My OperaWiFi Gone South
Friday, April 6, 2012 1:42:44 PM
Something is electronically rotten on the Northeast corner of the 900 block of M Street.
For a couple of years, the editor and wife had been getting along on G-Band (not string) wireless network to the upstairs computer with the kitchen laptops. Not great, but it worked. So the editor gets a new laptop. It has N-Band built in. So he has to upgrade the router at the big machine upstairs. Which he does. The house wifi becomes glorious. It never worked so well before.
Then something happened a few weeks ago. The networking in the kitchen began to be hit or miss. Over the last week, it's been impossible on either laptop. The editor checked with the next door neighbor, who has a wifi setup. Same thing. Her laptop works next to her router, but when she goes back to the kitchen, problems.
The editor did a quick check of the FCC website, but it's just seems a bit opaque. The editor recalls back in the old days, when radios had tubes, sometimes ham (amateur) radio operators would be heard on HiFi equipment or radios in neighbors' houses. Almost always it was the fault of the neighbors' equipment, but the ham operator would happily add a capacitor or two to the phonograph or tuner and the problem would go away. In the worst case, the FCC would be notified, and a local FCC type would drive the neighborhood, find the offending ham radio site, talk with the operator, and things would be worked out. The editor could not find a hint of such a non-bureaucratic service on the FCC's website. They have come way up in the world. Nowadays, almost all electronic equipment is much cleaner, standards are clearer and manufacturers are very careful.
So the editor suspects that someone very local is emitting some very strong signal in the the N-Band spectrum, intentionally or not. He suspects "not", since the intentional stuff only seems to happen when someone very important is visiting the Convention Center and then only for a day or two. This has gone on too long.
Is anyone else in the vicinity having similar problems?
Update
From someone across the street:
Just read your post. I agree... I'm sure that some sort of strange scrambler has occurred....
I had HORRIBLE issues with Comcast this week. My wifi has been acting strange for at least the past month. I've had to reboot it every week. Then, this week, I had 48 hrs of NO internet from Comcast whatsoever. They finally came and completely replaced my cable modem with a new gadget that is part cable modem, part wifi itself (so no need for my other wifi modem). It's only been going now for about 3 days... and it seems to be working, but I'm not holding my breath!
For a couple of years, the editor and wife had been getting along on G-Band (not string) wireless network to the upstairs computer with the kitchen laptops. Not great, but it worked. So the editor gets a new laptop. It has N-Band built in. So he has to upgrade the router at the big machine upstairs. Which he does. The house wifi becomes glorious. It never worked so well before.
Then something happened a few weeks ago. The networking in the kitchen began to be hit or miss. Over the last week, it's been impossible on either laptop. The editor checked with the next door neighbor, who has a wifi setup. Same thing. Her laptop works next to her router, but when she goes back to the kitchen, problems.
The editor did a quick check of the FCC website, but it's just seems a bit opaque. The editor recalls back in the old days, when radios had tubes, sometimes ham (amateur) radio operators would be heard on HiFi equipment or radios in neighbors' houses. Almost always it was the fault of the neighbors' equipment, but the ham operator would happily add a capacitor or two to the phonograph or tuner and the problem would go away. In the worst case, the FCC would be notified, and a local FCC type would drive the neighborhood, find the offending ham radio site, talk with the operator, and things would be worked out. The editor could not find a hint of such a non-bureaucratic service on the FCC's website. They have come way up in the world. Nowadays, almost all electronic equipment is much cleaner, standards are clearer and manufacturers are very careful.
So the editor suspects that someone very local is emitting some very strong signal in the the N-Band spectrum, intentionally or not. He suspects "not", since the intentional stuff only seems to happen when someone very important is visiting the Convention Center and then only for a day or two. This has gone on too long.
Is anyone else in the vicinity having similar problems?
Update
From someone across the street:
Just read your post. I agree... I'm sure that some sort of strange scrambler has occurred....
I had HORRIBLE issues with Comcast this week. My wifi has been acting strange for at least the past month. I've had to reboot it every week. Then, this week, I had 48 hrs of NO internet from Comcast whatsoever. They finally came and completely replaced my cable modem with a new gadget that is part cable modem, part wifi itself (so no need for my other wifi modem). It's only been going now for about 3 days... and it seems to be working, but I'm not holding my breath!
