(Every thime I read/hear “Do you want to take a survey?” I think of the Animainiacs. Great cartoons.)
Nah, this isn’t a survey about anything important or even significant. Heck, it’s not even a survey about anything all that interesting to most of my readers, for that matter, so if you have no real interest in compgeeky stuff, just toddle right along to another post, ‘K?
How Long Did It Take to Install Your Home Network?
My answer (because it was the shortest time allowed) was “Less than an Hour”–though of course I didn’t include my first peer-to-peer network between two computers using just a crossover cable (the time for that was essentially just the time it took to plug the cable into both computers and tell ’em they were on the same workgroup. What? 5 mins max?).
My first home network using some sort of switch/hub and two separate segments of cable between two computers in different rooms took about 20 minutes, because I had to run cabling in the attic, down walls, etc.
Real hard. *yawn*
Other computers added on usually take about the same amount of time, unless using wireless access. Running the cable’s the time sink. Well, that and building the cables from a bulk roll.
Nowadays, using a wireless router and wireless cards, one could easily set up a buncha computers on a home network in 15-20 minutes, assuming familiarity with the hardware and different operating systems (if using different OSes). Heck, just assuming the ability to read directions. What really flabbergasted me was the percentage of folks who answered that it took more than an hour: 43%. Heck, 18% (part of the 43%–25% took between 1 hour and 1 day) took longer than a day to get their home network up and running. If it takes that long, someone ought to think to have a literate person read a manual and explain the process using small words, spoken s l o w l y. *heh*
And then there are the folks not dealt with in the survey who are like my (bad) neighbors. They set up their wireless network wrong. But I’m not telling them that their unsecured network leaves them wide open. Nuh-uh. *heh*
Setting up your first network, way too much time, not much cash. Not telling your neighbors their wireless net is exposed, priceless.
Yeh, I was slow. 20 minutes or so was kinda sluggardly, but I beg slow navigation snaking cable through the attic.
😉
Heh. You’d think, living in a condo community/apartments/etc. that you would especially make sure that wireless network was private and secure. Nope, we always found some just wide open, hard drives and all. Crazy, crazy.
*heh*
Yeh, it’s pretty unbelievable to me that so many folks simply fail to exercise the simplest security.
BTW, I’m sorta halfway semi disappointed nobody caught the faux pas in the title/first sentence of this post. The correct phrase from the “Survey Ladies” episode was, “Would you like to take a survey?”
🙂