My Mistake
*sigh* Looks like comment spam's getting through the filter again... *sigh*
Anyways, I've made the long trek home for Christmas Break. I've got a rule whenever I travel either to a friend's place to look at a computer, or any trip where I stay more than two nights:
Always travel with all your CDs (not music, they should be on your hard drive, I mean backups/install discs), and always bring at least a rudimentary tool set.
That rule keeps me out of trouble. My laptop acting up? Great, reformat over night. Forget to bring Y file? Awesome, I've got it on disc, no biggy. My desktop blows a power supply (happens frequently)? Open 'er up, and shove a spare/replacement in. Nothing slows me down if I've got all my CDs and tools with me.
Nothing, that is, except stupidity. My stupidity to be exact. I forgot some crucial things at school (too far to just drive back and grab 'em). Most are just annoying but the worst is my router. I figured... why? I won't need a router, I've got a switch! Short answer: Because a router can do everything a switch can, but not vice versa. I sacrificed a lot of functionality for about 3 square inches of saved space. Stupid.
I got home, went to setup my network, and realized that my parents are using DSL. no problem, I thought. Well, three hours later bashing on Ubuntu I can't get it to work with adsl-start yet. So, I'm typing this from the Windows boot on my Laptop, I'm sorry for letting you down. Also, my brother needs (ok, not needs, though wants) wireless so he can get Internet up in his room. My wireless router is what used to provide that. So, we're both out of luck in terms of Internet.
My resolution:
I shall not travel anywhere without a mini-network. I shall have a router, and at least three cat-5 cables with me at any service calls. Also for my own traveling. If I had a router here, I'd be able to have it deal with PPPoE, and my computers wouldn't ever have to worry about it (how my setup was last year, now that I recall). I encourage others to do the same. If everyone had a mini-network on them whenever trouble arose, there'd be a lot of happy geeks (ok, I culdn't come up with a real reason to encourage it, though I know if I went somewhere, they calimed the Internet was "broken" I'd be overjoyed if they then handed me a spare cat-5 and said it was hooked up to the "broken" modem).
