May 9, 2008
For the last several weeks -- as long as I've been using my Mac as my primary computer -- I've had the laptop plugged directly into the router, even though the router and Mac both support 802.11n. This is because that after a few minutes the router would constantly start rebooting itself.
I didn't really give it much thought. My router's a TrendNet, and they make the hardware for D-Link. My only experience with D-Link was with a friend whose router would randomly decide to start ignoring wireless and required a reboot to start listening again. So after giving the hardware company another shot at my place, I was just figuring: "Stupid TrendNet."
Then as I was reading JWZ's* LJ, I saw someone offer a possible solution for a problem he was having with SSH, or any other time he was hitting the network particularly hard: an overheating router. This makes sense to me now that I think about it... generating RF probably draws more power than just talking over Ethernet, and thus creates more heat.
So when I get home tonight I'm going to see if standing the router on its side to allow more heat-dissipation surface can fix my rebooting problem. If that fails, maybe one of those cheap little fans you clip to the desk. But thanks to someone else's completely unrelated problem, I may be able to use the wifi I paid for.
* JWZ is one of the original employees of Netscape, back in the pre-1.0 days. He's apparently known for being an arrogant asshole, which is probably why I enjoy reading his site as much as I do. Just one more entry in a list of people I've never met or even corresponded with, but whose blogs I read.
