Internet Outage False Alarm!

Brothers of Briar

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RSteve

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My everyday internet appliance (laptop) is an i3 Lenovo Chromebook that I bought in 2016. It will no longer get updates in June, 2023. It's been great, very speedy and does everything I want it to do. Of course, my computer needs are very limited. I also have a Lenovo i5 Windows 10 laptop that I rarely use. It's connected to a printer in an office area.
Today, I could not connect the Chromebook to the internet. It showed I had a strong connection to my router, but no internet. I rebooted everything. No dice, NO internet to the Chrome book. I called Century Link, my internet provider. Of course, automated voice menuing and finally, "I'll connect you to a customer service representative." Obviously, the CS rep was somewhere not in the U.S. and the call kept breaking up. Called again, listened again, same crap connection. Called again ten minutes later. Listened to the entire spiel, then actually connected to a CS rep who spoke English fairly well. Remotely, she rebooted everything, then told me that my router wasn't functioning. I told her that my computer showed a strong connection to the router.
Then she suggested that I try to access the internet via my router with my phone, TV, or another computer. I turned on the TV next to the router and son of a b..., it connected and streamed. I went to my backup Chromebook and there was no problem connecting to the internet.
The internal WiFi in the Chromebook had finally crapped out. Some time ago, maybe a year, Woot offered a wireless USB dongle, 802.11N for less than $5.00. My router is still an N, so I bought one, thinking I may need it for an old desktop.
Where did I put it? After an hour of searching through a bunch of papers and junk, I'd thrown in a box, I found it.
I shut down the Chromebook, inserted the dongle, booted up the Chromebook and it's working great. Now, however, I don't have an excuse for buying a 2021 model i7 Chromebook.

Next day, Wednesday....Can't figure this out. The dongle was left inserted this morning, turned on the Chromebook and couldn't connect to the internet. I shut down the Chromebook, removed the dongle, reinserted it, powered up and here I am. The wifi dongle has no special drivers, just plug and play. It may be that it has to be removed and reinserted every time. Confusing.
 
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