Can someone explain to me a bit about wireless routers?
I've got this wireless router on the corner of the desk that I got when I first finally played the funeral march for my old dial-up and FIOS laid pipe around here. I can't help but notice after all these years what the various little green lights are supposed to be doing so I know it's working as it should. If that's the case than there's five lights: the power indicator, something called a "WAN coax", the last one at the bottom just says "wireless", but right before that one are two lights, one for "internet" and one for something called "LAN Ethernet". I know one of those two is supposed to blink a bit, but it's the only one that's supposed to. Yet the last couple of days since I've been having all manner of sudden issues with my computer most likely all do to that creepy thing the Babylon malware beast I've noticed that both of them sometimes look normal with just one flickering a bit while the other is steady, but most of the time the two lights are both blinking frantically.
I can't remember which of the two (Internet or LAN Ethernet) is supposed to be the one that blinks, but I definitely know only one of them is supposed to. What does this mean? Which one of them is supposed to be the one that flickers? And what is LAN Ethernet anyway? Sounds like a minty fresh chewing gum.
I hate not knowing at least something about stuff like this. It's been sitting on my desk for years now, and I've never really took much notice of it other than it bugs me that it always seems to be in the way of the pen cup and the ashtray. It's bothering me though that I've been having those two lights flickering or blinking furiously when I know only one of them is supposed to. Right now things seem not so bad in the creaky pen and paper slows I've been having for a couple of days, and the Internet light is steady while the LAN Ethernet light is flickering a little. I just don't know if the proper light is behaving normally. I DREAD the thought of having to call FIOS tech support because they're worse than useless if you're even willing to spend four hours trying to get a human person on the phone.
TexasTowelie
(112,492 posts)and it is the Ethernet light that is blinking.
BTW, WAN = Wide Area Network and LAN = Local Area Network.
TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)I feel better just having some bit of knowledge about what this thing is and what it does sitting in the corner of my desk. I still think that Ethernet sounds like a tasty minty chewing gum though. Or perhaps tampons... for that clean meadow fresh feeling. If it weren't for the reminders of Efferdent and AlkaSeltzer it should effervesce.
RC
(25,592 posts)If not, shut it down.
What brand is the router?
Pharaoh
(8,209 posts)back in the late 90's. It seemed like I had my firewall down and someone was hacking me. I bought at the time a software called black ice. Probably now defunct. But I would check my firewall and make sure my machine is protected.
TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)Somehow I got malware that one at least Malwarebytes found most of the files, but I think there's still at least one other hiding somewhere. I just a few minutes ago realized that something is blocking my Windows updates, and I don't dare reboot since that's exactly how the crap re-intalls itself or there's another one that's doing it that nothing I've used is finding it all. And yes, all this time the firewall has been on... at least it SAYS it is.
This is a nightmare. I've spent most of my time in safe mode today trying to fix this since whatever this thing or THINGS are doing are lowing down my computer to a crawl so that most things won't open whethr the internet or programs or all the other Windows stuff like Control Panel, Add/Remove Software, Windows Explorer, et., or they won't stay open or running and freeze up so that it's almost impossible to close them.
Denzil_DC
(7,279 posts)That may at least free up resources and let your computer run at something faster than the speed of sludge while you tackle any other issues.
Pharaoh
(8,209 posts)to an earlier date before the problems started? Always worth a shot. Otherwise you might bring it to a professional.