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of hsa and updates

  • Feb. 4th, 2013 at 3:42 PM
So while my ASUS is in the repair shop, I hauled out my old Lenovo to use in the living room.  I used it for several days but ick.  The battery no longer charges. It's always run hot, but now it's running Really hot and it's just full o' junk.  I decided today it was time to just reset.  

Lenovo has a very easy reset deal - click and then say yes about 5 times and it reverts back to the way it was when I bought it.  In my case it was 108 updates short of a current operating system and I had totally forgotten about the giant boatload of bloatware.  Holy crap.  It's ugly.  I got through most and downloaded Microsoft Essentials and Chrome and now it's downloading and installing the 108 updates.

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I am confused by wifi network speeds.  I can get in my home wifi network with my phone and run speedtest and get 20Mbps down.  I can put the laptop (windows or chrome) right next to that same phone and never see more than 5-10Mbps.  That just makes no sense to me.

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I got a note from the insurance guy who handles my ex-bosses insurance stuff.  Ex-boss is funding a Health Savings account for me to the tune of $50 a month.  I've never actually had an HSA myself before but I think with the new insurance it's going to help me out a bunch.  A giant chunk of my medical cost every year is drugs and a very stable amount - I know how much they cost and how much I will use so I can project how much I'll need.  Then I can feed the HSA myself and get a nice tax deduction.  Apparently the COBRA administrator  is going to help me set up the HSA.

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And speaking of taxes, I've done as much as I can until more forms come in.  I have no clue where I stand this year.  I could owe a bundle or come out even. I'm thinking a refund is not in the cards.

Comments

( 12 comments — Leave a comment )
artkouros
Feb. 5th, 2013 12:35 am (UTC)
Your wireless speed may be determined by the generation of WIFI interface card each device has. For instance 802.11b maxes out at 11 mbps whereas 802.11g and n go much faster.
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susandennis
Feb. 5th, 2013 12:41 am (UTC)
oh good info! thanks.

I just looked up everything.

this chromebook's wifi specs are 802.11 b/g/n

the lenovo and the asus are also 802.11 b/g/n

so sounds like they are all outfitted properly. good to look up and make sure, tho
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howeird
Feb. 5th, 2013 05:14 am (UTC)
To add to what artkouros said, I think you said you have a dual band router, 2.4 GHz and 5GHz. The Lenovo would not have a 5GHz wifi card, your phone definitely does.
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susandennis
Feb. 5th, 2013 05:37 am (UTC)
snap. really??? do no computers have wifi cards as good as phones? how do i even know what ghz my computer has?

and yes, i do have a dual band router
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howeird
Feb. 5th, 2013 05:52 am (UTC)
Really. I'm taking a guess that your Lenovo pre-dates 5GHz routers. It's pretty easy to remove the wifi card from the laptop, it may say on it what speed(s) it supports. There is probably an upgrade available, though from your description you may not want to spend more $$ on that dinosaur.
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susandennis
Feb. 5th, 2013 06:09 am (UTC)
No, I do not want to spend any money on this one.

Does my ASUS UX31E-RSL8 which is less than a year old also predate 5GHz routers? How can I know? How can I tell?

It has the same wifi issue as the Lenovo. 5 or less sitting right next to the phone which consistently gets 20Mpbs.

Plus, I could swear that both the Lenovo and the ASUS, at one time metered out at 20 which does not sound possible.

Also the 3 month old Samsung Chromebook also has the same slow wifi adapter?

What laptop would give me the same speed as the phone?

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howeird
Feb. 5th, 2013 06:26 am (UTC)
The Asus has an N adapter, which means yes, it can do 5GHz. N is one notch better than G.
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susandennis
Feb. 5th, 2013 06:32 am (UTC)
ahhh just the clue I needed... thanks, the lenovo has n as well, back to square 1
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howeird
Feb. 5th, 2013 04:22 pm (UTC)
ARe you sure the Lenovo has N? What model is it?

And since it's dual band, if the Lenovo does have N, when you click on the wifi icon in the task bar, you should see two choices for your router, one for 2.4 and one for 5 Ghz

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susandennis
Feb. 5th, 2013 05:50 pm (UTC)
You cracked it. Well, I mean you gave me enough clues to finally get a decent google to fu which gave me the idea to get into the router and give each band it's own ssid so I can clearly tell which band which device is using and set my expectations accordingly.

YEAH! Thank you.
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howeird
Feb. 6th, 2013 03:30 am (UTC)
Kewl. Yeah, I did that when I saw they were two separate radios in the setup page. You probably already know this, but if you use Tivo's N wifi adapter, it lights up green for 2.4 GHz and blue for 5 GHz. If it's green, hold down the button until it flashes, then press the top button on the router for them to sync at 5.

Edited at 2013-02-06 03:30 am (UTC)
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susandennis
Feb. 6th, 2013 03:33 am (UTC)
i did not know that but the only tivo that uses wireless is too far away from the router to latch onto the faster band. it's in the bedroom and i rarely even use it so no biggie. the main tivo is ethernetted.
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