I always have to jinx things. It wasn't long after my previous entry that another Computer Circus event occurred.

My router died.

I'm not sure why it died. I was trying to set up an FTP server to experiment with sending my blog (yes, this blog) to my own server, and I was not having much luck. I did a little research and determined that some ports were not open on my SMC Barricade firewall, so I was changing the settings and rebooting. Just as I was getting close to getting it working, I issued another software reboot command, and it never came back online. Computers on my LAN were still talking to each other, but the WAN connection was dead. And the router was no longer showing a blinking yellow light that indicates normal operation.

I also discovered the device has no factory reset button, even though there is a hole in the back to stick a paper clip into. So I ran out and bought another router at a local computer store that closed before I got back home, but this router is not working properly on my network. It won't let me plug a switch/hub into it, and when I try to access my web pages (at least from the LAN side), I get the router login screen, instead. Now I'll have to wait until tomorrow or Monday to return this new one.

What a piece of shit.

So I went on Craig's List and discovered someone has not one, but THREE routers for sale for half the price of what I paid for this ONE new one. And one of the three is the latest version of the router I had that just died. So, now I'm waiting to hear back from this person to see if they are still available - they're just a couple miles from here. I really didn't need to be wasting my time with THIS crap today - I have a resume to finish and a yard sale to prepare for. But, hey, if I get these three routers and sell two of them at the yard sale, I might actually come out ahead of the game!

One can only hope.