Persevering Against all Odds

So I bought this cheap PC a few weeks ago so that I would be able to get on to the Internet while I'm at home. Believe it or not, for the last 2 and a bit months, I've not had my own Internet connection. I've either been going to university or public libraries or every now and then when my housemate isin't at home (like now...:). I've gone through like this incredible amount of trouble so that I can save money and get myself a computer and connected to the Internet cheaply. The story so far has been incredibly stupid but I will persevere. After all, perseverence gives hope and hope doesn't dissapoint*...

First of all, I bought this PC second hand for about €25. When I called the guy, he said he could give me a monitor with it too. However, he said that I might not want it because it was pretty heavy. I thought to myself, yea sure monitors are heavy but they can't be that heavy. Turns out that the monitor he was offering was massive. And it was not massive because it was like 45 inches. Instead, it was because it was a monitor along with the PC casing all in one. I haven't got to weight it. But I would estimate that it was at least 30 kgs. Anyways, it was free so I took it. And this is what I mean when I say "took": what I really meant is that I had to haul it to the nearest bus-stop and wait for two buses to come cos the first bus driver didn't even stop to pick me up. Thankfully, I didn't have to change a bus. I left the monitor at the bus stop and walked back quickly to fetch my bike. And then placed the monitor on my bike and wheeled it home.

I got the computer set up and tried to connect it to the modem in my apartment. But because the PC has Windows 98 installed, it doesn't connect automatically. Now I would ordinarily be able to work this problem out, but the bloody windows 98 was installed in Dutch! Well I guess, even if i wasn't able to conect to the Internet, I'd be able to do some of my readings and assignments on it right? WRONG!! Remember how its Windows 98? Windows 98 doesn't automatically detect USB memory sticks either! And even if I could, the PC didn't have MS Office installed...

So I've got two problems: its not connected to the Internet, and it doesn't detect my USB drive. I got some Dutch friends to help me get it connected to the modem. And the reason why it doesn't automatically connect to the Internet is because you need the drivers for the modem. Guess where you can get the drivers from? The Internet...of course. Well, maybe I can download the drivers from some other computer and then transfer it to the PC using a ...USB...stick...right.

The only option I had now was to transfer the drivers through a 3.5 inch floopy disc. Yeap a floppy disc, 1.44 mb capacity yeah. I managed to get the drivers downloaded while I was at a friend house. Finally, I was going to be able to get connected! I transferred the drivers to the hard-drive and then went to the modem set-up to install the drivers. But lo and behold, the set-up didn't recognise the drivers. Why not? Because they were in a zip-format. Of course. Except, this computer didn't have winzip installed...

And so...I thought "no problems I can just go to the unversity library and download winzip there". I went to the university library and found a computer. And then I found out that they didn't have 3.5 floppy drives on them.

Yeap and so as it stands, I've had this bloody useless PC and this monster-sized monitor sitting on my desk for the past few weeks thats done jack all for me so far. However, I will persevere and I will get it connected!...one day...







*However, my spelling might definitely dissappoint. Is it two s'es and two p's? I really don't know.