I recently went to a friend’s house to work on a DSL router/modem/WiFi unit that he had acquired in 2003. It was a perfectly good 2Wire unit supplied by the phone company -- AT&T or its predecessor. DSL technology hasn't changed much; so as long as the electronics are serviceable, this unit should function forever.
But there is a rub. In recent years, the credentials used to connect the DSL modem/router to the telephone company’s service needed to be changed. Normally, this is an easy thing to do. You access the unit (if you have a separate router, you access that) and update the credentials. This requires a password to get inside the DSL modem/router. Since this was a unit installed many years ago, my friend couldn't immediately remember the password.
Luckily, the modem supplier had thought of this and included a "forgot the password" link on its support Website. Clicking this brought up a nice page that gave instructions to call customer support and give them a 20-digit number to receive a temporary password. I thought I had the problem solved, but I was wrong.
I called the phone company, AT&T, since the modem company, 2Wire, refers all customer contact to it. AT&T's response: We can't do that anymore, and we don't support that modem. Its solution: buy another modem.
If they had the program (probably a Web page) that would transform the 20-digit number in front of them, this could be solved in less than a minute, but it took over six hours to determine that they had no solution. In addition, several times I was told to find a reset button, which isn't available on this model.
I was ready to administer impact therapy to this device when my friend suddenly remembered the password. I changed the credentials, and the modem works fine now.
I liken this experience to locking the keys in my car, and then being told that replacing the car is the only way to solve the problem.
This entry was submitted by Tom Watson and edited by Rob Spiegel.
Tell us your experiences with Monkey-designed products. Send stories to Rob Spiegel for Made by Monkeys.
This the throw-away generation, I fear. Us repair-oriented guys like to fix things.
My modem recently went bad and the guy came out and replaced it. It lasted two days. I found an old DSL modem in my junk drawer and was back in business.
A simple solution would have been for the designers to put a switch on the back to enable a new password. You'd have to break into the house and find the thing to change the password but were not protecting Fort Knox here anyway; it's a bloody modem for god's sake. The switch could have the label "PASSWORD" and may be you might not even have to have the manual.
Slightly off topic, but important to me anyway. I have an employee who really needs some remedial basic electronics. I looked into what our local community college might have and was amazed the dropped this subject some years ago. Talking with a buddy this morning who is a retired EE professor, he tells me that electronics is being dropped at most universities. Everyone wants to be a programmer or IT guy, but no one is interested in the actual electronics anymore. This seems to confirm my recent research on the topic. In the late 60s we had very few ICs and something like a micro could not be imagined. I myself often said that "in the future we will see computers that will fit entirely into a 19" rack". I sure missed that one! Even in the 70s I took a micro class that used the 8004 and 8008 chips. Smuggly stating; "These micro things have no future other that maybe in lab instruments." Missed again!
But now I wonder if repairs and those who can fix equipment are dying off. Seems like everything is micro code driven any more. While I can replace BGA chips, I cannot get access to the code within them or access to the programmed parts. Everything seems throw away. I feel like a buggy whip maker.
I have found the same thing. No one knows electronics any more. I hired a guy who completed a two-year electronics technician course and was teaching him differences in the various types of capacitors. His first remark was, "Capacitors. We talked about those once."
We are leaving the hardware to the Orientals. We produce the software, the the Far East uses it and then we are totally out of the loop except to go to Walmart and buy back what we designed. And, what's worse is that they are getting good at software, too, and soon we will feel lucky to flip hamburgers!
It is time we got back to basics and learn physics, engineering, chemistry, math, and all the hard sciences and take back our heritage. NAFTA shoved it all overseas. How about a SSFU program (Save Something For Us) to bring it home again. Even our farming is "farmed" out to South America. What in the world is Washington thinking?
I have a similar problem, which s a TV receiver latched into the "test and calibrate" mode. The FUNAI website does provide instructions on how to get out of this mode, but those instructions call for issuing commands from both the original remote control and also using the control buttons on the set. Powering off will not reset it. Unfortunately I don't have the original remote any more. Getting into that mode was easy, all it took was a power glitch during a storm that came up at night. Now my choices are to purchase a new remote or pay a service center to do the reset. Why not have the reset done by some combination of buttons on the control panel?
Wow, what a bad combination: AT&T's classic, impervious "too big to think outside the box or ever be of any actual help" mentality plus your friend's memory loss. The first time I got a laptop that required a password, I remember thinking what disasters could ensue if I ever forgot it or if someone else had to access the machine while, say, I had a 103 degree fever or was vacationing in Fiji.
In my town, (A suburb of major urban area.) there is no competition for Comcast. (Tried DSL, way to slow.) Many municipalities have agreements with their cable providers that makes it difficult for more than one vendor to exist.
Nonetheless, are two megaliths like Comcast and ATT real competitors? You'd think so, but I'd have to have both available to find out.
A friend of mine recently bought a bunch of Epson projectors at a college auction. One thing you can do with them is set a password so they can't be used. Some had it some didn't. I happened to buy one from him that did. I had to call Epson, convince them I didn't steal it...lol and give them the serial number that they then used to make a new password....with some app. They were nice about it and I actually did it again for another projector he needed to sell. Thank god Epson is so nice! well...it was an Epson reseller.
That is a great idea. I do that with TV remote controls. That way when the batteries die and it loses its memory, I do not have to scrool through all of the product codes to reset for every device.
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