There’s something wrong with my ISP’s modem pool. Often, it’ll take multiple attempts to get a working connection. The worst part is when one of their modems picks up and the computer sits there trying to negotiate a connection for ever.
That’s part of the reason that this post is going up at 1 in the morning…
Resetting the connection is annoying with a standard modem, but it’s not too bad. The solution is to turn it off, turn it back on, and try again. With an internal modem it’s tougher. You usually have to either sleep the machine and wake it back up, or completely reboot. With the Airport hub, it’s a sort of like the first one, with the complication that the modem is upstairs on the computer desk and the computers are down in the livingroom.
Fortunately, I’m a bit of a geek.
I’ve got a home automation system partially set up in my house. I say partially because there’s always things that I want to improve or change or upgrade… I think home automation is one of those hobbies that never stops, like model railroads or gardening. I’ve got a new old machine that I want to use to replace the ancient PowerBook 180 that is acting as the central ‘brain’ for the rest of the system, but I haven’t installed the X10 server software on it yet…
Anyway, the upshot is that with a couple of remote controls, I can operate a variety of lights and small appliances… And the Airport hub is basically a small appliance. When it hangs up, all I need to do is hit a button on a controller anywhere in the house and I can cycle it off and on again… It’s not the most elegant solution, but until the faulty dial-up is fixed it’ll have to do.