techADDICTION Show #18 - let the ranting begin!

The techADDICTION Show #18 (MP3 - 16.2MB - 47min)

LISTEN HERE

It’s show #18 and Kevin and James are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore! This show is ranting and raving about problems with devices, poor customer support and a good example how to lose customers. Seriously, we have two bad Plantronics headsets, one dead Toshiba optical drive, and countless bad Intel wireless chipsets. Sounds like a rough one so buckle up and get ready for a wild ride.

NOTE: The audio file link is working now for those who had problems before.  Sorry for the inconvenience- it's what I get for uploading it at 1 am.

00:00 Intro- Kevin Tofel & James Kendrick (theme music by One Egg Ticket)

02:45 Ranting about Plantronic headsets

DSP-400 - Two dead (and counting)
Broken headset and a Super Bowl XXXVIII baseball cap

14:45 Toshiba M200 pen problem

18:30 Message from The Podcast Network

19:15 Toshiba optical drive problem

27:00 Customer service is king

28:30 Intel Pro/SET Wireless problem

Rob Bushway’s Motion LE1600 WiFi problem
HP W500 Wireless upgrade

42:00 Microsoft SyncToy

45:30 Wrap up

Comments

[Ian]

Hey James the audio file is not there.

[jk]

All fixed now. It's what I get for uploading the show at 1 am. :)

[Darren]

James and Kevin,

Another GREAT show! Your podcast is one of my must listen to podcasts. I look forward to it each week.

I also had problems connecting to my 802.11g network at home with my Dell Inspiron 8600. The laptop uses the Dell WLAN 1350 card which uses the Broadcom chipset. The laptop would connect at 54Mb, work for a minute or so and then drop the connection -- even if I was only feet from the access point. I wrestled with it for months -- and then I read somewhere about changing the channel the access point was set to. It was on channel 6, which is the default for LinkSys routers. I changed it to channel 11 and my laptop starting working famously. I can now keep a solid 54Mb connection all over my house.

I also have a desktop with a Buffalo Tech 802.11g PCI card in it. It never had any issues connecting and keeping a 54Mb connection. Not sure what the chipset is. But this fact kept me cursing at the Dell laptop for months!!

[jk]

Good point and one that shouldn't be overlooked!