Thursday, May 15, 2008

Home Wireless Troubleshooting

Well, I had an interesting call recently. A DSL modem/wireless router was moved from one part of the house to another part. After the move the internet would no longer work on the wireless PC. It would not pick up an IP address via DHCP. First things first in a situation like this, always check the connections. Since I am 2 1/2 hours away from this house, I couldn't just hop in the car and head on over. So, I had the person verify the connections. I looked up the make and model of the unit online and was able to see which lights needed to be green and they were. I had the PC and modem both power cycled and no luck. I ran a release and renew of the IP address and no luck. I even tried putting in static entries just for the sake of trying something and still no luck. It would connect to the AP, but not get an IP. So, I had the connection disconnected and then reconnected. It then of course asked for a serial number. I said that it should have already had one in there when I was told that it was just entered manually a little while ago... BINGO!!! The wrong key was put in. Didn't think to ask if that was changed based upon the information that I had. Well, I should have asked what all steps had been taken to fix it. I still may not have been told that, but still should have asked.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

USB Flash Drives

Storage has gotten a lot cheaper over the past few years. One piece of equipment that is still very useful is the USB flash drive. These devices fit in your pocket very well and store a large amount of data that the average person will probably not completely use.

In fact, I just saw one today online that was a 4GB stick for only $22 at Circuit City online. Just a few years ago I was in a bind and had to buy a 256MB and spent $35 for it. Imagine getting sixteen times more storage for almost 40% cheaper.