Keep in mind that the apartment to be rented does not automatically have TV, much less one where you can plug an HDMI cable into. Plus: the more people we are, the more monitors we need. Transporting one in the car sounds handy, but it is then still exposed to all the bumps, getting shaken constantly.

I've now finally rebooted my PS3 and successfully connected it to the internet again (as expected, the "automatic" part is not mandatory but just what all people tend to want to do - one can still have a manual network address). Updated the firmware from 3.x to 4.90. Signing in to the PSN failed multiple times: the credectials are correct and I've even reset my password successfully, but after acception both ID and password the PS3 tells me the systems needs activation. Which can be done online at https://playstation.com/acct/device-password - and there I requested (and got) a device password. Now every tutorial tells me to use the PS3 and under the row "PSN" to use the menu item "manage accounts". But I don't have that item. Nowhere.

However, I've been offline Sony wise too long (much before 2020), so I can only guess there's simply no chance to log in to the PSN anymore (and the error messages just don't want to tell me that). So how does playing online with WipEout HD now work, after I set up the specific DNS server? Must the PS3's system still "log on" or not? If, how the heck do I get my device "activated" or at least that menu item everyone else than me has? I've also simply added a new account, but that changed nothing.