I love it when I find a garage-sale find. Here’s the latest.
A fancy-schmancy, new-in-box, dual-band Linksys WRT AC1200 “smart router.” Price on Amazon $133.99 (depending on the day of the week, your browser, the casting of the I-Ching, your astrological chart, and Jeff Bezos’ mood; you might find it for as little at $99.99, thanks to Amazon’s recent habit of mucking around with prices). Receipt in the shiny new box said the seller paid over $160 for it at Best Buy or somesuch place a few months back. Dunno why he never used it.
It was marked $45, which I would never have gone for, especially considering I just got a new $22 router two weeks ago. But when I carried it over to the woman on the porch to see if she’d deal, I was wearing my Zelman Partisans tee-shirt. It’s a discreet shirt with only a tiny logo over the breast. But it instantly caught the woman’s eye. Turned out she’s a Christian of Jewish heritage, fascinated with Judaism, studies Hebrew, and fully understands why Jews and other vulnerable populations should be pro-gun.
We had a nice talk. I told her she should visit TZP and look in particular for our Sheila Stokes-Begley, who is so very much like her. And I got the router — which belonged to her husband who was too busy on his cellphone to pay any attention to her disposal of his stuff — for $20.
So now the small router I bought earlier (which worked fine as long as the microwave wasn’t running) becomes a backup, and this vastly more powerful job, after a five-minute set-up, took over the wi-fi world.
“Smart router.” Hmph. The thing is literally capable of running all those “smart” appliances I don’t have and never will. Can be programmed to shut itself off and restart on schedule to save power. That’s a useful feature. Way better signal than the other one, also.
Good on ya, Claire!
I don’t typically manage those sorts of deals. I went to a hamfest and left with a Heath HD-16 code practice oscillator, which, upon arriving back home, I determined I’d paid too much for. A well. It wasn’t a huge dollar amount anyway.
I got one of the MFJ oscillators for $5 a couple of years ago. Before we got this place I lived across the river in northern Virginia, and it was amazing how much enterprise-grade network hardware shows up in yard sales there.
The older models of Linksys router are common at yard sales and thrift stores, and are great for networking hacks.
So I realized I haven’t been over to TZP in a couple of days. (Big plumbing problem at the house.) Clicked on your “visit TZP” link and ended up at the t-shirt site. Hafta find out what the plumbing’s gonna cost before I invest in another t-shirt. Now on my way to TZP…
Ack, didn’t realize I’d repeated the t-shirt link, LarryA! Meant to put in the regular TZP blog or home page link — and will change that right now!
And sorry ’bout the plumbing. That’s never good news …
Interesting find, Claire. The router thingie I have came with the DSL installation about seven years ago. No idea what kind it is, but it’s worked ok to connect me to the net and even has a “wireless” thing that lets me connect the tablet reader to Amazon so I can download books. That’s all I use it for.
I had a choice in the beginning of “renting” the router, very high cost, or buying it for $99. from the phone company that supplies the DSL. I knew that was too much then, but had no idea what to get somewhere else and just went with it.
Now that router is starting to have problems, needs to be unplugged and “reset” every now and then, and I’ve been wondering if it should be replaced. Of course, I would have no idea how to set up the interface with the DSL…
Suggestions, anyone?
That one time when the bookstore didn’t have her favorite author in stock: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rFD76GVojik
I’m hesitant to make specific recommendations, but something like this Actiontec router should fit the bill. However, to note:
[empasis mine]
So, that’s the same rub I ran into about 5 years ago, when I needed to replace mine. I ended up getting one direct from Qwest. I have VDSL here.
I’m also seeing a used Actiontec Q1000 which purports to work with VDSL, and also will fall back to ADSL. There seems to be lots of brands, and I haven’t paid much attention to this market, so I don’t know to advise avoiding some of them. Actiontec is (or was) the supplier of the units Qwest provided. No idea what’s happening with CTL now. Nor, for that matter, do I know who your provider is. In general, I’d feel OK buying LinkSys (now Cisco), D-Link, or Netgear. Actiontec used to have a bad rep, but that’s what I have now, and it’s been fine.
Your service provider should be able to tell you what type of DSL you have. They’ll probably try to talk you into upgrading / buying a replacement when you call. 😛
> [empasis mine]
Or, would’ve been, had the B tag worked. Well, emphasis intended on “not their VDSL”.
Thanks, jed… a big part of the problem is that I don’t know what the difference might be between DSL and VDSL – and so many other things. My ISP provider is the local telephone company via land line. Last year someone installed fiber optic cable (or whatever it’s called) in my rural neighborhood… sort of puzzling, but nobody has yet indicated what it will be used for. I sort of figured I’d make the best of what I have now (no real complaints) and hope to be able to take advantage of the fiber optics when it comes available. If I can afford it. The land line DSL is expensive enough.
Unfortunately, the exterior phone line for the DSL is becoming old and worn. I need to replace it soon, and will have to call the provider to see how much it will cost me for that. There is zero possibility I can do it myself. I suspect it is possible that this old wire is responsible for the router problems.
Holy cr*p, AG! That is a hilarious piece of performance art! I want to know who that woman is and how she worked up the nerve to go do that wild (and awful) thing.
> a big part of the problem is that I don’t know what the difference might be between DSL and VDSL
No worries; neither do I. Not an area of tech I’ve stuck my head into. The only thing that matters is knowing which flavor you have, and matching the router to it.
Only thing I know is that VDSL goes faster than ADSL.
But fiber? Heh. You’re ahead of me, here in the urban wasteland.