September 20, 2005
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I’m Back
I’ve been disconnected for over a week. I’ve had connection problems for much longer than that.
Our Internet cable connection is upstairs, in the bedroom Cathy uses. My computers are downstairs. The old Netgear wireless router kept getting weaker and weaker.
Since returning from Los Angeles, Cathy hasn’t been leaving her bed. Her back problems have flared up and she has been in constant pain, which leaves her in a foul mood. I haven’t had access to the router.
I purchased a more powerful antenna for the wireless bridge downstairs (one of the two, not both). It didn’t help when I attached it to the router or to the bridge. The old router just didn’t have enough left in it to get a signal through the floor reliably.
I got a new wireless router, a Cisco / Linksys, which also upgraded me from wireless-b to wireless-g. The signal improved, enough that I was able to make the indicator light on the bridge light up, but I wasn’t getting a connection. I guess I screwed up the security setting when I chose WPA instead of WEP, which I had been using previously. I screwed something else up, too, because I was no longer able to access the router through its setup program.
I did a reset on the router and on both of my bridges. Now I can make solid contact … but I have no security. Later, when Cathy goes out and I can access the router upstairs, I’ll try to set up the router better, restoring some kind of security.
But I was able to get my mail, about 600 accumulated messages, about a quarter of which was spam. I now have over 3,000 messages sitting on my machine, waiting for my attention. It may take me a while to go through it all.
But I’m back.
Comments (1)
Isn’t it frustrating when your computer does not work properly? It is only a few years since home computers seemed like something out of science fiction, and now we can hardly function without them.
Thanks for your lovely comment on my New Orleans blog. I think the real question is not should New Orleans be rebuilt, but will it, and I think the answer to that is yes. The area may well become an inland sea. Land masses do change, after all. If and when that happens, the port will move up to the mouth of the river. In the meantime, New Orleans will rebuild. Many of the people who left will not return, but others will come to take their place. Is that stupidity? Quite possibly.