I spend a decent amount of time working with wireless internet, routers and WiFi. I actually started this blog as I’m seeing a very-real need for internet users to start using dual band routers. Beyond that, though, there are many, many different questions that people have and problems that they face with their WiFi, routers or wireless internet. That’s what this post is about: helping to provide answers to some of those questions.
Network / WISP Scripts – Coming Soon
Over the years being a WISP tech, I’ve needed some things that I couldn’t find to fit my needs / functionality, so I made the apps myself. Some of these things could be super-useful, and I’d like to offer them here in the near future.
Cable modem OIDs – Motorola, Ubee
Mikrotik Dual WAN Static IP Failover
I wanted to setup a dual WAN / failover connection between wireless and fiber for a site, but couldn’t use a simple gateway-check due to the gateways being reachable even if the internet was down. I thought it would be simple, and ultimately was very simple, but it took way too long sifting through convoluted and confusing, mostly-unrelated config dumps, dead mikrotik wiki pages and countless forum posts to find the super-simple solution.
Page Plus to Verizon Prepaid Experience
I’ve been using Page Plus for about 5 years. Outside of their ridiculously slow-loading member pages, I had no issues. Actually, I think I started out with 2GB or 3GB of LTE data per month and ended at 8GB per month for the same price — that part was solid. However, I was moving on from using a series of cheap LG G3s then LG G4s ($60 or so on eBay) to a LG V30, and I was concerned I’d lose my hotspot with foxfi / pdanet. Which, to confirm: you can use FoxFi with a non-root LG G4 with Page Plus. I assume any other carrier that doesn’t offer a mobile hotspot by default as well.
Buying a New Wireless AP / Router? Don’t Go Cheap
If you’re in the market for a new wireless router or AP, you have a choice in front of you. Contrary to what many people appear to think, at least based on their actions, one wireless router is not as good as any other. While buying a cheap wireless AP / router doesn’t guarantee you’ll have problems anymore than an expensive wireless router guarantees a fantastic experience, I’ve seen enough to say that there’s a pattern of what to expect based on the retail price of the router. At least with Belkin, Linksys and Netgear: these are the brands used almost exclusively by our customers.
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