The Talismanic Router
Jul. 10th, 2019 09:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sheramilA few weeks ago I got a letter that said the landline phone service would be discontinued next year, and that it was time to move to the NBN. Okay. I contacted my ISP and we settled on a deal, which included a new router, because the ADSL one didn't have the capacity to handle Fiber To The Curb, as it's called.
The new router had a problem; it wouldn't acknowledge LAN cable connections. It happily dished out Wifi, but wouldn't give my desktop machine anything until I'd power cycled the router and the NBN box several times... then it would work.
I put up with this for a few days before bringing it to my ISP's attention. They conceded it was most likely a hardware fault and dispatched a replacement.
Day 1: the replacement worked properly. Day 2: it had the same problem as the first router. Day 3: it didn't work. More in anger than anything else, I drove to a local computer store and bought a replacement of a different brand, vowing I'd plug it in the next morning.
The next morning, the second router worked happily. And the next, and the next. It knows, somehow; if I took the third router back to the store, the second router would most likely stop working. The third one is a talisman; it makes the second one work, even if the third one is still in its box.
I know, I'm imagining most of that, but who thinks I should prove this talismanic principle by taking the third router back, to make the second one fail again?
The new router had a problem; it wouldn't acknowledge LAN cable connections. It happily dished out Wifi, but wouldn't give my desktop machine anything until I'd power cycled the router and the NBN box several times... then it would work.
I put up with this for a few days before bringing it to my ISP's attention. They conceded it was most likely a hardware fault and dispatched a replacement.
Day 1: the replacement worked properly. Day 2: it had the same problem as the first router. Day 3: it didn't work. More in anger than anything else, I drove to a local computer store and bought a replacement of a different brand, vowing I'd plug it in the next morning.
The next morning, the second router worked happily. And the next, and the next. It knows, somehow; if I took the third router back to the store, the second router would most likely stop working. The third one is a talisman; it makes the second one work, even if the third one is still in its box.
I know, I'm imagining most of that, but who thinks I should prove this talismanic principle by taking the third router back, to make the second one fail again?
no subject
Date: 2019-07-09 11:58 pm (UTC)You might consider crafting some other type of techno-talisman to keep the functioning one focused on its job.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-10 12:31 am (UTC)Still... it's working at the moment, but I've been saying that on and off since this tiny debacle began. As Cugel said in "The Bagful of Dreams" ("Cugel's Saga", by Jack Vance) - "In all candor I do not dare disturb the stasis."
Nothing quite as annoying as an intermittent fault!
no subject
Date: 2019-07-10 01:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-07-10 09:05 am (UTC)Anyway, I can't drive now, because of the stroke, but I may eventually be able to again. Although that may probably require the services of an Eldritch Horror, or at least my groovy neurologist.