The computer upon which I am typing this post is a very elderly Acer Extensa 5620 laptop which was given to me when it had reached the end of its useful lifespan as far as the original owner was concerned.  It originally came with Windows XP installed.

Windows XP failed years ago and was way too slow so I installed Linux (Ubuntu) which I kept regularly updated and always ran much faster than Windows.  Ubuntu always kept running with no problems at all.

But occasionally I needed to use a program that was not available for Linux computers – the eTax program once a year, and iTunes when I needed to repair the children’s iPads, iPhones and iPods every time they stuffed them up.  I also used a Windows program about once a year on average to make a DVD from a PVR capture (only because I knew the program from years ago and was too lazy to look up any Linux program to do a job which I very seldom did!).

So I partitioned my hard disk and set up my computer to normally boot into Ubuntu, but with a menu visible for 5 seconds at start-up allowing me to boot from the Windows partition if I really wanted to. My Windows partition has been loaded with Windows XP, Windows 7 upgrade, Windows 8 in various preview versions, Windows 8 Pro (which I actually bought!), Windows 8.1 in various preview versions and, until last week, Windows 8.1 Pro.

I have never been really happy about any of the Windows versions since XP; I have been working with menus on computers for more than thirty years now, and prefer them to having to click a mouse on “tiles” on the screen to start my programs. For this reason, although Ubuntu initially installs with the Unity desktop, I always use the Gnome Classic desktop, which is menu-based, instead.

So a couple of days ago, I decided to upgrade my Windows partition to Windows 10. I am currently running Windows 10 Pro Technical Preview Evaluation copy. Build 10049 (just in case anyone happens to be wondering).

My laser printer is a Brother MFC-L2700DW which does everything I want it to do and is WiFi enabled which means I can print to it from any of our four phones, five tablets and one iPod, as well as the MacBook Air, the Dell laptop, the Compaq laptop, the Asus netbook, and any visitors’ electronic devices.  I can also, at least in theory, print via the Internet from anywhere in the world that has an Internet connection. I have not tried that last feature yet!

Our colour printer, an HP ink-jet item is also WiFi enabled, but I don’t give out the password as it guzzles ink at an incredible and very expensive rate.  So if anyone in the family wants to do colour printing they need to come and see Dad.

Because I have kids and visitors who own so many electronic devices I run five WiFi networks in the house two on 2.4 GHz and three on 5 GHz frequencies.

Now the Brother printer is only capable of connecting to the two 2.4 GHz wireless LANs; its system is totally unable to “see” the three 5 GHz LANs.

So no worries! You just use one of the higher speed networks for all your browsing and switch networks when you actually want to print.

Now I installed Windows 10 and discovered that my elderly Acer was only capable of connecting to the three 5 GHz networks, but not to the two 2.4 GHz networks which have one printer on each.  I have no idea why this is, but its system is totally unable to “see” the two networks that have printers connected.  Perhaps there is an applet somewhere in the Control Panel that allows one to choose which ranges of WiFi networks one wants to use, but I have not bothered to look for it.

In all the messing about this week, my laser printer “lost” its WiFi function so I decided to reinstall it.  I downloaded the latest drivers from the Brother web site and followed the prompts to set it up as a wireless printer.  Didn’t work, did it!

What I eventually had to do was install it manually to one of my 2.4 GHz networks, which was totally invisible to my computer, then uninstall the printer, then connect the printer using a USB cable and install it to my laptop again as a local USB printer.  Since my laptop never moves from beside the printer this was no hassle at all.

Every bit of electronic gadgetry in our house is now able to print successfully to the laser printer!

Now! Will somebody please tell me why, when I attempted to type the brand name “Asus” referring to my old netbook, the auto-correct feature kept on attempting to tell me that my netbook was an “Anus” instead?