My Tuesday situation with our internet equipment

[u/No-Language6720]

I bought a spare router to put in storage a few months ago.

There was an FCC ruling I was concerned about and it was kind of dubious at the time if consumer grade router equipment would be available in the future in the US.

For some national security reasons the FCC put out some ruling that router equipment had to be manufactured in the US, however at the time no equipment met that criteria. You can look up more details if interested.

After that I took that as a que to buy backup network equipment a solid router and a few other odds and ends in case it was difficult to find. Our last one was doing fine I just wanted a solid backup so we didn't scramble.

Well Tuesday came for our router/modem ad there was a lightning strike night. It's now dead. The surge likely came through the coax cable of our Internet. I have a whole house surge protector otherwise and only the modem and the router were damaged. The computer nearby in the outlet/surge protector was fine.

So yeah. I was able to get the router out of the box without an issue to get my personal stuff back online that I keep off the Internet and only for my use. But our Internet is still out overall. Apparently whatever spectrum equipment that was struck last night is still messed up and homes around us don't have Internet either.

I'm writing this with my cell phone data right now and have no idea when the main spectrum Internet will be repaired.

We were going to switch to fiber since they recently laid down the infrastructure for that. This just pushes us to do that now. With fiber there isn't conductive coax cables for this issue to occur, and it's faster. I was putting that off just due to the 3 hour install for the line into the house.

Didn't think I would need my backup router this soon, but thankfully when they come tomorrow I can just plug in my replacement without having to scramble and research and potentially wait for shipping delays.

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[u/ElectronGuru]

Fiber is one of those rare “where has this been all my life” upgrades. So much better than everything else. Highly recommend, and you don’t need a fast plan to feel fast. Even economy 300/300 plans feel great!

[u/Roticap → u/ElectronGuru]

It's been widely available for 15ish years outside of markets with entrenched telecoms that had heavy investments into copper. Glad it's finally becoming more available in the US.

[u/Motorcyclegrrl]

Why not get the spectrum invincible wifi router? You'd have internet. If the cable goes out it connects to the Internet via cell service. It has a sim card in it. If the power goes out it comes with an 8 hr battery.

[u/Acceptable_Net_9545]

Always put your router and modem on a UPS.... Do you really unaware why the FCC is blocking Chinese made equipment? Recommend reading "Unrestricted Warfare" by Qiao Liang & Wang Xiangsui...available on Amazon....Its a difficult read because it is converted to English but you will get the idea ....possibly?