![\"Modemdanrouter](\"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/modemdanrouter-1-3508458483.jpg\" "\\"modemdanrouter-1-3508458483.jpg\\"")
Reading wasn\u2019t working. I kept reading the same page over and over. I\u2019d managed to walk the pup but it was not an easy walk. I\u2019m still proud I put my big boy pants on and did it. But when we were done, I was hurting.<\/p>\nOn the evening of July 4th, I was done watching the usual movie marathon. My knee was killing me, and I couldn\u2019t sleep.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reading wasn\u2019t working. I kept reading the same page over and over. I\u2019d managed to walk the pup but it was not an easy walk. I\u2019m still proud I put my big boy pants on and did it. But when we were done, I was hurting.<\/p>\n
The knee is a bit better today.<\/p>\n
Friday night though, I decided I wanted a little fun so I fired up the playstation. I was going to mindlessly blow stuff up and shoot zombies. It was s simple request.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"14d8385d59e614e0e5fea8fa5e140aa96a46622d7f836a7a](\"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/14d8385d59e614e0e5fea8fa5e140aa96a46622d7f836a7a-320292119.jpg\" "\\"14d8385d59e614e0e5fea8fa5e140aa96a46622d7f836a7a-320292119.jpg\\"")
<\/p>\n
It failed!<\/p>\n
Turns out that somehow after the last power down of my equipment (so Edison could power down the grid, then didn\u2019t\u2026) My router either didn\u2019t shut down right or corrupted a routing table.<\/p>\n
This meant that for some reason most, and I mean almost everything dependent on internet access was working fine. I don\u2019t use the playstation daily or even weekly so I didn\u2019t notice.<\/p>\n
There was something a week or so ago when I wanted to watch a movie from Amazon in surround sound. That particular night, the movie would start and play fine for a random period of time then suddenly freeze. I thought the problem was on amazon\u2019s side and gave up after a couple of restarts.<\/p>\n
Friday night, I couldn\u2019t get the inevitable and requisite update to Call of Duty to download. There\u2019s ALWAYS a download that must be installed with Call of Duty and frankly, I think it\u2019s killing the franchise. Well, that and the story lines are kind of repetitive, plus now they\u2019re doing this whole Season thing to milk more money out of Call of Duty fans. Honestly, I miss the days of plunking the DVD in the game station and just being able to play the damn game!\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"6523167_bd](\"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/6523167_bd-1882026385.jpg\" "\\"6523167_bd-1882026385.jpg\\"")
I digress!<\/p>\n
After repeated attempts, I switched to Borderlands and shot zombies. Saturday morning, I checked the network, the devices, and everything looked completely normal except that the Call of Duty download was still incomplete and claimed that it couldn\u2019t use the DNS server provided.<\/p>\n
Nothing else was having difficulty so I reset the playstation\u2019s wifi connection & restarted the machine again. Still the problem persisted. It didn\u2019t make sense, I half contemplated just hardwiring the playstation via a LAN cable. Doing so would probably have corrected the problem, but wouldn\u2019t have answered the \u201cWHY\u201d of the problem.<\/p>\n
Not having any better idea, I restarted the router.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when everything went to shit!<\/p>\n
When the router came back up, it started connecting to all of the devices it normally talks to then one by one devices started inexplicably dropping off wifi, then they\u2019d come back. Something was very definitely wrong.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I restarted the router again, this time all the devices came back online and remained except for one.<\/p>\n
Turns out, the playstation and another device on the network were somehow interfering with each other. Both devices appeared to have the same identifiers and ip addresses. That\u2019s a \u201ccan\u2019t happen<\/strong><\/em>\u201d situation and yet\u2026 here we were.<\/p>\n The routing table that is maintained internally by the router was somehow horribly corrupt. It took a several tries, and multiple reboots to get the router to let it go and purge the whole table. I thought I was going to have to reset the router entirely to factory default and reconfigure it from scratch. Somehow, probably due to a software update to the router, a portion of the table wouldn\u2019t clear. The router was also randomly ignoring the command to purge the internal routing table<\/p>\n However, it\u2019s taken me most of the morning to troubleshoot, correct, and reconfigure all the devices. Some of them were extremely pissed off at the configuration \u201cChanges\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Call of Duty update has downloaded and installed. 36GB? Really? You\u2019ve got to be kidding me!<\/p>\n I\u2019m testing the playstation\u2019s connectivity with mindless streaming of music right now. Maybe I\u2019ll tell it to playback all of a television series while I go about my daily activities, just to make sure it\u2019s rock solid again.<\/p>\n All of the other devices are back online. The last of the Nest Protects will probably go offline in the next month (it\u2019s reaching the end of life and when Protects expire they\u2019re quite adamant about it. And always at 3AM!) That will leave only the Nest thermostat which depending on other factors, I\u2019ll either keep and use in manual mode, or replace with someone else\u2019s smart thermostat.\u00a0<\/p>\n In winter I don\u2019t mind the house being 55\u00b0F while I\u2019m asleep, even colder if I\u2019m not home. I\u2019ve got blankets on the bed for nighttime. But I really like the house being 67\u00b0 or so when I wake up or when I come home. I suppose I could use a schedule, but I like being able to get up in the middle of the night when I\u2019m not sleeping well, and tell Siri to make the house comfortable. The newer smart thermostats appear to have the ability to use Apple home or other systems to anticipate your arrival. Yes, that\u2019s kinda creepy but I\u2019ll allow the creep factor to some extent if it\u2019s under my control and convenient.<\/p>\n Okay, I\u2019m spoiled! You know what? I\u2019m worth it.<\/p>\n Speaking of spoiled. I\u2019m still moving very slow with the knee. Maybe I\u2019ll spend extravagantly on a nice long professional massage this week or next. I don\u2019t think the problem is mechanical per se. I think it’s just a bunch of muscles have seized up from me going up & down the ladder so much working on the house.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been putting it off because I don\u2019t want to spend the money and then undo the relaxation by going right back to what I did that caused the problem in the first place.<\/p>\n I may have little choice now.<\/p>\n After all of this one thing bears repeating:<\/p>\n “The problem with technology reliant processes is, without the ability to bypass technology when it malfunctions, you\u2019re left at its mercy.<\/em>“<\/p>\n UPDATE:<\/p>\n I ended up factory defaulting the router. The playstation was still having problems that made little sense.<\/p>\n I went through the whole reconfiguration process again. Since I had to go back to factory default, I took the opportunity to install higher security on the router.<\/p>\n I also enabled the HomeKit protection built into the router. This feature adds some firewalls to smart devices supposedly to protect them from hackers using smart devices to gain access to a home network. I have no idea how well it works but since it\u2019s available I figured I\u2019d give it a whirl.<\/p>\n While I was at it I enabled another feature that puts the smart devices on their own subnet. This further isolates smart devices from the main network while maintaining normal functionality. It\u2019s kind of a pain in the butt from a configuration standpoint but does provide a little more security.<\/p>\n In the process, I discovered a couple more things. 1) There\u2019s a lot more radar (from full self driving cars) in the area than I thought. 2) Someone in the neighborhood has something (no clue what) that\u2019s blasting all kinds of RF (Radio Frequencies) at random intervals. I\u2019m not sure, but I\u2019d swear someone is using a microwave without a door! I guess they\u2019re watching the food cook, and probably cooking their brains too. One can only hope!<\/p>\n I\u2019d been putting off enabling or adding these security features precisely because it would require reconfiguration of the entire network.<\/p>\n Since I was already having to do the reconfiguration, it made sense to take care of the security issues at the same time.<\/p>\n The down side is that now I\u2019ve got essentially a whole new network and that means some shake down time and tweaks.<\/p>\n If I\u2019m really lucky, I may be able to tell the router to go stealth mode. Meaning that I can stop broadcasting its name. If nobody knows the network name, because it\u2019s not showing up when they ask their devices to connect to WiFI, then it\u2019s less likely they\u2019ll want to mess with it.<\/p>\n I could see some libtard taking issue with my network name and messing with it just because they were offended. That\u2019s the world we live in now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On the evening of July 4th, I was done watching the usual movie marathon. My knee was killing me, and I couldn\u2019t sleep.\u00a0 Reading wasn\u2019t working. I kept reading the same page over and over. I\u2019d managed to walk the pup but it was not an easy walk. I\u2019m still proud I put my big … <\/p>\n![\"Nest](\"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/nest-protect.jpg\" "\\"nest")
Not a big deal, just a pain in the ass.<\/p>\n![\"61JXDF3eObL.](\"https:\/\/bone-in-the-throat.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/61JXDF3eObL._AC_SL1500_-1355589408.jpg\" "\\"61JXDF3eObL._AC_SL1500_-1355589408.jpg\\"")
I\u2019ve been debating not bothering, but I like being able to have the house at some kind of reasonable temperature when I get home and at the same time not cooling or heating the house needlessly. Simple Scheduling works fine, IF you\u2019ve got regular hours like leaving for work and returning at some predetermined time.<\/p>\n
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