Connectivity

TP-Link Archer C2 - First Impressions

· Reading time: ~2 minute(s) (285 words) techsupport connectivity networking

As mentioned in my last post, I was in the hunt for a new router to replace the aging Buffalo WHR-HP-G54. I’d found that it wasn’t capable of handling fibre broadband speeds (hardly surprising… given that it’s running a 200MHz single core CPU with barely a few megs free of the 16Mb RAM).

I ended up dropping by PC World and picking up the TP-Link Archer C2 for £49.99 (a few quid more expensive than it was at Scan, but PC World was closer, so I was saving petrol money and around 30 minutes of my time for the round-trip).

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Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 Fun (or not...)

· Reading time: ~3 minute(s) (540 words) techsupport connectivity networking

Out of contract with my previous supplier, I was free to find a new supplier. Luckily, one of the benefits of my job is that I get free fibre broadband, so it was a simple decision :)

Anyway, back to the point of my post.

I last used the Buffalo a few years back when on Virgin Media’s “National” service (no longer available - a good thing as it was trash) when their supplied Netgear had weak wi-fi. Since then, there’s been well documented problems with OpenSSL and the Heartbleed vulnerability and I was sure that the Tomato firmware running on the Buffalo would be affected. It turned out that as I was using an official release, I was OK but I still fancied trying DD-WRT as it was the original reason for me buying the Buffalo in the first place.

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No dial tone, but broadband still works?

· Reading time: ~2 minute(s) (320 words) techsupport connectivity broadband

It seems whenever I need to make a phone call on the landline, it’s broken. Yesterday I picked up the landline handset and it was dead. No dial tone. Nothing. Nada. Zip.

I tried the usual steps at first (unplug it, plug it back in) but no joy. Onto the broadband I went. Works fine. Weird. I’ve had this before and leaving stuff unplugged overnight seemed to fix it, but on this occasion it didn’t help. So today, Di picked up a cheap landline handset from the Asda and she tried it while I was at work, but still no joy. Which only means one thing… calling the provider :(

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