Posting from my new Acer Aspire One Netbook

[Eel O'Brian]

Decided to use my Xmas money and gift cards to replace my busted hard drive and get myself a toy:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9163291&type=product&id=1218040477207

this thing is tiny

[TVC15]

I was considering going for one of these before I got my EEE 1000.  The only reason I didn't was that Best Buy was sold out on that particular Sunday. 

Welcome to the netbook club.  It is pretty awesome.

[Eel O'Brian]

I was going to get an Ipod Touch 1st Gen 16GB bundled with a case and a $25 itunes card for only $20 more than an 8GB 2nd Gen, but they were sold out by the time I got to BB.

Then I went looking around and saw this.  I figured that for $50 more than that iTouch bundle, I could have a portable media device that plays Fallout 1 & 2.

Decided to wait until Spring/Summer to upgrade to a new desktop, until I get the money to build a beast and do it up right, so I just bought an $80 500GB HDD to replace the one that shit the bed on Xmas.

[Van Cruncheon]

welcome to the netbook club! i adore my dell mini, even if the keyboard kinda sucks compared to other netbooks.

the netbooks play quite a few classics well: unreal tournament, warcraft 3, diablo 2, majesty, age of wonders shadow magic, baldur's gate 2, torment, and civ 3 all have a home on mine. 

[Eel O'Brian]

i don't know how to connect this goddamned thing to my wireless router

vista makes it so easy

[MCD]

XP? i believe you should see it in control panel --> network connections.

I'm not good with wireless mumbo jumbo but if the wireless driver or whatever is installed, you should see a wireless connection there and on the taskbar as well.

[Eel O'Brian]

it is

my desktop computer isn't on (haven't installed the new HDD yet), that might have something to do with it, but that isn't keeping me from getting on the internet with this laptop i'm typing on

i was using an ethernet cable before

i never could figure out how to get xp connected wirelessly before, if i can't figure this out i'm taking this fucking thing back, it's no good to me without an easy way to obtain a wireless internet connection

people talk shit about vista, but wireless internet was only a couple of buttons away on that

xp is needlessly complicated when it comes to shit like this

[Himu]

My cousin got one of these for christmas this year. I helped him set it up. Holy fuck it's tiny. Doesn't even have a cd/drive drive.

[AdmiralViscen]

wtf, how is it hard to go wireless with XP lol

[Eel O'Brian]

well, i try to connect to my network, and it just bumps me back to the connections list

[AdmiralViscen]

Do you have Fios?

[Van Cruncheon]

might be your router; i've never had a problem connecting wirelessly with my netbook and xp

is the wireless adapter in the netbook a broadcom one?

[Eel O'Brian]

it's an atheros ar5007eg

[Arbys Roast Beef Sandwich]

Just chiming in to say that netbooks are fuck awesome. I own an MSI wind myself.

Eel: Try rebooting your router, that's weird behavior right there.

[Eel O'Brian]

now i can't even get it to connect with a straight ethernet connection

fuck this thing, fuck it all the way to hell

wasted my whole motherfucking night tearing my hair out over this shit, and here it is 2:30 in the morning with nothing to show for the trouble

it goes back tomorrow

fuck netbooks, fuck acer, fuck windows xp, and a preemptive fuck off to best buy for that 15% restocking fee they're gonna charge me tomorrow

i should have just bought an ipod touch

[Van Cruncheon]

could just be a bum chipset, atheros is notorious for manufacturing flaws

i'd ask for a replacement

ironically, one of atheros wifi chipsets is ALSO in the iphone/ipod touch, and has a busted tcp implementation

edit: seems to be a problem of that chipset x specific router models' wep/wpa implementations, particularly linksys routers. try temporarily disabling the router's security and see if you can connect.

[Eel O'Brian]

can i do that without using my desktop?

i haven't installed the hard drive replacement yet, and i can't access any settings stored on the busted hard drive

[Van Cruncheon]

what are you using for your current internet connection

try to connct to the router from whatever machine you are using: http://192.168.1.1 or http://HTTP://192.168.1.100 depending on the router model/brand

[Eel O'Brian]

i'm just running straight off the wireless right now from my laptop

[MCD]

you can access the router's page via wireless.

turning off security might be worth a try, my brother's dell xp laptop couldn't connect wirelessly when i set the security to wpa2, wpa worked fine though.

[Eel O'Brian]

welp, now i've fucked it proper

did a hard reset according to some instructions on a web page, now i can't even use my router at all and i have an ethernet cord hanging out of my laptop

fuck it, i give up

netbook goes back, router goes in the trash

[pilonv1]

prole what happened to your eee pc?

[TVC15]

prole what happened to your eee pc?

I think he sold it to a coworker when he got his Dell netbook.

I totally worship my Dell EEE 1000.  At first I was ambivalent about going for a 10" model, but after playing with the keyboards on the smaller one, I knew it was the way I personally needed to go (since I use it primarily for writing).

[Van Cruncheon]

prole what happened to your eee pc?

my 901? the wife was frowny on me havin two netbooks, so i gave the 901 to my brother.

[Eel O'Brian]

well, now that i have slept off the rage and calmed down a bit, i will try a new router

i needed one anyway, the old one would sometimes cut out if i had too many connections at once

so today i'm gonna buy a router, install my new hard drive and vista, and see if i can get this acer connected

if that doesn't work, then it goes back

[Eel O'Brian]

well, the new router worked, but now i have an unsecure open wireless connection

i'll have to set up a network

i used to use network magic, and that did everything automatically, but i dunno now

 

[demi]

You dont even need to use any third party crap software. Just log into your router and tweak it.

[Van Cruncheon]

click this, eel: http://192.168.1.1/

the password is probably admin, with no login

[demi]

Mine is http://192.168.0.1/

[Eel O'Brian]

yeah, i set the router up fine and put a wpa password on it, but will i have to enter that password every time i want to go online with this netbook or my laptop?  Network Magic just let me allow or block whoever i wanted

[TVC15]

No, Eel, you'll put the password in the laptop once, and then never again (or until you change it on the router).

[Van Cruncheon]

no, xp will remember the connection specifics and use them whenever you connect to that network

[Eel O'Brian]

yeah, i just clicked properties and saw that

well, guess i am good to go

now how do i set my desktop up for file sharing with this thing (it's easy on vista)

[demi]

I dunno how it is on Vista, but right click on a folder/drive and hit the Sharing tab in the Properties menu and you should deal with some wizards

[TVC15]

The worst part of going from Vista back to XP was the downgrade in file explorer.  Vista explorer >>>>> XP explorer.

[Eel O'Brian]

now that this is up and running i like it a lot

keyboard is a bit cramped, but that's the price you pay for going micro, i guess

fallout 1 & 2 run perfectly on this, and i found a list of playable games on an acer forum

hell, my regular laptop can't run many more games than this  

i am almost tempted to sell the laptop, since this will run just about everything i used my laptop for, with the exception of Photoshop CS2 and a few others (I might be able to get audacity running on this - might)

yeah, vista explorer is ace

[Powerslave]

I hope you have a wonderful time with your new computer. Happy new year to both of you.

[Flannel Boy]

So who's using Powerslave's account?

[Eel O'Brian]

thanks, happy new year to you, too

[Eel O'Brian]

man, i think i should have gone for the version with the 120GB HDD and six-cell battery instead of the 16GB SSD three-cell version i picked up (even though I can just plop a 16GB SDHC card in the slot for expansion if i want)

it was only $50 more

that version was online-only ordering, though

slight buyer's remorse 

[Arbys Roast Beef Sandwich]

man, i think i should have gone for the version with the 120GB HDD and six-cell battery instead of the 16GB SSD three-cell version i picked up (even though I can just plop a 16GB SDHC card in the slot for expansion if i want)

it was only $50 more

that version was online-only ordering, though

slight buyer's remorse 

Can't you just return it?

*EDIT* Oh, fuck restocking fee.

[TVC15]

man, i think i should have gone for the version with the 120GB HDD and six-cell battery instead of the 16GB SSD three-cell version i picked up (even though I can just plop a 16GB SDHC card in the slot for expansion if i want)

it was only $50 more

that version was online-only ordering, though

slight buyer's remorse 

Shouldn't you be able to get a better battery online for pretty cheap?  I did with my EEE.

Also, I have 160 gigs in my EEE, but I still really use it as a thin client.  Whenever I go home, I sync everything.  Heck, my most used app on the machine is google docs, which syncs automatically to the web.

[Eel O'Brian]

well, i do get nearly 3 hours out of it now, so it's not too bad, and looking around i see that the six-cell batteries stick out the back of the unit and add half a pound to the weight

and i can always buy a 16GB card and stick the 8GB one it came with in the other SD slot for extra storage, giving me 32 gigs total

it is meant for extreme portability, after all

i'll probably just leave it like it is

[Fragamemnon]

One day I am going to get one of these things just so I can play Emperor of the Fading Suns again. Those netbooks are like gold mines for playing low-rez mid 90s strategy games. Hell, they should all come with Panzer General 2 preinstalled.

[Eel O'Brian]

I installed Steam the other night

Half Life runs like a dream at 800x600

the only problem is, Steam wouldn't install on an external drive and the 8GB SDHC expansion card isn't recognized as a fixed drive, so I need to find a way to transfer it over because the 8GB SSD is gonna fill up pretty quick

[Eel O'Brian]

yeah i think i can live with this until these come out:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/155566/nvidias_ion_turbocharges_intels_atom.html

omg i want one right now 

[Van Cruncheon]

omg i can't wait for june

[Eel O'Brian]

omg netbook playing fallout 3 

omg netbook playing company of heroes 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

like these netbooks will be out in june - june 2010, maybe 

[close]

[Van Cruncheon]

they'll be out in june. the 9400m is an old chipset, and it's already on a 45nm die.

[Arbys Roast Beef Sandwich]

Can't wait for CES, hopefully we get announcements from the major netbook manufacturers re: ION netbooks.

[Eel O'Brian]

hope so

my acer will still be new enough to flip on ebay for a decent price

[huckleberry]

Can't wait for CES, hopefully we get announcements from the major netbook manufacturers re: ION netbooks.

I can't wait for CES to finally hear (hopefully) wtf Microsoft is going to do with the Zune platform.  Either make it available for WinMo phones or create a gaming/music hybrid machine.....please please please.

[Costanza]

yeah i think i can live with this until these come out:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/155566/nvidias_ion_turbocharges_intels_atom.html

omg i want one right now  hyper

I planned to buy a netbook next week for school. (asus 1000ha, $382 on amazon)

Now I'm not so sure...