Category: Tech

My home network has been on Verizon Fios for nineteen years. As was pointed out not too long ago, the speed was originally 15 Mbps, coming over a D-Link Ethernet-only router. Screaming fast for the time, but not even qualifying as broadband anymore.^* Besides my office, I wired a couple bedrooms with Ethernet.

Later, when Verizon added Fios TV, an Actiontec router showed up with MoCA networking and Wi-Fi. With that upgrade, 20 Mbps was in the house for a long time.

Later, Verizon replaced the 1st generation Optical Network Terminal in the garage. It came with the big breakthrough router, a Verizon Quantum Gateway. I ran 100 Mbps for ages, and finally kicked up to Gigabit Internet some months ago. Do I need that much speed? Nah, but I had to make Verizon justify a price increase.

I repurposed the Actiontec router as a Wi-Fi hotspot in the guest room by assigning it, and its DHCP range, a different IP subnet. The 192.168.2.0 network uplinked to the Gateway’s 192.168.1.0 network and out to the Internet from there.

Now that I have latest Verizon router, I’ve replaced the ancient Actiontec with the still-excellent Quantum Gateway, using the same subnet trick. Wi-fi performance is vastly better than it was with the Actiontec.

It would be nice if the Gateway could act as an extender on the same subnet, but it doesn’t do that. As far as I know, anyway. The only potential limitation is with products that need to discover each other with broadcasts on the same subnet. I’m looking at you, Google Chromecast.

Does this mean I’m an advanced technical user? 😉

^* My first broadband connection, in 1998, was over Roadrunner at T-I speed — 1.5 Mbps. So of course running ten times faster was considered blazing fast.

Google issued a mandatory update for my phone that crippled its battery. In return, I got a very good deal on a new Google phone. They didn’t even want the old phone in trade.

On the front porch yesterday morning there was a big box from Verizon, filled with equipment — a new router, DVR and STB. They don’t want the old gear returned.

I have 30 days to activate the new DVR before the old one is shut down. It isn’t clear that the router needed to be replaced, but I did it anyway. Compared to the old router, it seems to have better 5 GHz coverage and it adds Wi-Fi 6 support.

Protocol: Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)
Security type: WPA2-Personal
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Description: Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX211 160MHz
Driver version: 23.70.2.3
Network band: 5 GHz
Network channel: 52
Link speed (Receive/Transmit): 432/432 (Mbps)
IPv4 address: 192.168.1.183
IPv4 DNS servers: 192.168.1.1 (Unencrypted)
Physical address (MAC): E4-0D-36-EA-20-63

Losing the old DVR will be painful. It has a nice collection of movies in HD from TCM. Almost all of them are on an external 1 TB HDD I added a decade ago. It’s connected with a Firewire interface, but the drive also has a USB port, so it can be repurposed. I’d be amazed if its file system is readable on a PC.

I’ll look into disposing the old video equipment. I’m keeping the old router and its extender, as there’s some network experimentation I want to try.

So much technology that’s been working perfectly, but is now considered junk, and I’m being forced to retire it. *SIGH* This is why I am so pleased with Lyrion, the successor to Logitech Media Server. I was close to giving up on my Squeezebox Radios and the Touch streamer, but now Lyrion has brought the music network back to life beautifully.

My Nordic Track ski machine was new for Christmas, 1995. Since giving up running a year ago, I’ve been on it a lot, afib be damned.

Now 29 years old, one of the one-way rollers has started to slip. New rollers are available for purchase, but I’m going to give this simple trick a try. It’s genius!

https://www.instructables.com/Refurbishing-Drive-Rollers-for-a-NordicTrack-Ski-M/

Today’s mail in the frigid weather brought a new node for the Lyrion music network. A white Logitech Squeezebox Radio to go with the Logitech UE4000 headphones.

The Pixel 8a provides such a different experience from the 4a! It’s bigger and it’s heavier, and it’s… it’s… uh… did I mention it’s bigger and heavier? The battery lasts a lot longer, but I was doing fine with the 4a’s battery until its runtime was cut in half by that mandatory Android 13 update.

Well, it’s done. For $300 I have a Pixel 8a and keep the Pixel 4a. Everything has been copied over, the SIM swapped, and the cellular phone service checked. To my surprise, 5G came up. The last I knew, my plan was limited to 4G/LTE.

All of the many updates have been taken. Now there’s the arduous task of logging onto many accounts and pairing all of the Bluetooth devices.

How did I take a picture of both phones, while both of them were busy? With my ol’ reliable Canon PowerShot SD1000. I don’t know how long it had been since I last used the camera, but it powered right up without needing a charge.

This old commercial with Maria Sharapova had absolutely nothing to do with why I bought a Canon PowerShot camera! Not a thing, I swear!