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I have used wireless Internet for 5 yrs, first with Rapidwave, then Digis bought out Rapidwave. Throughout the service, there were intermittent connectivity issues, ranging from slow to outright no connection. Sometime weekly, sometime once a month, sometime daily. Most events lasted only a few minutes, only ONCE was the cause my home connection and a few times the house's roof antenna required minor aiming adjustment to the tower. Every other time, it was because of something going on the tower, from maintenance to other software related issues that customers usually oblivious about. I do not constantly stream videos/music, only occasionally watch Amazon Prime low res TV shows. Shortly after Digis bought out Rapidwave, with the last connectivity event, the tech had to re-align the roof antenna to a new and closer tower and I hoped and thought that the closer tower would be the end of connectivity issues. Guess I was wrong. With the latest connectivity issue, my Chrome web browser began to display the 'Resolving host...' message more often and longer than before. I have a Linux pc, so I began 'ping' testing to google.com to see. The ping result lines took longer to appear than normal. Sometimes there were some percentages of packet loss and sometimes there were none. Then all of a sudden, no connection at all. The Chrome web browser as showing a constant 'Resolving host...' message and eventually timed out. I went thru the usual troubleshooting steps: reboot router and pc. But no joy. So I called tech support and explained what happened. I worked with the tech and bypassed the router. I got Internet connection with the antenna straight to the pc. Then I hooked up router 2 and received slow Internet connection with the Chrome web browser giving that 'Resolving host...' message. Both routers, 1 and 2, are the stable Linksys WRT54 series. So now it is possible that router-1 is bad. But I was still curious about that persistent 'Resolving host...' web browser message. CNN and other news websites that have a lot of graphics and media would take a long time to fully load and that 'Resolving host...' message was constant. Then I used router-3, a newer Linksys WRT54G2, and still have slow connectivity. I have three problem routers ? If I use no router at all, which is a security risk, web sites would load quickly, so it still possible that I have three bad routers. I called tech support, 3rd time, and explained what I found and asked if he could check something -- anything -- on the tower side, because I find it difficult to accept that three routers are bad. He said that if I have fast connectivity with no routers, and slow connectivity with a router, then it is possible that all three routers are indeed bad, or that the ethernet cable itself is bad. I asked that if I used five cables and still have slow connection -- inline with a router -- that I would have five bad cables ? He said 'Yes'. So now it is possible that I have three bad routers and many bad cables. I told the tech that I would do what he said: swap out cables. Oddly enough, after the final phone call, my connection went back to its usual speed, with the original cable and an old Linksys WRT54 router hooked up. I went to Google News, OSNews, EETimes, CNN, PBS, and anywhere that have a lot of media on the website and everything loaded fast. All with the original cable and an old Linksys WRT54 router that have been in used for nearly 10 yrs. There were no 'Resolving host...' messages, just the usual 'Waiting for...' messages after the host was quickly contacted. Somehow the old Linksys router and even older cable fixed themselves. Fracking magical. To any Digis support tech that may read this post: I was an avionics tech in the USAF on the F-111 and F-16. I know how to debrief pilots, from fresh out of flight training to combat experienced, to know how to assess any issue they found. I do not take customers' experience lightly, and yes, each crew is a customer and the jets I fixed are the products for them to use. The longer a customer have been with the product, the more familiar he will be with how it should operate, so when a customer calls for help, it is because they notice something out of the ordinary in usage for that product. If someone told you that he used three routers to troubleshoot the problem, you might want to consider the possibility that he has a little bit more in-depth technical proficiency with his hardware than usual. As of now, I am running with the old router and old cable that your support team said are bad. member for 14.6 years, 8 visits, last login: 9.8 years ago lodged 9.9 years ago
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