{"id":2064,"date":"2022-06-08T20:08:15","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T01:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/?p=2064"},"modified":"2022-10-23T12:27:26","modified_gmt":"2022-10-23T17:27:26","slug":"what-is-past-is-prologue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/?p=2064","title":{"rendered":"What is past is prologue"},"content":{"rendered":"

A dozen years ago I tried out (and blogged about<\/a>) the newest wireless internet access system called \u201cClear\u201d using “Wi-Max<\/a>” that eliminated cable\/ISDN\/satellite connections and promised unlimited download limits along with decent, if not terribly impressive speeds, and an added plus was that it was cheaper than my current provider. Using an external modem, I simply put it near a window and it would tie into my router via ethernet. But, the biggest thumbs-up was that I could cut the cord with the hated Comcast system. Sadly, it was a total disaster \u2026<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2022, and the wireless companies are constantly screaming the 5G<\/strong>!!! network is the answer to internet access for the home, and T-Mobile\u2019s offering of what \u201cClear\u201d failed at. On paper it seemed too good to be true \u2026 by late Dad always said \u201cthere\u2019s no Santa Claus\u201d \u2026 what a prescient phase that turned out to be. T-Mobile\u2019s 5G half-priced offering compared to Xfinity was steeped in problems from the moment I opened the box. I found they had either glued in the SIM card or it was soldered in. \u00a0Regardless, the new wireless 5G modem was DOA without a removable SIM card to access their network as the modem couldn\u2019t access it without having the SIM card moved\/replaced\/rebooted. I had a hunch that this wasn\u2019t going to be the last time I\u2019d be talking to their tech folks who clearly knew less, (much, much less) than I did about their own product. Solution? Send a new one \u2026 that only took ten days and more phone calls. The new unit worked, sort of \u2026 compared to my Note 20 Ultra as a hotspot, it was barely passable as broadband. Then the fun began when I tunneled into it to shut off ports and such. T-Mobile doesn\u2019t want you to be capable of accessing that feature on their modem, so they lock you out. That forces you to use their system, basically unprotected, at the modem level. That\u2019s simply unacceptable as I\u2019ve seen as many as 10,000 probing attacks against my IP from fun places like Russia and China \u2026 in ONE day. The T-Mobile tech read from a script while I described the issue \u2026 they literally had no clue about what I was talking about. Their resolution? Five+ days later their solution showed up and still didn\u2019t work \u2026 more calls and I decided I didn\u2019t need any additional grey hair. So as per my conversation with their \u201ctech\u201d, I returned it to the closest T-Mobile store only to be told they could only allow a single item return at their stores, and I\u2019d have to find a box, pack it and drive to a UPS store \u2026 my experiment with T-Mobile allowed me to hear my Dad\u2019s voice as clearly as he was standing in front of me \u2026 after an hour of waiting for help in the store, I wanted to say \u201cdo I look like I work for UPS?\u201d\u00a0 My sarcasm obviously wouldn\u2019t be productive, so the \u201cGreat Box Search\u201d began. There\u2019s no happy ending here as the concept of viable wireless internet access is still as fruitless as it was in 2010. No wonder they say Musk is a genius, because other than politicians, no one gets hated upon deservedly as much as TV and internet providers \u2026 he\u2019s trying to fill that void with Starlink<\/a> \u2026 sigh \u2026 if only it was available in my area. I\u2019ve a feeling we\u2019ll see footprints on Mars before this is solved \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A dozen years ago I tried out (and blogged about) the newest wireless internet access system called \u201cClear\u201d using “Wi-Max” that eliminated cable\/ISDN\/satellite connections and promised unlimited download limits along with decent, if not terribly impressive speeds, and an added plus was that it was cheaper than my current provider. Using an external modem, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2064"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2100,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2064\/revisions\/2100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecaffeinatedgeek.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}