Category: Tech

More techie trouble. The IOGEAR Ethernet-to-WiFi adapters on the Logitech radios are having trouble with their IP addresses, handed out by the new Verizon G3100 router’s DHCP server.

The process fails, they lose their IP address and don’t know where the DHCP server is. When the failure hits I have to restart the adapter to get a DHCP ACK back from the router.

A search reveals Verizon’s G3100 has a long history of DHCP trouble, with some devices being okay, while others are not. Despite my unit having the latest firmware, the trouble persists in the G3100. The G1100 never had this problem.

I’ve set the DHCP leases static for the radios to see if that helps. If it doesn’t, I’ll see if I can set DHCP exclusions in the router. If so, I’ll connect each adapter to a Windows system to manually assign them static IP addresses.

Follow-up: Argh. The DHCP problem remains, and a check of the music network shows it can’t span subnets. TCM’s HD picture quality on Fios, having previously been outstanding, is now terrible. It’s obvious even on the 15-year-old 32″ 720p set in my bedroom, when comparing Fios TV against Watch TCM on a Roku stick. I’m seriously considering going back to my old router/extender configuration, returning all of the new gear to Verizon, and cancelling Fios TV.

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.