01465: WiFi Woes at the Sietch

Weird day.

So at the start of a 4-day weekend and I managed to get tonight and tomorrow off from work. But the irony here is that our internet connection has died on us and we had to scramble to find alternate solutions in the interim.

BayanDSL has scheduled a technical dispatch for tomorrow - of course we don't have a specific time for when we can expect the service guy to arrive, which is typical of the industry here in the Philippines. And while I was repeatedly power cycling our devices with the BayanDSL rep on the phone, our Linksys router decided to die on us as well, which was weird since it had been working perfectly fine before.

Given both Tobie and I need to remain online due to work concerns, we had to step out to find some quick solutions to get us through the next day or so - or at least until we get proper broadband again. Now typically we have a SmartBro plugin modem for situations like this, but that also means constantly passing the device between the two of us. So first item on our list was to get one of those SmartBro Pocket WiFi devices so at least we can network our laptops even on the go. It took us a while to find a unit in stock here in Cubao, but in the end we won out.

Then there was the need to face the reality that our router was really dead and so I canvassed for a new one. I finally decided to move away from the comfort of the Cisco world and went for a cheaper device. If it breaks on my again, at least it won't break my heart at the same time. I ended up with a TP Link 300 Mbps wireless router that seemed decent enough. I'll probably get around to more properly setting up the new router by tomorrow once the DSL is fixed. I suspect they'll need to replace our old ZTE router or something.

So yeah, it's a quirky start to the long weekend. But we'll get by I'm sure. I just won't be online as much as I'd like to be.

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