Thanks/.! I needed a fresh reason for never flying commercial. I first flew commercial a month after the new Boeing 747 entered service. That was super! Extremely comfortable, plenty of room for everyone, an actual bar, and terrific service. I met my soon-to-be wife that day too, a nurse(wuv me sume nursies!) working as a flight attendant. OK, backintheday she was a stewardess, but y'all get the idea. I was a lilbit younger then, and hoped that experience would last. Sadly, it's gone to carp, as horrible today as it was great back then. Thanks, greedy capitalists, for the perspective, and nuffin else. Barstids. I avoid things I see advertised and/or suck. Flying today sucks arse. Ads suck more arse, and don't even take me anydangwhere. Ads AND flying, jammed in a tube, rubbing shoulders with smelly people, passing thru TSA and the rest of carppy airpatches? Thanks, airlines, ya monetizing, leveraging fookers, I'll happily pay substantially more to avoid all that, um, stuff. My wife and I fly a few times a year, and apart from billboards we can ignore on the drive to the airport, we see no ads, get a more informative map, relax in cool comfort, and enjoy the great service that we learned to love. Thanks for the warning/. and WSJ./. rocks!
The only thing preventing me from removing Windows 10 from my PCs is that I cannot run Windows games on Linux. I've used Linux a bit, enough to see that despite a bit of a learning curve, it's better for most non-gaming stuff. I'm accustomed to tweaking Windows, a habit that began wif M$ Flight Simulator. Always trying to squeeze the most frames from it, and disabling/modifying those Windows things that sucked up a fair bit of the hardware power/processor cycles I paid for. Desiring to get the most fluid performance possible, over time I became a fair hand at tweaks. Moved on to P3D a while back, and still optimizing as much as I can to make flight sims and all the rest look the best. Now that I'm old and retired and have extra $ to put into PC stuff, it's never looked as good as today.
Despite that, Windows still sucks. Forced(and shi__y) updates and other carp, including the soon-to-come WAAS garbage, make me eager to leave Winblows behind me.
Unfortunately, I've yet to find anything that tells me I can run almost any Win10 games on Linux. I'd enjoy learning a new system, something fresh to tweak and optimize for my uses. Lack of games support is all that keeps me from Linux, and I quit hoping that'll change before I die.
Dagnabbit...
Years ago I quit answering the phone. If someone has something to say, they leave VM. If it's really really important, they send me snailmail. I'm on the gubmint DNC list, but still get ~2/3days and don't care. Smartphones ain't that smart, so I leave it on silent w/a fully black display(saves a lilbit o' battery) until/unless I want it. Sure, I can see where getting a lot of spam calls would suck, esp. if your phone controls you. Me, I'm very un-Luddite, but I refuse to submit to my phone. Heh;)
So, some overeducated and likely underemployed person way back when decided that people were dumb enuff to think $9.99 is a lot less than ten bucks. OK, so maybe there's a small set of people that'll believe that sh... tuff. I believe the whole '$9.99 bit' is an insult to people's intelligence. I'd happily pay the extra penny and have whole prices. I'd pass by a lot of places that don't to support a person/company that respects the users' intelligence and offers their services/product for an honest, whole-number price.
Does anyone here actually believe that $9.99 is better than $10 even?
Why is there not a real air gap between the Intertoobs and Norsk Hydro? Same can be said about infrastructure like power gen and grid controls, and numerous other big things that could suffer massive damage from some anus or state actor.
Sure, I get that, for example, in power generation, it makes the job of coordinating the systems over a wider area substantially easier. They have to control how much power they add to the regional grid, keep the output freq ~60Hz, etc. Of course, they did the same thing before Al invented the 'net, using plain old telephones. Even(gasp!) dial phones.
Sure, OK, yes, there are other vectors for malware and other evils, but most of this stuff happens because someone got into the system(s), through the net connex. Yes, maybe it'll take a lilbit longer to coordinate and operate by POTS lines, maybe takes a few more workers, maybe maybe.
I've yet to see any real debate on this issue. Does anyone here maybe work in industry, maybe a power utility, that has some real kn owledge on this they can share with us? I know I'm not the only person that's wondered about this.
They want to attack the missile at launch, in early boost phase, instead of in space. OK, so to do it at launch, early in boost, there's thick atmosphere to penetrate but it's not moving so fast. I'll let the next physicist readin' this explain better, but would the atmosphere affect the beam, spread it at least? Why would they want to hit it that early, unless they're hedging their bets?
Or is there something they're not telling us mere taxpayers?
These power plants, industries, universities, government compooters, etc. are in places that have people present always. Yes, I understand that power generation facilities have to regulate their operations to maintain frequency standards, so they need to know what the rest of the system's doing and work accordingly. Even that function doesn't need to be connected to the 'net, they can do this manually. There's very little they need to do that requires internet connections. I just fail to understand why things like power plant SCADA operations are connected to the net. It's obvious that's not a good thing, having such critical compooter systems connected, potentially open to a smart person/group with nefarious intentions.
Can't these things be done by the people that are onsite? What are the compelling reasons they're connected? I've asked many times, many places, since this issue became a thing, and nowhere has anyone responded. Sure, the folks that don't know should stay quiet, but I don't see anyone else asking this question, and nobody talks about the issue. They complain, they punish Russia(too little too late, thanks Trump/RepubliKKKans), but these critical compooter systems remain connected.
Why?
https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/a...
Why are US utilities, businesses and government connecting -anything- important to the intertubes? If you have staff on site, why would you connect important industrial/process controls and information, including government/military stuff, to the net, where evil people can access them? Even more, why don't we see any explanation of this issue? We sanction Russia and China for invading our compooter systems, but nobody asks why these systems are accessible offsite. Even power generation systems can be operated, including frequency control, without a physical connection to the net.
Of course, my engineering degree is rusty and dusty, I'm retired and old, so I may be totally wrong, but if that's the case, I hope someone below might address this issue. I know no better place to find the right people to ask this.
I'm not a coder. I build my own PC's and install OS/software, do upgrades, scans and detail configs. The usual stuff, right.
For me, I wish my PC could become a screwdriver. It's a tool, it allows me to do other stuff. Alas.
I know enough to know how much I don't know. Over many years of using/building/trubbelshooting these infernal things, most of us acquire a fairly broad collection of compooter skills. I've dabbled a lilbit with Linux, enough to know I'd surely use it a lot more if I could. I know, it's simple and nice to surf the web, do business stuff, crunch data, run a server. Me, I only surf, the usual web stuff.
And, play games. That's the bulk of what I do. I'm old, retired, and have plenty of "free" time, something work once kept me from. Now, I have this tremendous TOY, my PC. My compooter is configured for games, played on a 60in. HD screen. It's also great for the Web, Usenet, etc. And, it runs Win10. And, if I could run all of my games on Linux, and they look/play smooth and purty, I'd happily leave Windows. I look, periodically, for any news that Linux now plays today's PC games.
Sadly, it appears that's not doable, or those that could do it don't. I know a few other oldfarts like myself that enjoy compooter games, esp. stuff like CoD, World of Tanks/Warships and ultra-realistic ground/air combat/casual flight and auto-racing simulators. In a recent discussion, changing to Linux came up, and it sounds like most of us would gladly change, esp. if it freed up some processor/memory resources that Windows and it's myriad associated drivers eat. There's a real, significant demand for a (reasonably)simple way to play all our Windows games in Linux, and it's more knowledgeable users, folks that accept/tolerate/learn from doing cfg stuff, as long as it ain't too convoluted and 'splained simply for us older fellers.
Why isn't this sort of use/user considered? If the idea is to get Linux on more machines, in more faces, it's already doing most of the other compooter stuff folks do, so making it compatible with Windows games oughtabe in work.
Greetings-
I'm OTD, a retired engineer/firefighter/compooter geek in my late seventies. I've enjoyed the evolution of compooters, the Intertoobs, and most of the related shif. I've outlived most of my meat-friends, leaving only a phew I trade emails and stuff with. I wouldn't be caught DEAD on Facebook or similar traps. I seriously enjoy having essentially ALL of the world's knowledge at my fingertips, and MY info still largely remains private. Sure, I miss the good trivia games we used to play, back pre-Gooble.
Well, anywho, I ramble. Cannabis, and nice dark beers'll do that to ya.
The thang is, sure, I use some softwares, like most of y'all. Wherever possible, however, I use freewares, things like GIMP. There's reasonable substitutes for damn near every software thing, and there's always been 'ways' to get it free. I'm not wealthy, so I don't feel bad about getting a "evaluation copy" of something I need. Again, tho, most progs have free, or a helluvalot cheaper, alternatives, and I'm a cheap bastard, and good at it. My ol' lady reminds me of that often, bless her lil heart.;P~~
I enjoy photography and video, and the tools today are just fucking awesome. Growing up when I did, I'd love to go back and give teenage hippie me a few of today's goodies. Blow his lil mind, I'd. Even so, most stuff needs some related software, and the Intertubularian ecosystem. Gotta wuvvit!
I really dig this stuff, these tools, these toys, the gadgets/gizmos/doodads, etc. If I was FORCED to consider paying a rental for something,one of those incredibly rare things I find no freeware/purchase outright alternative for, I'd be -extremely- reluctant. Even more so if they call it a "fee", that word and "trump" just chaps my ass. At this moment, I can't think of anything I'd pay more than a coupla bucks monthly for, and even then, there may be periods of several months I don't use it. I'd like not to pay for it if I ain't using it.
Well, I'm a lilbit stoned, so I'm ramblin', (kinda)sorry, y'all. The point is, finally, if I had to, I could turn thia whole thing off, get by with just my cellyphone and the 'tubes. That's the gift gettin' old gives me, I care less and less about more and more as time passes. I could just as easily relax wif my guitars, cameras, cats and the wife(in no particular order). If they insist on makin' me pay a monthly subscription, I don't HAVE TO use any of their shit.
Y'all younger folks, having grown up with all this neat stuff, might see it differently. I understand, sure, the 14-year-old me would have LOVEd to have as little as my latest custom-made compooter, the control set, the 70in. HD screen and Prepar3d, awesome flight sim. I don't pass my medical anymore, but I've enjoyed flight simulations since the very first 8-bit sims came out. I've happily watched 'em evolve, hard- and software pushing each other, and even tho a coupla friends don't quite "get" why this otherwise adult guy still likes to fly virtually, I just smile, roll another one, and go fly anywhere in the world. I need no Intertoob conx, and no permission from anyfuckinbody to do it. I can take virtually unlimited pictures on my excellent cameras, and process 'em as I like, save 'em as I need, and again, don't have to pay anyfuckinbody any more than I already have for the privilege of my toys.
They can demand that everybody pay, but in fact, they can't touch this ol' fart. I GOT mine, and don't need their permission. Good luck, y'all. I don't envy young people today, your future looks like SHIT. I'm profoundly grateful that I was young when I was, made the choices I made, and have ticked all but a coupla boxes on my bucket list. This issue? I'm so beyond it. Good lusk, y'all!
Hmmm, no kiddin'.....
Okay, so I've replaced my WRT54GL router 3 times since I started using one. Exact replacement, same placement and connection, same 'ol same 'ol. I got six of 'em gratis, they fell off a truck, or so I'm told. Worx for me. All undamaged, however, I tested each of 'em, shared a couple, and put the others away. I'm glad now that I did that, since both of the first two slowly 'died', indicated by diminishing range. The router(s) remain connected in the same exact spot, on the second floor of the house. The house and furnishings and their orientation changes very little. Antennas both stand upright. There's no new devices in the home, other than a few that come and go periodically with friends. Friends have noted some loss of received signal strength here over time. So, the physical and RF environment where the router lives is virtually(pardon punnage) unchanging. Only the results have changed.
The router's not exposed to extremes of heat or cold, and the system as well as the router is always on and connected, very rarely rebooted or powered down, so there's no thermal/power cycles to stress it. I've had no reason/need to upgrade the router firmware, they're completely stock. (I'm gonna to try doin' this, however.) The PC/router/external drives/etc. all connect to a large well-regulated and -filtered UPS, so the system sees no significant variations in power, or transients such as those caused by lightning. No one smokes in our house, and there's no other significant airborne contaminants or vapors, the home's old enough for most outgassing to have ended and we've brought in nothing to change that, no new sheetrock, carpets, or furniture. There's no significant amounts of humidity, or lack of it, and the HVAC system has HEPA filtration, the filter media changed a lilbit mo' often than recommended, just 'cuz.
I'm an Extra-class radio amateur, so I have some experience and knowledge in the field, and access to test equipment occasionally. This house is far enough from our neighbors and any other RF sources that an RF spectrum analyzer shows minimal extraneous noise, apart from the normal low-level terrestrial background things and cosmic sources. No cordless phones in the home, the 'ol lady and I use only cellys.
So, I've had two of these routers lose approximately 25-40 percent of their range before I replaced them with another. Replacing them with another exactly like it, almost sequential serials, likely made the same day(Friday? Monday? Heh.), brings the range back to optimal. The ones I've removed from service show no obvious internal defects or damage, no indications of heating, no significant dust or films of anything airborne. Connections of cables/plugs/antennae are firm and have remained so over the lifetime of the unit.
I haven't done any deeper or more scientific testing or autopsy, I thought this was just my comeuppance for having acquired them so cheaply, and had spare(s) in the closet, so... As Dad always used to say, nuttin's free, kid. So, yeah, add me to the growing list of folks that've seen routers fadin' slowly into obscurity. They still work, of course, but lost a fair chunk of range over time. One's down to roughly 25-33% less range, the other maybe 33%-50% weaker, all other parameters being equal.
I haven't put any of 'em on any sort of test equipment to measure more exactly, sorry 'bout that, y'all. I hadn't really worried over it that much til tonight, readin' this in/.. I can't account for why they're failing, no more than why there are Republikkkans. Is what it is what it is. I'm considering now what I can do with the weaker routers in here to improve/enhance the network, and now I'm also watchin' this thread. Ain't/. great?;)
Peace.
Slashdot Mirror
Hmm, like "Fly United?" (BSEG)
Thanks /.! I needed a fresh reason for never flying commercial. I first flew commercial a month after the new Boeing 747 entered service. That was super! Extremely comfortable, plenty of room for everyone, an actual bar, and terrific service. I met my soon-to-be wife that day too, a nurse(wuv me sume nursies!) working as a flight attendant. OK, backintheday she was a stewardess, but y'all get the idea. I was a lilbit younger then, and hoped that experience would last. Sadly, it's gone to carp, as horrible today as it was great back then. Thanks, greedy capitalists, for the perspective, and nuffin else. Barstids. /. and WSJ. /. rocks!
I avoid things I see advertised and/or suck. Flying today sucks arse. Ads suck more arse, and don't even take me anydangwhere. Ads AND flying, jammed in a tube, rubbing shoulders with smelly people, passing thru TSA and the rest of carppy airpatches? Thanks, airlines, ya monetizing, leveraging fookers, I'll happily pay substantially more to avoid all that, um, stuff. My wife and I fly a few times a year, and apart from billboards we can ignore on the drive to the airport, we see no ads, get a more informative map, relax in cool comfort, and enjoy the great service that we learned to love.
Thanks for the warning
The only thing preventing me from removing Windows 10 from my PCs is that I cannot run Windows games on Linux.
I've used Linux a bit, enough to see that despite a bit of a learning curve, it's better for most non-gaming stuff. I'm accustomed to tweaking Windows, a habit that began wif M$ Flight Simulator. Always trying to squeeze the most frames from it, and disabling/modifying those Windows things that sucked up a fair bit of the hardware power/processor cycles I paid for. Desiring to get the most fluid performance possible, over time I became a fair hand at tweaks. Moved on to P3D a while back, and still optimizing as much as I can to make flight sims and all the rest look the best. Now that I'm old and retired and have extra $ to put into PC stuff, it's never looked as good as today.
Despite that, Windows still sucks. Forced(and shi__y) updates and other carp, including the soon-to-come WAAS garbage, make me eager to leave Winblows behind me.
Unfortunately, I've yet to find anything that tells me I can run almost any Win10 games on Linux. I'd enjoy learning a new system, something fresh to tweak and optimize for my uses. Lack of games support is all that keeps me from Linux, and I quit hoping that'll change before I die.
Dagnabbit...
Years ago I quit answering the phone. If someone has something to say, they leave VM. If it's really really important, they send me snailmail. I'm on the gubmint DNC list, but still get ~2/3days and don't care. Smartphones ain't that smart, so I leave it on silent w/a fully black display(saves a lilbit o' battery) until/unless I want it. Sure, I can see where getting a lot of spam calls would suck, esp. if your phone controls you. Me, I'm very un-Luddite, but I refuse to submit to my phone. Heh ;)
So, some overeducated and likely underemployed person way back when decided that people were dumb enuff to think $9.99 is a lot less than ten bucks. OK, so maybe there's a small set of people that'll believe that sh... tuff. I believe the whole '$9.99 bit' is an insult to people's intelligence. I'd happily pay the extra penny and have whole prices. I'd pass by a lot of places that don't to support a person/company that respects the users' intelligence and offers their services/product for an honest, whole-number price.
Does anyone here actually believe that $9.99 is better than $10 even?
Why is there not a real air gap between the Intertoobs and Norsk Hydro? Same can be said about infrastructure like power gen and grid controls, and numerous other big things that could suffer massive damage from some anus or state actor.
Sure, I get that, for example, in power generation, it makes the job of coordinating the systems over a wider area substantially easier. They have to control how much power they add to the regional grid, keep the output freq ~60Hz, etc. Of course, they did the same thing before Al invented the 'net, using plain old telephones. Even(gasp!) dial phones.
Sure, OK, yes, there are other vectors for malware and other evils, but most of this stuff happens because someone got into the system(s), through the net connex. Yes, maybe it'll take a lilbit longer to coordinate and operate by POTS lines, maybe takes a few more workers, maybe maybe.
I've yet to see any real debate on this issue. Does anyone here maybe work in industry, maybe a power utility, that has some real kn owledge on this they can share with us? I know I'm not the only person that's wondered about this.
They want to attack the missile at launch, in early boost phase, instead of in space. OK, so to do it at launch, early in boost, there's thick atmosphere to penetrate but it's not moving so fast. I'll let the next physicist readin' this explain better, but would the atmosphere affect the beam, spread it at least? Why would they want to hit it that early, unless they're hedging their bets? Or is there something they're not telling us mere taxpayers?
Sure it is. Someplace. Some... verse. Heh.
When they're regularly growin' maters and taters, I'm in. Heh.
Heh
Yup, he blew up real good.
These power plants, industries, universities, government compooters, etc. are in places that have people present always. Yes, I understand that power generation facilities have to regulate their operations to maintain frequency standards, so they need to know what the rest of the system's doing and work accordingly. Even that function doesn't need to be connected to the 'net, they can do this manually. There's very little they need to do that requires internet connections. I just fail to understand why things like power plant SCADA operations are connected to the net. It's obvious that's not a good thing, having such critical compooter systems connected, potentially open to a smart person/group with nefarious intentions. Can't these things be done by the people that are onsite? What are the compelling reasons they're connected? I've asked many times, many places, since this issue became a thing, and nowhere has anyone responded. Sure, the folks that don't know should stay quiet, but I don't see anyone else asking this question, and nobody talks about the issue. They complain, they punish Russia(too little too late, thanks Trump/RepubliKKKans), but these critical compooter systems remain connected. Why?
https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/a... Why are US utilities, businesses and government connecting -anything- important to the intertubes? If you have staff on site, why would you connect important industrial/process controls and information, including government/military stuff, to the net, where evil people can access them? Even more, why don't we see any explanation of this issue? We sanction Russia and China for invading our compooter systems, but nobody asks why these systems are accessible offsite. Even power generation systems can be operated, including frequency control, without a physical connection to the net. Of course, my engineering degree is rusty and dusty, I'm retired and old, so I may be totally wrong, but if that's the case, I hope someone below might address this issue. I know no better place to find the right people to ask this.
I'm not a coder. I build my own PC's and install OS/software, do upgrades, scans and detail configs. The usual stuff, right. For me, I wish my PC could become a screwdriver. It's a tool, it allows me to do other stuff. Alas. I know enough to know how much I don't know. Over many years of using/building/trubbelshooting these infernal things, most of us acquire a fairly broad collection of compooter skills. I've dabbled a lilbit with Linux, enough to know I'd surely use it a lot more if I could. I know, it's simple and nice to surf the web, do business stuff, crunch data, run a server. Me, I only surf, the usual web stuff. And, play games. That's the bulk of what I do. I'm old, retired, and have plenty of "free" time, something work once kept me from. Now, I have this tremendous TOY, my PC. My compooter is configured for games, played on a 60in. HD screen. It's also great for the Web, Usenet, etc. And, it runs Win10. And, if I could run all of my games on Linux, and they look/play smooth and purty, I'd happily leave Windows. I look, periodically, for any news that Linux now plays today's PC games. Sadly, it appears that's not doable, or those that could do it don't. I know a few other oldfarts like myself that enjoy compooter games, esp. stuff like CoD, World of Tanks/Warships and ultra-realistic ground/air combat/casual flight and auto-racing simulators. In a recent discussion, changing to Linux came up, and it sounds like most of us would gladly change, esp. if it freed up some processor/memory resources that Windows and it's myriad associated drivers eat. There's a real, significant demand for a (reasonably)simple way to play all our Windows games in Linux, and it's more knowledgeable users, folks that accept/tolerate/learn from doing cfg stuff, as long as it ain't too convoluted and 'splained simply for us older fellers. Why isn't this sort of use/user considered? If the idea is to get Linux on more machines, in more faces, it's already doing most of the other compooter stuff folks do, so making it compatible with Windows games oughtabe in work.
Greetings- I'm OTD, a retired engineer/firefighter/compooter geek in my late seventies. I've enjoyed the evolution of compooters, the Intertoobs, and most of the related shif. I've outlived most of my meat-friends, leaving only a phew I trade emails and stuff with. I wouldn't be caught DEAD on Facebook or similar traps. I seriously enjoy having essentially ALL of the world's knowledge at my fingertips, and MY info still largely remains private. Sure, I miss the good trivia games we used to play, back pre-Gooble. Well, anywho, I ramble. Cannabis, and nice dark beers'll do that to ya. The thang is, sure, I use some softwares, like most of y'all. Wherever possible, however, I use freewares, things like GIMP. There's reasonable substitutes for damn near every software thing, and there's always been 'ways' to get it free. I'm not wealthy, so I don't feel bad about getting a "evaluation copy" of something I need. Again, tho, most progs have free, or a helluvalot cheaper, alternatives, and I'm a cheap bastard, and good at it. My ol' lady reminds me of that often, bless her lil heart. ;P~~
I enjoy photography and video, and the tools today are just fucking awesome. Growing up when I did, I'd love to go back and give teenage hippie me a few of today's goodies. Blow his lil mind, I'd. Even so, most stuff needs some related software, and the Intertubularian ecosystem. Gotta wuvvit!
I really dig this stuff, these tools, these toys, the gadgets/gizmos/doodads, etc. If I was FORCED to consider paying a rental for something,one of those incredibly rare things I find no freeware/purchase outright alternative for, I'd be -extremely- reluctant. Even more so if they call it a "fee", that word and "trump" just chaps my ass. At this moment, I can't think of anything I'd pay more than a coupla bucks monthly for, and even then, there may be periods of several months I don't use it. I'd like not to pay for it if I ain't using it.
Well, I'm a lilbit stoned, so I'm ramblin', (kinda)sorry, y'all. The point is, finally, if I had to, I could turn thia whole thing off, get by with just my cellyphone and the 'tubes. That's the gift gettin' old gives me, I care less and less about more and more as time passes. I could just as easily relax wif my guitars, cameras, cats and the wife(in no particular order). If they insist on makin' me pay a monthly subscription, I don't HAVE TO use any of their shit.
Y'all younger folks, having grown up with all this neat stuff, might see it differently. I understand, sure, the 14-year-old me would have LOVEd to have as little as my latest custom-made compooter, the control set, the 70in. HD screen and Prepar3d, awesome flight sim. I don't pass my medical anymore, but I've enjoyed flight simulations since the very first 8-bit sims came out. I've happily watched 'em evolve, hard- and software pushing each other, and even tho a coupla friends don't quite "get" why this otherwise adult guy still likes to fly virtually, I just smile, roll another one, and go fly anywhere in the world. I need no Intertoob conx, and no permission from anyfuckinbody to do it. I can take virtually unlimited pictures on my excellent cameras, and process 'em as I like, save 'em as I need, and again, don't have to pay anyfuckinbody any more than I already have for the privilege of my toys.
They can demand that everybody pay, but in fact, they can't touch this ol' fart. I GOT mine, and don't need their permission. Good luck, y'all. I don't envy young people today, your future looks like SHIT. I'm profoundly grateful that I was young when I was, made the choices I made, and have ticked all but a coupla boxes on my bucket list. This issue? I'm so beyond it. Good lusk, y'all!
Hmmm, no kiddin'..... Okay, so I've replaced my WRT54GL router 3 times since I started using one. Exact replacement, same placement and connection, same 'ol same 'ol. I got six of 'em gratis, they fell off a truck, or so I'm told. Worx for me. All undamaged, however, I tested each of 'em, shared a couple, and put the others away. I'm glad now that I did that, since both of the first two slowly 'died', indicated by diminishing range. The router(s) remain connected in the same exact spot, on the second floor of the house. The house and furnishings and their orientation changes very little. Antennas both stand upright. There's no new devices in the home, other than a few that come and go periodically with friends. Friends have noted some loss of received signal strength here over time. So, the physical and RF environment where the router lives is virtually(pardon punnage) unchanging. Only the results have changed. The router's not exposed to extremes of heat or cold, and the system as well as the router is always on and connected, very rarely rebooted or powered down, so there's no thermal/power cycles to stress it. I've had no reason/need to upgrade the router firmware, they're completely stock. (I'm gonna to try doin' this, however.) The PC/router/external drives/etc. all connect to a large well-regulated and -filtered UPS, so the system sees no significant variations in power, or transients such as those caused by lightning. No one smokes in our house, and there's no other significant airborne contaminants or vapors, the home's old enough for most outgassing to have ended and we've brought in nothing to change that, no new sheetrock, carpets, or furniture. There's no significant amounts of humidity, or lack of it, and the HVAC system has HEPA filtration, the filter media changed a lilbit mo' often than recommended, just 'cuz. I'm an Extra-class radio amateur, so I have some experience and knowledge in the field, and access to test equipment occasionally. This house is far enough from our neighbors and any other RF sources that an RF spectrum analyzer shows minimal extraneous noise, apart from the normal low-level terrestrial background things and cosmic sources. No cordless phones in the home, the 'ol lady and I use only cellys. So, I've had two of these routers lose approximately 25-40 percent of their range before I replaced them with another. Replacing them with another exactly like it, almost sequential serials, likely made the same day(Friday? Monday? Heh.), brings the range back to optimal. The ones I've removed from service show no obvious internal defects or damage, no indications of heating, no significant dust or films of anything airborne. Connections of cables/plugs/antennae are firm and have remained so over the lifetime of the unit. I haven't done any deeper or more scientific testing or autopsy, I thought this was just my comeuppance for having acquired them so cheaply, and had spare(s) in the closet, so... As Dad always used to say, nuttin's free, kid. So, yeah, add me to the growing list of folks that've seen routers fadin' slowly into obscurity. They still work, of course, but lost a fair chunk of range over time. One's down to roughly 25-33% less range, the other maybe 33%-50% weaker, all other parameters being equal. I haven't put any of 'em on any sort of test equipment to measure more exactly, sorry 'bout that, y'all. I hadn't really worried over it that much til tonight, readin' this in /.. I can't account for why they're failing, no more than why there are Republikkkans. Is what it is what it is. I'm considering now what I can do with the weaker routers in here to improve/enhance the network, and now I'm also watchin' this thread. Ain't /. great? ;)
Peace.