Enter the WEP password which can also be found on the bottom of the Livebox.


5. Wait a few seconds and the connection is made.

Yay, that was easy. Now if only I can figure out how to set up the wireless connection to the printer...

Oh, and it doesn't come with Microsoft Office so I downloaded the open source package Open Office. It was recommended by someone but the spell checker on the Word type program doesn't work :( That's the whole reason I wanted it. Don't tell me I'll actually have to fork out cash for Word and Excel? I wish Qumana came with a spell checker (with Australian English) then I could live with Open Writer. Although I prefer to check my grammar too before posting. Looks like Word it is.