Warming: This is a RANT about the Siemens Speedstream 4200, Wifi, and Skype

Things should just work. I am a huge believer in the development of technology and being able to use it effectively.

The telephone evolved into the wireless phone, which evolved into the mobile phone. The mobile phone has now evolved into a mobile network device. One advantage of this mobile network device, or even a mobile 3G modem, is that it can plug into a variety of devices to easily gain access to the internet to communicate information.

Today I realized that some devices are not so easily connected. My home wireless provider is Optus. They provide me high-speed internet access for business and personal use. In order to obtain this I use a Siemens Speedstream 4200 ADSL modem. Additionally, I use an Airport Extreme to provide myself with a wifi connection. At my home in the US I used a cable modem, which plugged into my wifi and it just worked.

In Australia I am learning that nothing just works and nothing is easy here. Everything requires handholding. If you ask someone when something will be done and they tell you tomorrow - that generally means within a week. If you ask about why it wasn't done by the next day the response is generally "no worries mate, I'll be right on that mate" and it gets done the following week.

Over the past couple days I've learned this impacts consumer technology as well. For example, in order for this modem to work by itself it required multiple settings to be setup after installation. From a consumer point of view I can imagine this taking a lot of support calls because it is not a simple process. Additionally, if you plan on setting up wifi with the modem you also need to reset some of the original settings with terms such as Full Bridge, PPPoE, etc. You can read pages of issues here: http://forums.mactalk.com.au/33/29464-airport-express-unable-establish-internet-optus-2.html.

Next, what I would describe as a popular software: Skype, well, that requires another workaround in order to let the modem function. (http://shadow.sentry.org/~trev/adsl4200/skype_config.html)

All said, I am now connected, however the advice or fix for these two problems was not provided by the service provider, Optus, or the hardware manufactuer, Siemens. Instead it came from individual consumers through message boards as these non-standard settings are not supported by the service provider.

Lack of proactive information is something I need to accept.