Internet service providers and electronics retailers continue exploiting people uncomfortable with electronics and the vagaries of the internet.
Internet connectivity evolved from a useful luxury to an absolute necessity. Thus shoddy and deceptive treatment from suppliers is unacceptable.
In the days of Ma Bell (the original AT&T), everyone paid the same price for limited options. You could have any phone you desired, as long as it was manufactured by AT&T’s Western Electric.
You placed your order, and a friendly person arrived to install your phone that lasted forever. You needed no instructions on how to use it.
This Urbana reader represents many readers: “Question 1: i3 Broadband is coming down my street. Do you have an opinion?
Currently, I am “served” by Comcast for internet only. I receive up to 100 mbps for $60 a month, which has been fine. i3 offers 200 mbps for 49.95 a month. They want to rent me a device for connection.
Last year, I purchased an antenna that Good Vibes (your recommendation) installed. Great reception. Good Vibes guy was great. Thank-you.
Question 2: A week previous to learning that i3 was coming down my street, I replaced my modem and router. My internet connectivity had become less reliable, and both Comcast and Best Buy advised, due to their age, that it was time to replace my connecting devices. I opted for a combined device. I now get messages that my internet signal is not consistent. After the switch, I have not been able to reconnect my printer. I considered a pricey $90 service call from Best Buy to help with printer/internet issues but …
I learned that I will have to get a different device to connect with i3, so I am waiting while living without a printer and with the inconsistent messages.
So if I go with i3, I plan to buy a new thingy to connect and hope they will see that I am online, including my printer.
If I stay with Comcast, I need to do something, but I do not know what or whom to call to help me.”
Anytime you can save $10 a month for a faster connection, take it. Or you might ask Comcast if they’ll match i3’s price.
First, never purchase a combined modem/router, which is referred to as a “gateway.” This compromise limits quality, flexibility and versatility.
As the reader discovered, if she goes with i3, she no longer needs a modem but rather an optical interface that converts the light pulses in the fiber to electrical pulses suitable for the router.
With either Comcast or i3, a router remains necessary. If i3 attempts to rent the interface to you (Volo fiber provides them for free to its customers), you can buy it on Amazon for $25-$30.
See if you can return your gateway to Best Buy and purchase a separate modem and router, or just router if you go with i3.
Incidentally, your internet connectivity may have become less reliable because you failed to run free manufacturer updates/upgrades to your old router. This should be done twice a year.
You also should unplug both modem and router for a few minutes once a month and allow them to reboot.
As far as your printer, the fix probably is both easy and tricky, although with a Mac it should be more the former than the latter.
Phone Apple support and ask if they can talk you through it. Generally it involves deleting and then reinstalling the printer, assuming you’ve properly reconnected it to the router or configured the WiFi appropriately.
In this pandemic age, nothing is as simple as it once was. If you can find a vaccinated, masked college student to help you, she/he probably could quickly solve the printer problem and update the router as well.
Otherwise, you’re stuck with that $90 Geek Squad house call.
Rich Warren, who lives in the Champaign area, is a longtime reviewer of consumer electronics. Email him at [email protected].
