instructions entirely contrary to the manual, or, this is normal in a tech job

Had the pleasure of configuring a wireless access point (Linksys WAP11) this afternoon. What a breathtakingly shitty product thus far… After finally finding a power strip that had the right kind of plug for the nearest wall outlet AND magically had the right kind of plugs for the stepdown transformer, I got the thing powered up. (If you think electricity is complicated its even more fun when you’re working with USA products in a 220v country…)

But that was just the start of the fun. Download the manual from Linksys’ web site… Download a utility… connect with a crossover cable, configure my PC like the manual says.. .and nothing. Tried the reset button – actually, whaled on the reset button truth be told several times – and no change.

I was about to give up when I decided to look and see what else was written by people on the web and found one set of instructions for the same model product that were absolutely contrary to the PDF I downloaded from Linksys’ site – right down to the default network address and its password! So finally that worked although it pisses me off I spent an hour monkeying around with instructions that didn’t even apply to the version of the thing I was working with!

The worst was, it had to be done like yesterday. Visitors from a foriegn country here in the conference room with wireless PC's and no signal...

Going to go home now, take two Perifar (local brand name for ibuprofen) and then wait for those to kick in, then maybe go to the gym. Yiikes.