Wireless Not Working

I’m not an IT worker but consider myself to be a techie because I am an engineer. So when I hit upon a problem when I moved house I thought cool shouldn’t be a problem. When I moved I ordered broadband internet and realised that there are some parts of the UK (more specifically in London) that don’t get more than 1Meg download speed not matter what Internet Service Provider (ISP) you decide to go with. So much for Wanadoo’s 8Meg. After battling with BT customer service in India for 4 days I finally get broadband working. I could go on about call centres but we’ll save that for another post. I realised then that I had want to go online with my Xbox but my modem/router was upstairs and Xbox was downstairs. Simple solution I thought. Either I could run ‘Cat 5’ cable (sorry but that’s what the cable is called) downstairs or I could go wireless. Seeing that I had experienced the ‘plasterboard effect’ when running cables, Wireless seemed the better option. So I scoured around Dixons, Curry’s, Comet and PC World to find the right solution only to realise that some of the so called experts that work in these stores don’t have a clue. I hopped on the web and a few forums and opted on the Netgear stuff pictured DG834GT wireless router and a game adaptor WGE111. The wording on the boxes read “Easy setup- Smart wizard gets you connected in fewer than 5 clicks” and “Get you LAN party underway in minutes”. And I was sold. I hopped on to Amazon (cheapest) and ordered. They arrived last Wednesday and Friday night I had some time and decided to set up. And there started my problems. Not only could I not get the smart wizard to work the manual was no bigger than an A4. It actually took me a total of 18 hours altogether to get the whole LAN setup. I even tried connecting to the neighbour’s internet because I could see their LAN and not my router. Had it not been for the fact that I had internet access and a few helpful buddies on forums it would have taken me much longer. And the solutions to the installation problems were no where to be seen in the manuals. Only as a result of trial and error has some people found out the pitfalls and gave helpful hints to others. But why does it have to be so complicated? Why can’t our manufacturers be more accountable? So many people had tried emailing Netgear but with very little success. People had bought the goods, opened the box, couldn’t get it working and when they tried to return it they couldn’t because the box had been opened. I recon there should be a health warning in the boxes.