Sometimes tech is hell, and Tuesday to Friday were excruciatingly hellish. But if I hadn’t followed the “golden rule” on router replacement, it would have been Armageddon.
On Wednesday I wrote a post entitled “Modem Replacement” that began as follows:
“I’ve been quiet online because I haven’t been online, because of a flaky modem.”
Or so I thought.
Tuesday and Wednesday
Before I wrote the Wednesday post, my network configuration consisted of:
- A 7 year old modem provided by my Internet Service Provider (ISP).
- A 5 year old third-party router.
Wednesday’s post mentioned that I upgraded my old modem to a new one, also from my ISP.
“So hopefully I am back online.”
Nope. My problem—losing Wi-Fi after an hour and having to manually restart my modem to get it back—continued.
I tried factory resetting my router and reconfiguring it. Still lost Wi-Fi.
So I went through other steps.
Thursday and Friday morning
On Thursday morning I bought a new third-party router to replace my older one. Still didn’t work.
Then on Friday morning a tech from my ISP made a service call because the ISP detected “signal issues.”
- The tech checked my outside Internet cable and performed some fixes, including securing the cable to the house at one point. The tech also performed “balancing.”
- Then the tech asked for my ORIGINAL 7 year old ISP-provided router.
- Luckily I could find the dusty thing. However, I couldn’t remember the network password I was using 5 years ago.
- So the tech handed my third-party router back to me—which had been factory reset at some point in the process—and basically said I was on my own.
The “Golden Rule” on router replacement
So by this point I had in effect used four different routers:
- My original 5 year old third-party router.
- The same router after a factory reset.
- The new router I bought Thursday.
- The new router again, after Friday morning’s factory reset.
So how did I maintain what little was left of my sanity after all these router changes?
Simple.
Whenever I started with a new router, my first step was to change the network name and password to the ones that I had used before.
Or as Google Gemini (which I used extensively this week) phrased it:
However, there is a “Golden Rule” that will save you from having to manually reconnect every light bulb, camera, and TV in your house.
The “Golden Rule” for a Stress-Free Migration
Use the exact same Network Name (SSID) and Password as your old network.
If you do this, your devices will “see” the new router, think it’s the old one, and reconnect automatically.
This saved me a lot of time…and stress. I was stressed enough.
Later Friday morning
So let’s review what I had at this point (Friday morning).
- A brand new ISP modem, obtained Wednesday.
- A brand new third-party router, purchased Thursday and factory reset Friday morning.
- A secured and balanced outside internet cable.
- A new (Wednesday) Ethernet cable between the modem and the router.
- Very little patience.
So I got the router going, changed my SSID and password for compatibility with my devices…
…and lost Wi-Fi half an hour later.
The first thing I did was to pack up my laptop and head to my father-in-law’s house to use his Wi-Fi for three hours. I had fallen behind in my Bredemarket client work and other things, so I caught up. One of my client’s web pages needs new text, so I submitted the second draft. I also moved the onboarding process forward for a new client.
The second thing I did was to schedule a Friday afternoon appointment at my ISP’s “store.”
Friday afternoon
This was my second visit to the ISP store. My first visit was on Wednesday when I exchanged my old modem for a new one. I was a walk-in and had to wait an hour to see someone.
So for this visit I reserved the first available appointment time: 3:30.
I performed the exchange, received three conflicting answers on how to activate my new router, and headed home.
I then turned on my modem, plugged my now-ancient Ethernet cable (two days old!) into the router, turned on the router, connected to Wi-Fi via the default SSID/password, followed one of the three activation options, and changed my SSID/password (the Golden Rule!).
I then verified that I was getting expected download/upload speeds and that all my devices were connected to the new router.
30 minutes later…
…the Wi-Fi was still working.
And it was still working an hour later.
And 12 hours later.
I still have no idea why I couldn’t get things working with a new ISP modem and new third-party router. After all, the old ISP modem and old third-party router worked fine for years.
But the new ISP modem, new ISP router, and various new and balanced cables work.
Now I just have to return the new router I bought Thursday.
Oh, and my ISP offered me a better router if I changed my plan…but I’m not tackling that today. My brain needs a break.
Bredemarket 
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