Warning About Unofficial MLS Internet Connections
Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2008 5:10 pm
So one of our clerks has brought in a D-Link wireless router that has a slot for those Sprint 3G Wireless Internet Cardbus Adapters that you normally plug into a laptop. We use it to access helpful sites like LDSTech, LUWS, LDS Maps, etc. on our personal laptops that we bring in. Unfortunately, we had a curious member of our bishopric try to connect the ward computer to the wireless router via ethernet cable, in hopes that it would give us a faster MLS connection.
For any of you out there thinking about this, first of all you should wait for authorization from your Stake Presidency and Stake Technology Specialist. Second of all, I will tell you of how it can hose your working modem connection within MLS. It's also important to note that it was never successful anyway because apparently MLS had a way of detecting that our install of MLS was not supposed to be coming through an internet connection, but through a modem connection only.
So after this deed was done, we were unable to transmit via modem for 3 days. It seemed like the modem was dead, fried, or something similar. However, someone older than I who knew how to work with modems was able to use ATDT or something to verify the modem was functional, just not within MLS (haha, I know that dates me that I got started on a cable modem; if it helps any, I was the first kid on the block to have a cable modem when they weren't widely available).
After a call to Clerk Support and a few levels of support representatives later, it was determined that at some point an extra modem driver was installed or something. Apparently, MLS didn't like choosing between more than one. Our guess is that by Windows detecting the LAN connection to the wireless router, somewhere in that install sequence this extra modem was configured and confused MLS.
So moral of the story is don't mess with a good thing when it's working, and also wait for the people in charge to make the change to the Meetinghouse Internet Program as approval is given.
P.S. An interesting side note...during the phone call with one of the lower level Clerk Support representatives, they had us remove Symantec from the machine; in fact, they insisted when we asked them if they were really sure. It did significantly speed up our Dell Optiplex GX620 with XP Pro SP2, Intel Celeron 2.53 GHz, and 256 RAM. I suppose it's ok while we're still on a dial-up modem, but I can't imagine this will be good when we move to the Meetinghouse Internet Program in a few months.
For any of you out there thinking about this, first of all you should wait for authorization from your Stake Presidency and Stake Technology Specialist. Second of all, I will tell you of how it can hose your working modem connection within MLS. It's also important to note that it was never successful anyway because apparently MLS had a way of detecting that our install of MLS was not supposed to be coming through an internet connection, but through a modem connection only.
So after this deed was done, we were unable to transmit via modem for 3 days. It seemed like the modem was dead, fried, or something similar. However, someone older than I who knew how to work with modems was able to use ATDT or something to verify the modem was functional, just not within MLS (haha, I know that dates me that I got started on a cable modem; if it helps any, I was the first kid on the block to have a cable modem when they weren't widely available).
After a call to Clerk Support and a few levels of support representatives later, it was determined that at some point an extra modem driver was installed or something. Apparently, MLS didn't like choosing between more than one. Our guess is that by Windows detecting the LAN connection to the wireless router, somewhere in that install sequence this extra modem was configured and confused MLS.
So moral of the story is don't mess with a good thing when it's working, and also wait for the people in charge to make the change to the Meetinghouse Internet Program as approval is given.
P.S. An interesting side note...during the phone call with one of the lower level Clerk Support representatives, they had us remove Symantec from the machine; in fact, they insisted when we asked them if they were really sure. It did significantly speed up our Dell Optiplex GX620 with XP Pro SP2, Intel Celeron 2.53 GHz, and 256 RAM. I suppose it's ok while we're still on a dial-up modem, but I can't imagine this will be good when we move to the Meetinghouse Internet Program in a few months.