May 26, 2006
Tester Puzzle Answers
Last week's quiz was testing the instructions for connecting to my hotel's LAN:
High Speed Internet Access
For support contact the Millennium Technology Help Desk, extension 9999, option 2
Four easy steps to connect:
1) You need a network interface card (NIC) with an adapter OR and [sic] internal NIC (Ethernet port).
2) Shut down your computer. Connect the high speed internet access cable on the desk to the adapter or Ethernet port.
3) Turn on your computer and launch an Internet browser.
4) The hotel welcome page will appear. Follow instructions to complete the connection.
Here are some questions I had:
What's Help Desk Option 1 for?
Who do I call if the Help Desk is closed?
Is the Help Desk really going to have a clue?
In Step 1, I think "OR and" should be "OR an".
As it is, Step 1 sounds like I need both a card *and* an internal NIC.
In Step 1, what does "a NIC with an adapter" mean? A PC Card or other external NIC? And isn't that an Ethernet port too?
What if I have multiple NICs? Which should I use?
What happens if I switch between NICs?
What happens if I disable my NIC and then reenable it?
What happens if I lock/sleep/hibernate my computer while I'm connected? While it's connecting? [Answer: sleeping my computer drops my connection and I have to re-login. Annoying!)
What happens if I plug the cable into a router or bridge rather than directly into my computer?
What happens if I initially connect through my computer but then move the cable to a router? Does my connection stay up?
What happens if I initially connect using one computer but then move the cable to a different computer?
What happens if I have a firewall running on my computer? Do I have to partially or fully disable it?
Do they really expect me to shut down the computer before connecting? What happens if I don't? What happens if I do?
The instructions on the hotel welcome page are not as clear as Step 4 makes them sound.
Why do you force me to setup an account when I'm billing the charge to my room?
This is all wired access; what are my options for wireless access?
What do I do to disconnect? Given this complicated process for connecting I imagine disconnecting must be rather involved as well.
What happens if I log off and back on? Does my connection persist?
Is my IP address maintained across locking the screen? Sleeping? Hibernating? Logging off and back on?
What happens when my session ends?
Does my session expire at the end of the calendar day or twenty-four hours from when I first sign on?
How does it keep track of when my session has expired? Can I fake that somehow?
Hotel security: Please note that I didn't actually try (most) of these, most especially that last one. <g/>
Posted by The Braidy Tester at 07:30 AM Permalink
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