building PCs from scrap parts

[Neil]

Have to add though - wifi my arse - tried 3 wifi products in the sitting room, about 4 metres and two walls away from the SKY hub and theres buggerall signal for the internet to work.

Works great on the throne though.

Don't the internal cards need an Ariel that usually wraps around the screen? Is yours just running off the card alone?

(USB) WiFi dongles can be pretty titchy.

And many mobiles have WiFi, as well as plenty of other small devices.

Normally it's aerials on wireless access points / routers that either aren't that good, or maybe the power can be boosted on the access point / router's config (or sometimes needs custom firmware).

 

[cyfa2809]

There really isn't that much difference between any of them. While I have open source burned into my soul, that doesn't mean I think there is a clear "winner", everything has advantages and drawbacks.

Ultimately, if your computer does what you want, it doesn't matter what OS it runs. At the risk of pedantry (what, on a forum?) it's the applications you're using; the job of the OS is simply to provide services to them.

just as i was thinking, mayeb i should give another os a go, you said this cheers for that. i liked xp, was great, never liked vista, i like 7. its just what i know my way round i guess

 

[Xesh]

Have to add though - wifi my arse - tried 3 wifi products in the sitting room, about 4 metres and two walls away from the SKY hub and theres buggerall signal for the internet to work.

Works great on the throne though.

I had the same problem with WiFi in my house. It turns out that any metal in the walls will interfere with the signal. If the wall is a load bearing one then it'll have girders in it. At my old home there was one wall between me and the router and I got an intermittent signal even when using a directional ariel on the router. :x

The figures they give for the range and speed of WiFi are not real world measurements, they're usually measured in a lab under ideal conditions which never occur in 99.99999% of cases. I know of no one who's ever got that kind of performance out of it (even when in the same room as the router).

 

[highlandsflyer]

I got confused by my mac until I added office for mac and since then I use it as I see fit and it is much more user friendly than microsoft....

He he, that pesky Microsoft. Good thing they are providing MS Office for Mac to help you guys out.

 

[barry2017]

just as i was thinking, mayeb i should give another os a go, you said this cheers for that. i liked xp, was great, never liked vista, i like 7. its just what i know my way round i guess

Don't let me put you off! I've been using Linux for more than 10 years now, and I have to say there's never been a more interesting time to be involved with Linux. If you are interested in the nuts and bolts of Linux, there is nothing that compares to it. And it's free, and you'll get to become part of a community if you get involved.

There will be lots of people to come along to tell you which one to download, and they've all got good reasons, but if you're starting out I recommend Ubuntu as the place to start.

In fact, I had to burn a CD of Ubuntu earlier; do you want it? Send me your address and it's yours. It can coexist happily with Windows.

 

[highlandsflyer]

Win 7 is an absolutely excellent stable OS.

All bar one or two firewire devices I have work with the default drivers and I have had only a couple of minor problems since Beta testing.

For 99% of IBM compat. users Win 7 will fulfil all your needs, and offers room to grow in many ways.

Like programming, for most of us, the OS we choose now is whatever is easiest, and nothing to get too involved in.

For once it is what you are doing with your PC that is the thing, not how it gets done.

 

[Tazio]

As a Mac user I'm not too up on Windows stuff but have to use it at work.

We are having a big IT refit just now and i got a new PC today and we are shifting from XP to Windows 7. I was chatting to the guy from the IT company and interestingly he was saying that Windows 7 is actually Vista Second Edition but they have changed the name as peoples perception and experience of Vista was so bad, mainly because Microsoft rushed it out before it was ready.

 

[silverclaws]

I have only been a computer user for six years, so am relatively new to the scene, but my first experience of a computer was XP and XP in a language I dont speak, Svensk, but I got by and even managed to rid a virus McAfee couldn't touch on that machine.

Back in yUK all I could afford, was, well I am a skip diver and other people's junk is often useful and even profitable to me, evidence of our throw away mentality, all for the want of a new fuse, flex, or bug clean up. Win 98 taught me a lot.

Then vistaster and I went off computers, they became just tools not what they once were to me. Then I went to college and although there was microshaft, it was old and unreliable and most of my course was graphics orientated, so macs I had to use.

Then they discovered I had a learning disability, so I was given my own macbook with aids on it so I can understand some of the stuff that is required for my course. The mac talks to me, reads out stuff in a lovely soft scottish feminine voice, called heather and when I am writing stuff, well it writes as I dictate.