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Thu 20 Mar, 2008 11:46 am
Last Christmas we ordered a XO laptop during the "One Laptop Per Child Promotion with the idea being to give Mo, who is seven, the computer.
The XO arrived yesterday and I'm in charge of figuring it out before teaching Mo how to use it.
I've been goofing around on it and it is pretty easy to use! Hurrah!
However, I can't figure out how to do the Wi-Fi thing.
When I go to the "neighborhood" screen and click on an access point it blinks and the outer circle turns white which I THINK means I have a connection but when I go to the "home" screen the circle is not blinking and doesn't have a white rim and I cannot access the internet through it.
Does anyone know anything about these XO computers?
I could really use some help!
No idea - but I found this:
:wink:
On the wi-fi thing....
It's been a while since I set this up for the kids but I think it went like this.
Go to the neighborhood view (the quick button all the way to the left, I think). There should be a little circle for each access point in range. Find yours and click on it. You should be able to connect from there.
The mesh network is automagic if there is another kid with an XO nearby. If my instructions suck, I'll try again when I get home and can look ours for reference. I'm just going off memory right now.
Well then.... I'm hoping someone could educate me a bit!
It is a pretty neat deal. When you ordered one for yourself they gave one to a kid in a developing country. The computer itself looks pretty indestructable and comes equiped with some nifty programs for creating music and art and video. I'm impressed.
With spring break just around the corner this thing should provide some new fun!
Oh yeah, and there is beaucoup info on the wiki, as well as lots of new activities to download.
http://laptop.org/en/laptop/start/connecting.shtml
Thanks FreeDuck -- I think that's what I was doing but I still could not access the internet.
A little box would hover over the connection icon, it had two little boxes -- one that named the access point and another that said "disconnect" which makes me think I was connected but I still couldn't access the internet.
I'm a dim bulb in computerland.
Thanks again!
But that is where I was getting my info. In the neighborhood screen I would get an icon with a white rim but when I went to home it was red and not blinking.
Is that what it is supposed to do? I can't really figure it out from the info on that site.
Sorry, I posted the wrong link for the wiki.
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Support
Ok, so it says you're already connected, but you can't access the internet via the browser?
Btw, my kids LOVE their laptops, especially when they can "connect" and play games together.
In the neighborhood view, is the circle half-full, full, or empty?
I'm getting it back out.... hang on a second and I'll tell you what happens...
Okay....
Go to the neighborhood view --
Click on the access point (nearly full with green), it flickers and the outside rim turns white...
Go to the home screen
The circle is now less than half full and has a red rim
Click on browse -- get the Google screen
Search for "music"...
Oh! Oh! Now it's working!!!!
I don't know why it's working now because I did the exact same thing the first three dozen times.
Hurrah! You fixed me!
Hah!
There's got to be some scientific principal whereby the act of doing something in front of others makes it work. It happens here at work all the time.
I'd love to hear reviews from both you and Mo about the laptop. I just think it's the bees knees.
FreeDuck wrote:Hah!
There's got to be some scientific principal whereby the act of doing something in front of others makes it work. It happens here at work all the time.
Actually, don't even need to do it in their view. Simply calling them and telling them about the problem you are having will often fix it as well.
Next questions:
I don't get any sound. Do you know how to adjust it?
How do you work with bookmarks?
Not sure about the sound, but I'll look when I get home and see if there is some trick to it. Ours just seemed to work, though there were times when the Tam Tam Jam couldn't be heard. I thought maybe it was just buggy, but the kids are constantly just pushing buttons and could have turned it on some way.
No idea about the bookmarks, but I'll ask Duckie. He's practically mastered this thing and is always downloading and installing new activities and showing me cool stuff I didn't know.
Hurrah for Duckie! I'll be looking forward to his advice!
Thanks FreeDuck.
Ok, I asked Duckie and he says there are two volume controls. The one on the keyboard you have no doubt already found. He thinks the other is in one of the programs like Tam Tam Jam and it's a soft control like you see on youtube videos and computer dvd players where you drag the little ball to the right or up to increase the volume.
But you've probably figured it all out by now.
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