It should just work
Over the weekend I spent some time trying to fix my son's computer as the networking had stopped working. It is quite possible that the explanation could be that the card has stopped working, that the software is misconfigured or that the antenna is broken.
The point is that it should not be my job as a user to work out the reason for the problem. The computer should work it out and tell me.
Engineers have an infuriating level of tollerance for systems that need manual tweeks. In the original WIFi security scheme WEP the user is expected to type in a long secret key in hexadecimal to enable security. Windows XP makes this twice as hard as necessary by making the user type the key in twice. My son's computer stopped working after a 'repair' man temporarily turned of WEP while working on a modem problem (don't ask why).
When I upgraded my network I decided I had had enough of WEP so I bought a new router that supports WPA-PSK.
The new router works just like it should. It still needs a bit more set up than I think it should and the designers have not thought about how to transition a network from WEP to WPA. You can choose one or the other but not both. Both is what you need when you have five machines working on WEP two of which won't work on WPA at all.
We still build computers the same way that cars used to be built. The worst expect to be maintained by a full time mechanic, the best aspire to allow the user to be their own mechanic. Modern cars come with four year bumper warranties and are designed to run 10,000 miles between services. We still have not got to the point where we expect computer systems to just work without complaints or excuses.
Why did we have to wait six years to get a security mechanism for WiFi that was usable and secure?
