Wi-Fi Woes

To our laptop-warriors in Arlington...

What the heck happened to our wi-fi? Things were chugging along so nicely for so long, weren't they? We resumed the cablemodem broadband connection with Comcast, plugged in an Apple Airport Extreme base station, and cruised along at 5-megabit-per-second speeds.

Then, inexplicably, we started having issues. The router would need to be reset on a regular basis, and the previously fast connection would slow to an excruciating crawl... and then the wi-fi would just stop responding.

For the more technically inclined, here's what we've tried:
- thought maybe the problem was with the cablemodem itself... so it was swapped out. No help.
- thought maybe the problem was with the router... so it was swapped out. No help.
- thought maybe we could pinpoint the problem by plugging two routers into the cablemodem, with a wired router in between. No help.
- thought maybe the problem was with some of the wireless settings, especially the wi-fi channel. With the numerous wi-fi signals loitering on our block, namely arlingtonwireless, "sistema," and the venerable "Silver Diner," thought that maybe there was some sort of channel or signal interference that was screwing up our wireless routers. Multiple channel-changes and adjustments to mulitcast rates and the like: No help.

As a wise man once said, "Eff that... I'm switching my ass to DSL."

Comcast is sending a tech out tomorrow (Friday 12/16) to mess with the wiring. If our problem isn't fixed by him/her, then we're switching to DSL. Our Comcast contract expires in less than two weeks.

Any advice on a DSL provider? Email us at: comcastblows@murkycoffee.com.