Staying connected !

From the time I first added a wireless router to my cable modem (more than a year ago) I rarely lost my wireless connection to the internet. But since we added my wife’s laptop to our home network, we kept losing wireless connectivity, repeatedly.

After working many long hours on my system, my son Tom, an IBM veteran with awesome computer skills, suggested I upgrade my Linksys b wireless router to a Linksys G, which I promptly did. While purchasing it at Staples, I was also advised to replace my 2.4 GHz Panasonic wireless telephone system with Panasonic’s 5.8 GHz version. But making both changes failed to resolve the problem. Staples then suggested a house call by their wireless connectivity technician. I readily accepted.

Paul Luke, a most personable and highly skilled young technician, was born and raised in the same section of the Bronx where I first saw light. Though born of Russian parents, he speaks Italian better than Tony Soprano. We bonded strongly during the time he was here. When he finally established what appeared to be a sustained connection, we exchanged happy farewells and he departed. He had barely left, when the system broke down again. He replied to my e-mail with a divinely inspired suggestion. He told me to replace the Linksys with a NETGEAR RangeMax wireless router.

I purchased that router just as the cock crew outside the Staples doorway. While driving home with it, the thought occurred to me that perhaps too many of my system’s components were connected to only one multi-socket (surge protected) electric panel. Pursuant to that thought, I decided to connect the cable modem and the router to an outlet near a further corner of the room. Heaven be praised! By doing that, I finally emerged from Dante’s Inferno and found myself in wireless paradise. How sweet it was and continues to be!

Perhaps, connecting the various components of my system to several different electrical outlets was indeed, the key. Although NETGEAR claims it produces a more efficient product, it is highly unlikely that my Linksys unit was really flawed. But I am in no mood to argue with celestial success.

But guess what! Call it senescence or perhaps I’m coming unwired ~ I really feel better about that smart little corner shelf you see in the photograph above, than the fact that we are now wirelessly connected. So weary had I become with this interminable and enervating project, I very quickly devised what I believe is a totally original and simple way to mount a corner shelf securely on only four little screws. Stay tuned, I’ll describe that opus novum in a later posting.

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