Network Upgrade

This stuff is happening too fast.

The Lord has been gracious and we got our state income tax refund. So today we stopped by a Cox store and discussed the free modem upgrade. They want everyone using the new DOCSIS 3.0 cable standard and that means a new modem. I was curious about owning the modem instead of simply using or leasing theirs. As long as we had their phone service, the modem was free to use. The new modems mostly have no phone jack. We seldom call out on it and all that comes in is sales calls. So I asked and there was no penalty for dropping the phone service, and the bill goes down as well, plus it would mean a cheaper modem. They even sell them in the store, and the price wasn’t that bad. Even better was that they could activate it in the store and make it work before we got it home.

We decided this was the time to get the new router, too. On a whim, we stopped by the Best Buy and I was quite surprised. That fancy router I wanted has a cheaper cousin: WRT1200AC. Everything is the same except it has only two wifi antennas and a much lower price. All the beef without the excess fluff. Strange how my online searching never revealed this other model. For now we are running the factory software because — well, I’m not ready to mess with the DD-WRT router firmware. This is too soon.

I do have an external hard drive on order and this thing will offer a built-in FTP service. Once I get that drive and load it up with as much electronic library as I have now, I can turn it on. At first you’ll access it using a raw IP address instead of a domain name (URL) the way you do most things. And that IP address is subject to change, but I’ll try to keep you up to date if you want to use it much. Later I’ll see about getting a Dynamic DNS service. The router as is supports only a DynDNS which costs about $40/year. If I can get up to speed on the DD-WRT firmware, I can choose any service I like. However, being that I’m so busy and God keeps providing, I may just pay the fee and go with that for a year or so.

Thank you so much for your effective fervent prayers on our behalf. We are using the new equipment right now. And I’ve managed to get the password wrong and had to reset the thing once already, so I’m now an expert at running the setup. If I don’t screw something up, it’s because I wasn’t doing anything.

Wow. This is getting to be like work.