Twenty-four dollars - June 22, 2020

Twenty-four dollars.  That's all it took to fix my problem.

That's how much a wi-fi repeater cost me.

I could have avoided all that agony for $24.

As you may have guessed by all the "From the back porch" headers, I do most of my blogging and digitizing work at a table on my back porch.  I love working out here; only the coldest of days run me in the house (when it's hot, I just turn on a fan and truck on).  Out here, I get to see animals and hear birds, and see my flowers bloom, and keep an ear on the neighborhood comings and goings. 

But I need the internet for much of what I do, and out here the wi-fi signal is sporadic.  It's not horrible when I'm home alone, but when The Husband gets home and fires up his tablet and watches videos, I'm out here on the porch "sucking hind tit," as my friend says.  Since he has been working from home a good bit, he has been needing the internet in the day time, and if I get on, it sometimes knocks him off, so I try to do things that don't require internet.

Anyway . . . .

I've been thinking about getting a signal booster of some sort.  Problem is, I don't know anything about that stuff.  Also, I have old computers, and rinky-dink internet service.  I did a little reading about extending the wi-fi signal, but the thing I wanted was kind of expensive, and I wasn't even sure it would work with my equipment.

So I finally broke down and just ordered a cheap ($24, you might be guessing) wi-fi repeater.  Reviews said it was easy to install. 

It came in the mail today.  I opened it up while the supper simmered, and pulled out the instructions.  They were evidently written by someone from a different planet.  I stuffed them back in the box, tossed the box on the couch, and went back to my spaghetti sauce.  When The Husband came through the living room and saw it, he picked it up, and just as I had hoped, took it back to the office.  Thirty minutes later, I turned off all the burners and went back to the office and asked, "You get it figured out, yet?"

He said, "No!  These instructions are horrible!"

So it wasn't just me.

I picked up the instructions and read them again, and it seemed to be telling us to do things that made no sense.  Finally, I found a YouTube video that explained it, and followed along, doing everything just like he did it.  Then we got to a step where my computer would not do what his computer was doing.   I was about to get ill when The Husband picked up his tablet and was able to log on to the new extender thing and used it to surf.

Hallelujah!

I ran out to the porch and woke up my rickety old laptop, and IT COULD SEE THE WI-FI GADGET!  Not only that, but it jumped right online when I told it to, no lolly-gagging. 

I ran inside and told The Husband, "Pull up one of your ukulele videos so I can see how my laptop acts when we're both online!"  And he did, and the laptop didn't even notice.

I am back in business!  :)