This is yet another post on why the (cheap HP portable) Windows 7 machine doesn't automatically connect to the Internet when I take it from home - where I use Wifi connections - to work where I use Ethernet.

I now have enough information to state that it has nothing to do with the quality or not of the cables or of the way I shoved the cable into the Ethernet port.

Instead it clearly has to do with the fact that the portable needs to be switched on for almost two hours. Until then a plugged-in Ethernet cable (any) isn't recognized as being plugged in. After then (without taking it out of the socket or fiddling with it) the cable IS recognized as being connected (and of course then the Internet connection works).

Just proves it was a poor investment to try to save several hundred Euros (even more dollars) but buying a fairly cheap model that had every thing I needed in terms of memory; hard disks size and processor to write my 2010 SharePoint book.

At the time I bought it I didn't have a contract so the money seemed more important than it does now having put up with this problem for long enough (and not being able to use the 1 year guarantee because I need the machine until the book is written!)

Meanwhile I have this odd thing that the VM keeps going to sleep and needs to be woken up by accessing SP site pages on the server before client systems can access the server.

And I also have the problem that if the Win 7 system has been connected to the Internet for a while and I start watching a TV program from the www.zdf.de or www.ard.de site you can bet that mid-way through the Internet connection will drop even though all the routers are connected Ok and running the Win 7 recovery routine brings Internet connection back again.

Actually I suspect this happens after the machine has been connected to the Internet for a long while even if I am not watching a film.

It's annoying in any case when it does happen. The MacBook (OsX) doesn't do this and nor does the HP desktop (XPPro)

P.S. Proof of sorts that this was the right theory came this morning. The office was even colder than it was yesterday (I still have a sweater and fleece on) and this morning the PC was on for almost 2 and a half hours before the Ethernet cable (plugged in all that time) was recognized as being connected.

I've been blaming something on Windows 7 that I probably shouldn't have.

At home I use wireless networking for all my portables with only the desktop connected via cable to the Internet.

Whenever I've taken my MacBook running (now) OsX Snow Leopard (and also when it was running Tiger - I hopped over Leopard) and connected it via cable to the Office internet, it's just taken that in its stride and connected via cable.

However when I've taken the HP running Win7 to work half the time it's connected immediately via cable and half the time I've had to run all sort of diagnostics before it will connect. Meanwhile it was trying and failing to connect via wireless.

So I blamed it on Windows 7.

Today however none of the diagnostics routines worked and so I had to go even deeper and discovered that it was saying that the Ethernet cable wasn't plugged in (which it was).

So I tried another cable. Same thing.

So I tried the cable I was using in the normal work PC. It was immediately recognized. So I tried yet another cable and that was immediately recognized too.

Doesn't look like a Windows 7 problem after all does it. More like a couple of cables that work some of the time but not all the time.

Shades of Jerry Pournelle formerly of Byte fame. Always check the cables first!

The only thing is that both the cables I tried haven't been giving problems when attached to an old work PC - at least as far as I can remember, I don't use that 5 year old PC that often.

Nor of course have they been giving problems with the Mac. Could it simply be that the ethernet port is better made (or that the Mac OS is more tolerant) ?

P.S. I'm beginning to think the problem is the portable rather than the cables.

Yesterday the cable that worked the day before didn't work and the one that didn't work the day before wasn't immediately recognized but was after I slightly moved it. It then worked all day.

However, I then took the machine home (where I used wireless) so I needed to connect it again this morning to Ethernet. Now, none of the cables work with it (even the one which is being used on my work machine and which definately is an OK cable.

So I guess we are back to a poorly designed port (and yes, no amount of slightly moving the cable at the portable end has got me a connection).

So you get what you pay for.

Pity. I thought I'd discovered the holy grail of cheap computing (buy a cheap machine with a poor keyboard but reasonable processor; reasonable graphics; lots of memory and lots of disk space and add an external keyboard and mouse). Obviously you do get somewhat more for your money when you buy a "business" model. Like working Ethernet ports perhaps.

(The problem is that as I am using this to write the book I can't do without it easily so any repair will have to wait. I use it wireless only in any case most of the time. The real problem is that it wouldn't surprise me if the entire set of ports on the left-hand side of the PC have problems soon. I've already had intermitent loss of keyboard functionality when one of those was connected to a left-hand side USB port.

Meanwhile the MacBook after almost three years is still going strong - as is the Acer Ferrari. Pity they only have 2GB max. Great pity. Pity too I was fairly broke when I bought the HP so didn't go for the "workbook" I had thought of going for.

Note: All of the addresses below were valid at the time I added them to the WSS v4 FAQ site and to this file. I can't guarantee that they still are.

(Items are added to the WSS v4 FAQ throughout the week so you will find new items more quickly by checking at wssv4faq.mindsharp.com daily.)

From 29th November to 5th December 2009

NOTE: Amendments to KB articles are now only listed when a version is x.0. MS no longer change the dates of KB articles when version changes are minor.

I.1 2010 KB Articles

New or Modifed

None

II. Articles - 2010 Products

New

A. Office 2010 Server Products

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=0956787e-210d-4d78-9e4e-a9cdef0e8495

Language Packs for SharePoint Foundation 2010 Beta

1st December 2009

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=a0c7c05d-8fca-4391-bc70-b62c9af91123

2010 Server Language Packs for SharePoint Server 2010 Beta, Project Server 2010 Beta, and Search Server Express 2010 Beta

1st December 2009

http://blogs.technet.com/wbaer/archive/2009/11/30/introduction-to-the-microsoft-sharepoint-sharepoint-2010-database-layer.aspx

Introduction to the Microsoft SharePoint SharePoint 2010 Database Layer (MS Blog - Bill Baer)

30th November 2009

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288518(office.14).aspx

Deploy language packs (SharePoint Foundation 2010) (updated 12th November 2009)

12th November 2009

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262108(office.14).aspx

Deploy language packs (SharePoint Server 2010) (updated 12th November 2009)

12th November 2009

B. Other Office 2010 products

None

C. Other relevant products

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=44bda62c-0cda-4a99-8d0a-d7fe06b39422

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 November CTP Report Services Add-in for Microsoft SharePoint Technologies 2007

1st December 2009

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=48a5b47b-8c9c-450f-ab6e-178600a733ca

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 - PowerPivot for Microsoft Excel 2010 - November Community Technology Preview (ver 10.50.1352.12)

30th November 2009

Modified

None

III WebCasts (+ PodCasts, On-Line courses) for 2010 Products

None

IV WSS v4 FAQ

New

http://wssv4faq.mindsharp.com/Lists/v4FAQ/DispForm.aspx?ID=58

I.0008 Which Languages are available in Language Packs?

Modified

None

Note: All of the addresses below were valid at the time I added them to the WSS v4 FAQ site and to this file. I can't guarantee that they still are.

(Items are added to the WSS v4 FAQ throughout the week so you will find new items more quickly by checking at wssv4faq.mindsharp.com daily.)

From 22nd to 28th November 2009

NOTE: Amendments to KB articles are now only listed when a version is x.0. MS no longer change the dates of KB articles when version changes are minor.

I.1 2010 KB Articles

New or Modifed

None

II. Articles - 2010 Products

New

A. Office 2010 Server Products

http://blogs.technet.com/wbaer/archive/2009/11/23/step-by-step-provisioning-the-search-service-application.aspx

Provisioning the Search Service Application (MS Blog - Bill Baer)

23rd November 2009

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepointdeveloperdocs/archive/2009/11/20/sharepoint-2010-beta-release-known-issues.aspx

SharePoint 2010 Beta Release Known Issues (MS SP Development Dcoumentation Team Blog - J Crowley)

20th November 2009

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=3b13aea7-d877-4056-a8ef-51bf081267f0

SharePoint Workspace 2010: Groove Web Services Software Development Kit

19th November 2009

B. Other Office 2010 products

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=552d34b8-4f30-4d71-bbc5-f31b726f4a22

Microsoft Office 2010 Beta Language Pack 23rd November 2009

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=48a5b47b-8c9c-450f-ab6e-178600a733ca

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 - PowerPivot for Microsoft Excel 2010 - November Community Technology Preview (Ed: "share your analysis through Microsoft® SharePoint 2010")

19th November 2009

C. Other relevant products

None

Modified

None

III WebCasts (+ PodCasts, On-Line courses) for 2010 Products

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/funkyonex/Using-the-SharePoint-Business-Data-Connectivity-Designer-in-VS-2010/

Channel Nine: Using the SharePoint Business Data Connectivity Designer in VS 2010 (Boris Scholl)

23rd November 2009

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/funkyonex/SharePoint-Feature-and-Package-Designers-in-Visual-Studio-2010/

Channel Nine: SharePoint Feature and Package Designers in Visual Studio 2010 (Lily Ma)

19th November 2009

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/funkyonex/Importing-SharePoint-Solution-Packages-WSP-into-Visual-Studio-2010/

Channel Nine: Importing SharePoint Solution Packages (WSP) into Visual Studio 2010 (Saaid Khan)

18th November 2009

http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/funkyonex/Overview-of-SharePoint-Development-in-Visual-Studio-2010/

Channel Nine: Overview of SharePoint Development in Visual Studio 2010 (Mike Morton)

16th November 2009

IV WSS v4 FAQ

New or Modified

None