Interference Robustness

So I'm sitting on my back porch finishing off the 2nd version of my food newsletter, and my wireless signal goes kaput. Damn! All I can see is some guy's wifi called CK and another one called "Israel Wireless," which, given my location in California, must be a pretty powerful antenna -- and one I choose NOT to join for fear of being bombed.

Anyway, on my Apple computer, at the bottom of the list of foreign wifis that does not include my own, I notice an option for "use interference robustness," which gets me to thinking....

This must be a term dreamed up by some computer wonks in mini-cubicles. First off, what is interference robustness and why would I want to use it? Doesn't it mean that the interference would be that much stronger? But if they mean that the computer will be strong in the face of interference (which I hope they do in some cavalier malignancy of the English language), then wouldn't I want this on all the time? Isn't leaving this off kinda like Peyton Manning, the famous American football quarterback, deciding NOT to use his defensive line and instead leave himself open to unending torment and pummel from the opposition?

No sir, not me. I'm not going to suffer the slings and arrows, etc. of misfortune, blah, blah, blah. I put a check next to the "Use Interference Robustness." I wait. and wait. Kaput.

All of a sudden, the bars on my wireless pie go black, telling me I have connected. I check the name -- "Israel wireless." I shut the computer, run inside, and fill the bathtub. Will post more if I make it.