Drivers

This really isn't warrior-specific advice but I think it important enough a reminder to muscle its way in here. Everyone: remember to regularly update your drivers. If you don't, you risk reducing the effectiveness of (or even rendering useless) parts of your computer. Why do I mention this now? Well...

I made brief mention of my terrible connection in my last post. I have two ways of connecting to the internet wirelessly: through my ZyXEL wireless network card and through a Belkin USB stick. Although the card recognised my network it just wouldn't connect so it seemed I was stuck using the stick, which gives a deceptively normal ms of roughly 100-200 but also adds in the odd 2-3 second burst of lag (as extra flavour). Frankly, it sucked. I was still a passable tank thanks to gear and begging Tricks and Misdirection off friendly DPS, but I just felt incredibly bog-standard. I couldn't do any fun tricks charging between mobs and whatnot and my TPS was mediocre at best.

Being single-minded and remembering issues with thick walls blocking signal in the past, I tried moving my computer to the corner of my room closest to the router downstairs. My card did notice the improvement in signal, but it only changed the little "your signal is x strong" and nothing useful. So my mind turned to buying a new network card or router. Frankly, I'm glad I'm a penniless student, or else I would have one or the other by now.

Vista saved me. My computer crashed for the first time ever while being shut down last night, and this morning Vista gave me a handy little dialogue box. "This computer has suffered from an unexpected shutdown. This is a serious error." It gave me a list of things to check. And there at the very top? "Check your wireless network adapter drivers." I did. And the little properties box... told me that my network card was working on drivers from 2007.

Admittedly, my card was made by an obscure company and I remember searching for and failing to find drivers for it in the past, but I persevered this time and located them. And yes, they appear to have fixed my problem!

In summary: treat your hardware and relative drivers like your own children. They require love, attention and, importantly, not being left to look after themselves since 2007.

Oh, and as I rarely get to say this I really must add: I love you, Vista.