The day started out with not being able to print something to my networked printer. I had upgraded my cable internet last week and had also upgraded my wifi router. I was previously using two wifi routers to provide coverage for my small house as my neighbors wifi signals were interfering. At any rate, I updated the wifi connection for the printer as well as also have it hard wired. Everything seemed to be working fine at the time, but I did not actually try to print anything. So of course it does not work now when I need to print.

Being somewhat security conscious I always customize the wifi router settings, changing default passwords and disabling auto-connection features. I have to say it was rather frustrating at the time even setting it up as the very first problem I ran into was the router software insisted on being connected to the internet before I had a chance to change these settings. I accepted that I was just going to have to allow this and just make sure I changed the main admin password immediately. I was able to eventually get everything set up with new SSID names and new passwords for the wifi and got all my devices set-up and everything was looking good.

However, today when I went to go print, the printer shows up in the print dialog, but the print job says the printer cannot be reached. I do the usual checks of making sure the printer is on and connected and then remember oh I changed the network last week I must have missed the printer. I tried logging into the router and could not because it was now requiring a “smartwifi” set up login, which I never created because I view that as a security risk. I always intended to login locally. Which was working last week when I set things up.

To shorten this story, the new router is now completely broken. It turns on, but it never seems to get out of the boot-up mode. I did a hard reset several times, have changed cables, plugged and unplugged and nothing is working. Now I am tweeting with the router manufacturer with the usual prompts to restart and everything. I am just tired of the whole thing and ready to throw it out. I will post an update with the router manufacturer name and whether I will ever use them again depending on how things work out.