I woke up, did the usual wake-up routine, and then went to pay bills online. WTF? No internet? I had it out in the Garage Majal, but not in the office. I took the laptop in to the office, hooked it up and it didn't connect. Connected the laptop directly to the router...still nothing. The router is a four port, and one port went out several years ago, and now a second port went out. Shit.
Had to mow the lawn before it got too hot, then showered, ate lunch, and went off to WorstBuy, the only place in town for computer stuff. I found plenty of routers, switches, and hubs, but most were wireless. I'm still in the landline days (2 of 3 computers don't have wireless), so I needed a wired network router. Finally found the only model they carried, bought it, and took it home. Installed it, and after a bit of futzing, got it to work just fine with the office and garage machines. Told the wifey she's good to go (internet disconnected while I changed routers).
I then prepare for a good long nap, when she comes into the garage screaming that she can't get onto the Internet. WTF? I go to her office with the laptop and confirm there's a problem with her machine. My diagnosis was that the internal network card went down (it was working earlier in the morning!). Off to WorstBuy once again to find a network card. After scrutinizing the one aisle with networking stuff, no network cards. Huh? Finally, in a dusty corner, there was a gigabit Ethernet network card. Snatch it, buy it, take it home, and install it. Same symptoms: says cable unplugged or connected but whenever I go to the Internet, every browser goes offline. I scratch my head, and decide maybe I have to reboot the computer after installing the drivers (the instructions didn't say I had to). Reboot, everything back to normal. Whew.
Pretty strange that two separate items went out on the same day with no electrical problems with power, lightning storms, etc. Can someone queue up the Twilight Zone theme?
Had to mow the lawn before it got too hot, then showered, ate lunch, and went off to WorstBuy, the only place in town for computer stuff. I found plenty of routers, switches, and hubs, but most were wireless. I'm still in the landline days (2 of 3 computers don't have wireless), so I needed a wired network router. Finally found the only model they carried, bought it, and took it home. Installed it, and after a bit of futzing, got it to work just fine with the office and garage machines. Told the wifey she's good to go (internet disconnected while I changed routers).
I then prepare for a good long nap, when she comes into the garage screaming that she can't get onto the Internet. WTF? I go to her office with the laptop and confirm there's a problem with her machine. My diagnosis was that the internal network card went down (it was working earlier in the morning!). Off to WorstBuy once again to find a network card. After scrutinizing the one aisle with networking stuff, no network cards. Huh? Finally, in a dusty corner, there was a gigabit Ethernet network card. Snatch it, buy it, take it home, and install it. Same symptoms: says cable unplugged or connected but whenever I go to the Internet, every browser goes offline. I scratch my head, and decide maybe I have to reboot the computer after installing the drivers (the instructions didn't say I had to). Reboot, everything back to normal. Whew.
Pretty strange that two separate items went out on the same day with no electrical problems with power, lightning storms, etc. Can someone queue up the Twilight Zone theme?
