Replacement of the WiFi System

We are a long way from The Clapper of old, in this era of Smart everything and voice-controlled home features. A WiFi-equipped house was initially essential just for computers and phones and printers, but that’s small potatoes in our Alexa’d universe. The first two Echo Show voice assistants that I obtained several years ago were originally dedicated to video communicating in fun fashion between 1st and 3rd floors, or with out-of-state family, as well as simple tasks like kitchen timers and managing shopping lists.

Then came the smart plugs and smart bulbs and smart light switches, and their required control hubs, plus a smart deadbolt on the back door. Expand the network’s demands and complexity, though, and it’ll open wide the avenues to exasperated helplessness when any elements fail to function properly.

When my printers would inexplicably disconnect, I’d be mad at the printers. When units in my Sonos system disappeared from the app, I was mad at Sonos. Many of our smart features are dependent on a SmartThings hub to operate, and I was getting disconnect alerts 10 or 15 times a day, lasting for 10 or 15 minutes each. I could not understand why Amazon reviews for that hub were so glowing when I couldn’t get it to work consistently.

When I became more diligent about professional writing, I was utterly flummoxed when I’d repeatedly get error messages that the ERIC database URL could not be found. It wasn’t until I went round and round with my personal websites host about why I could not access the server management that I slowly emerged from my conditioned stupidity: it had been my LinkSys WiFi router the whole time, for all of those connection issues. My smart bulbs are a lot brighter than I am.

One of the summer tasks was to replace the failing LinkSys routers with a new mesh system I’d gotten from Costco. I was dreading it, knowing how complicated and involved it would be if everything had to be reset, reconnected, and so on. But it wasn’t so bad…it took a little longer for the security cameras to reestablish but they found their way.

And since the new routers came on line, not a single dropped or blocked connection yet. What took me so freaking long?!