April 22, 2010

Fixed? No... not fixed

Living out in the boonies as I do has both advantages and drawbacks. One of the drawbacks is the limited options for Internet access. I've tried every available method, and each has sucked in one way or another. Currently I'm using a wide area WIFI provider, which is less expensive than other options, but lacks the level of tech support.

The network end of things seemed to be working, so I blamed my lack of access problems on the wireless card in the Mac. The tech at the Apple store agreed, so it went into the shop to be replaced. Got the thing home and it worked like a well oiled machine... for about a day.

Round two has me diagnosing the ethernet bridge and wireless router. Screwed with it for much of last evening and again today... with limited success. It is working for the moment, but I haven't a clue what I did to make that happen... or if it just decided to work on its own. No idea.

Anyway, I've not had a lot of time to write, so please bear with me as my certifiably non-tech mind tries to rediscover some measure of reliability in my network.

~~

2 Comments:

Old NFO said...

You're pretty much screwed if you are on intermittent service, cause one time it will be your end, the next the far end, etc... Don't envy you the troubleshooting nightmare. A recommendation, get the Tier 2 tech's phone number at the internet provider, and make sure when you call Apple you get a trouble ticket, and keep referring back to that one when you call (gives them a history of the trouble instead of starting over on every call).

Mule Breath said...

Seems I've had some success. I say this carefully, as I thought I had it solved once before only to discover the error of my ways. I found that if I connected via cable directly to the bridge, all was well, meaning the trouble must be local, so I worked backwards through my wireless network.

No telling what I did that caused things to get back on line, but I replace all the cables and cleaned all the connections. One of them must have been it, as it seems I've got internet again.

Keeping my fingers crossed.