Kapitano's Guide to Wireless Networking (Part 1)

(1) Order your wireless network card from the local supplier. It's actually a warehouse in the middle of a dingy industrial estate.
(2) Get a lift from your father to pick it up the next morning.
(3) Install the driver, then watch in puzzlement as your laptop reboots as soon as you plug the card in.
(3a) Watch in annoyance as it reboots several more times.
(4) Try it out on your mother's laptop, with the same result. As soon as you put the card into the PCMCIA slot, the machine resets.
(5) Phone the supplier, whose automated system puts you through to the manufacturer. Speak to a sales rep who, while charming, knows nothing about computer stuff. She says she'll send you an email explaining returns and replacements. She doesn't send it.
(6) Phone the supplier again, this time the technical department.
(6a) Spend 15 minutes reading Private Eye, as they pipe old songs by 10CC down the line at you.
(7) Speak to a techie who you just know is a fellow friend of dorothy, explaining your problem.
(7a) He will pinpoint the cause of your trouble by saying "Hmmm. Sounds like it's faulty."
(7b) He will then arrange for a replacement. This will seem breezily effortless compared to the manufacturer.

So, tommorow morning I'm exchanging my bad card for an identical looking one. And we'll see how part 2 goes.
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As the first half of the day was taken up with my networking problems, the second half concerned...someone else's networking problems. But that particular saga is much longer, and not yet over. But it did involve an extremely large and occasionally amorous dog.