Cable modem lesson's learned

We just happened to have, well, some sorta meltdown, yesterday. The verdict from our internet supplier was that their modem was fine, but our router was flakey. Which might be plausible, though why, out of the blue.

Connecting directly from the modem to my pc did work. Anyway, we pressed younger son's Apple Time Machine into service, and EVENTUALLY Apple TV, 2 pcs, a MAC laptop, and 3 iPhones were all happy.

The payoff: the support guy said the modem they supplied is old-as-dust and they're giving us a new one with built-in router, woohoo.

One wrinkle that counfounded me for a while, with my win 10 PC, in all the testing and hook ups: I think I neglected to make my pc "discoverable".

 

Thanks for letting me know that, I'll see if I can use my old modem.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

A router/firewall has been and is an essential part of connecting a computer to the internet. Back around the turn of the century
it was estimated to take about than 5 minutes for a windows machine connected directly to the net though a cable modem to be sniffed.
After a non firewalled windows machine is detected on the net it takes precious little time before it's turned into a zombie. And the number of zombies estimated 10 years ago was staggering.

A couple things about routers ( an I'm not even close to an expert ) older routers used to keep logs of known suspicious traffic both coming into and going out of the router, even cheap home routers. Unfortunately, older routers logs would fill up with suspicious traffic reports that the manufacture of the router currently ( years ago ) considered normal internet traffic. And newer routers logged more malicious traffic abnormalities. On and on it goes. Last router I configured I didn't notice a log but I wasn't looking for it. One of these days I may go in there and take a look see.

I tried my best to keep cable internet and TV bill below $100 for as long as I could by cancelling unwanted features. A couple years ago
it became impossible and as soon as it broke the $100 mark it wasn't long before it came close to the $200 mark.
The only way I was able to keep it below $200 was to accept the phone package as well, with new wifi / gigabit wired router / phone box and a new TV box. grrrrr I don't want wifi I don't want cable phone either.

I can turn off the wifi in the router admin config which is nice seeing how some of you don't have that option with your equipment.
I'm not into the bluetooth stuff much either with all the newer versions and protocol enhancements.

There's another thread here in Freds Pancakes about Windows 10 Edge browser that I get a kick out of. I was gonna ask if that thing called cortina is the new feature that pops up infront of Edge and blocks half the screen ... making the browser page I was looking at impossible to
see. geez what a gobbledy gook of a mess that is.

The smartphones are no better, I personally describe them as the WORST privacy violation on the planet. Most younger people must just accept the fact and get on with it. I've had flip phones and a blackberry way beyond their obsolescence dates and finally broke into reality with a smartphone recently and have noticed what I've suspected for a long long time. They do what they want, whenever and to whomever they want. The only way to get free of that weirdness is to not use it.