Category: Modern problems

As I’ve mentioned, my WiFi network was aging, Hey! It was working for me most of the time…

Lately though I’d noticed that it was glitchy. Sometimes I’d have a device fall off the network and I’d have to restart everything ON the network to get the device back. It was as if the software commands to clear the routing tables we being ignored until a complete power down.

This kind of thing has been happening more often lately. Most recently, I’d not even had a cup of coffee when I was confronted in my boxers with “The printer isn’t working. I’ve turned it off & on but that didn’t help.”

OK, I say scratching my balls and trying to decide if I want to deal with this before or after my morning piss. (I chose after.) While my morning cup of coffee was brewing I pulled out the ladder so that I could power down the 5 year old Apple TimeCapsule. I tried simply restarting the TC via the Airport utility but that didn’t correct the problem.

So it was BIG RED switch time. Fine! When everything came back up, there was still a problem. So that led to the power down of everything connected to the network, wired & wireless, then BIG RED switch again.

15 minutes later the system is all normal and I finish my coffee in peace. 

But there was something that clicked in the back of my mind. Something is degrading in the network. Over the next few months, I noticed other issues that were little annoyances but not serious. Then I noticed that I had NO WiFi sitting at my next door neighbors kitchen table. Funny, I used to have full connectivity there.

That’s when it hit me that the WiFi was working in the house but that it was getting weaker. I suspect this was due to interference from newer stronger WiFi routers moving into the neighborhood but it’s possible that the WiFi transceiver in the TimeCapsule was starting to peter out. The unit seemed awfully warm when I was doing the BIG RED switch routine. 

After a little investigation and reading reviews. I decided that I’d give a seperate WiFi Router a go. In part because I didn’t want to pony up the $$ for a new Apple TimeCapsule.

So I grabbed a nice NetGear WiFi router at Staples.

What a difference!

The new technology, and the strength of the signal combine to make Netflix possible at a neighbors house that’s much further away than my next door neighbors place.

So I have a new router, and all the functionality I had before but there is no need for me to baby anything. My TimeCapsule drives are still working fine and my other network drives are happy as clams.

Had my computer not needed repair, had I not wanted to look something up at my neighbors table drinking one night, I’d have continued on ignoring the problem until it really smacked me in the face.

It’s nice to have fast reliable connections again even if its ONLY to DSL!

No Politics! 

My computer is back and It looks like the Apple people did a very nice job with the repair. No scratches, dirt, debris, and everything is working the way it’s supposed to be.

I need to get back to writing and searching for a job. 

But in the meantime I’m enjoying completely trouble free operation and I got a new display out of the deal to boot.

Now… what was I doing?

Backups… Check

Government bashing … Check

Windows update … Check

Jerking off …  ???

Where’s that Lube?

I’ve been busy.

Turns out my computer was dying a slow graceful death. I’ve seen this before with Apple Machines. I don’t know if it’s by design, or I’m just damn lucky, but I’ve had machines that developed serious problems continue to operate when by rights they should have folded.

My computer had been glitchy and getting glitchier but I figured it was something I’d done during one of my forays into writing code. I’m a terrible hack and it’s a wonder that my code doesn’t cause machines to burst into flame. 

(I’ve actually seen that; a machine bursting into flame, but it wasn’t due to my poor coding skills. Another story for another time.)

My computer told me it was having problems when the camera failed.  I probably wouldn’t have noticed for a long time except that I wanted to make a FaceTime call and couldn’t.  As I investigated I came to the conclusion that whatever the problem was, it was something that I couldn’t fix without help.

This led to the call to Apple. During that call, I discovered that the internal diagnostics were apparently corrupted and the Apple support person said I needed to return my baby to the Mother Ship.  The internal diagnostics are part of the firmware of the machine. If they’re not available, it suggests that something really bad has happened to the firmware which means it’s sort of amazing that the computer is still booting or running.

This unexpected turn of events led to a mad dash to backup everything, and finish then publish some things I’ve been working on riky-fuckin-tick.

Which explains my lack of posting. I’m writing this post on my iPad. My computer is expected back sometime next week.