Wireless internet makes my life less frustrating


Computers, Peace Corps / Thursday, October 27th, 2011

Who’s got two thumbs, a Ukrainian VPN internet connection, an American Dlink wireless router, and a working wireless network in his Ukrainian apartment? This guy.

I’d been having issues with the cable for my internet almost since the day I got my high-speed connection. I have this new type of cable internet in town. From my understanding, there are main routers in each building where the cable internet comes into and then if an apartment wants a hook up, a tech just comes out and runs an Ethernet cable from the router to the apartment. To keep anyone from running their own cables, you need to have a VPN login. It’s actually not a bad system, though I could name a few drawbacks. For example, if the router goes out in the building, everyone on the router is out of internet until a tech comes by. Or if you want to hook up a wireless router, it isn’t going easy even if you have the level of computer knowledge that I do.

My problem was that the Ethernet cable they ran into my apartment had a crummy connector on my end. Every time I’d jiggle it in my Ethernet port, I’d lose my connection. Sometimes it seemed like I didn’t even need to jiggle it. It was really frustrating. Also, I had this huge Ethernet cable following my laptop around my apartment. What I needed was wireless and all my problems would be solved.

When I stopped home last month, I picked up one of my three wireless routers (guys, I have a problem) and brought it back to Ukraine with me. I thought it’d be a simple plug and play setup, but I was wrong. I played with the setting for a week before giving up. Then, this week, I came back to it. Two days ago, I got to the “nearly there” point and I knew I just had to fix one thing if I could figure out what it was. Last night I did. To simplify, I had to use the one setup on the router that I never thought would have worked and I needed to supply the correct information to get it to work.

I still have to connect to the VPN through the wireless router, which I think is what caused all my problems. However, I think that means I can leave the wireless network unprotected and no one will be able to connect unless they have a login.

Now this guy can carry his laptop from his balcony to the bathroom and not worry about tripping over an Ethernet cable.

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