Lightning

[Magicman]

As the storm passed through early this morning, lightning popped and down went the internet.  No wireless or wired.  Since such things do not seem to correct themselves, I finally punched enough buttons to finally get a tech support guy on the phone.  It took over an hour with him telling me what to do, me finally understanding what he told me to do, and then me finally doing what he told me to do.  Those guys are so knowledgeable.

The wireless modem had to be totally taken down and reinstalled from scratch.  Signal bars are a good thing.   

[Jeff]

Lucky you didn't have to replace it.

[Jasperfield]

I live in one of a very few places where my only source of internet service comes from the Electric Membership Cooperative.

My internet signal rides on the ground wire of my electric service. When the power is out the internet is too. Yes, it's inconvenient, but it's out of service only rarely.

[Magicman]

Yesterday when things started popping again, down it went.  I worked with tech support and reprogrammed the modem again.

Now I am thinking, something has to happen.  Off I went to the ATT place and got a new/different modem which was defective out of the box.  Back again and this time I got the brand of wireless modem that the tech support guy recommended; NETGEAR.  The installation was straight up with no hiccups.  I did have to call to get my access code changed to something that I could remember.

Anyway, I'll just have to see if this one still floats with a storm brewing.

It's good to have friends/people in high places, because at least it did not cost anything.

[Jeff]

When you say modem, do you mean Router?  We just got a new netgear router, as the old cisco/linksys could not penetrate our living room's force field. For some reason, we could have wifi clearout in the yard, or the other end of the house, but right on the other side of the wall from the router, nada. The new one does a great job. I can now look at any movies or pictures on any of the house computers, or smart phones on the tv. Also Youtube, and all the other online video sources. Last night I watch on Vimeo, Jacob's "The making of a tool" 

[Magicman]

Yup, it's the modem, router, wifi, and whatever else.  We had to look through several boxes to find a netgear, but since that is what the tech support guy recommended, that is what I wanted.

I got my signed copy DVD from Jacob with the videos on it.  Since I have two of his tools, I just wanted it as a memento.

[Jeff]

Did you see he has a new birth of a tool video? The making of a Damascus knife.

[Magicman]

I had not, but I have now.  Amazing, and no wonder that Damascus cost more. 

It was neat watching that video because many of the steps were the same as building my knife.

[thurlow]

Started out with Cisco routers;  they would last about a year and no amount of tinkering would make them continue to work.  Changed over to Linsky's;  first one out-of-the box was bad;  exchanged it for an identical one and it's going on its 3rd year with no problems;  not familiar with Netgear;  if/when this'n quits, I'll give a Netgear a try..........

[Raider Bill]

Started out with Cisco routers;  they would last about a year and no amount of tinkering would make them continue to work.  Changed over to Linsky's;  first one out-of-the box was bad;  exchanged it for an identical one and it's going on its 3rd year with no problems;  not familiar with Netgear;  if/when this'n quits, I'll give a Netgear a try..........

Here at the office it went the other way. Continuous problems with Netgear, went to Sisco they all cleared up>

[Jeff]

Cisco and Linksys are the same company.

[drobertson]

MM, you guys seem to be in or near the bull's eye on the last few storms!  sorry about that. 

[Delawhere Jack]

Jeff, I've found that the wireless router signals get stopped cold by masonry and to a lesser extent plaster walls.

[Raider Bill]

Jeff, I've found that the wireless router signals get stopped cold by masonry and to a lesser extent plaster walls.

Yep here too and we are not using office depot quality gear.

[Warbird]

There is a vast difference between Cisco "SOHO" gear (small office, home office) and their enterprise line.  Linksys was a good company until Cisco bought them.  I've not thought much of their products since that time.  That said, I'm a huge fan of Cisco's enterprise level gear.

Glad you got 'er figured out, MM.

[thecfarm]

We had a Netgear something so I could tether off the wife's Internet. Until we found out tethering GOBBELS up her megabytes, or what ever that stuff is and I do mean GOBBLES.She can be on that thing for hours and hardly use much,she also had a lap top and tried to tether on that too. WOW!! gobble,gobble,gobble.

[Norm]

We finally took the plunge at work and bought an enterprise level model from Cisco, so far it's lasted 2 years without any problems.

For the house I use an Asus model but tend to go cheap as I know it's just a matter of time before lightning or they just die on their own.

[Al_Smith]

My daughter with all good intentions bought me a Kindle Fire for a Christmas gift .

Now good old dad can fly around an industrial program for things like robatics controls but I'm not a technoweinie by any figment  of the imagination .However after several days of Googling and fiddley farten around I did manage to half figure out the older Linksys router .

Now it seems I must somehow learn some patience in dealing with a tiny little thing evidently made for the fingers of a young teenaged girl not some burly blacksmith type clumsy oaf .