In which I temporarily break my WLAN router by putting black tape over the LEDs..

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

(What follows is something of a shaggy-dog story, but I hope anyone who has ever fooled around with their satellite TV and WLAN configuration will read it, because you may have had a similar experience.)

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned, we recently changed our ISP from DSL to cable, and are now enjoying a huge increase in performance at a significantly lower cost. About a year before this upgrade, we upgraded our DirecTV service to include DVR-HD, which allows not only VOD as you would expect but also access to YouTube videos. Rather impressive, that, considering all this is watchable on our old analog set. What with the increase in DL speed, we can download an hour-long YouTube video in just a couple of minutes if that.

But to make that work I had to run an Ethernet cable from the old DSL modem, which we still have and which is where the signal from the DirecTV satellite dish enters our network. This extra cable was a bit awkward because the two modems are in different rooms. Lazy handyman that I am, a few days ago I finally got around to duct-taping it to the edges of the floor. Here and there, I drove a nail or two just to secure the tape, and while I was “positive” that I hadn’t pierced the actual cable at any point, I wasn’t positive. You know, cross-your-heart-and-hope-to-die POSITIVE. Because you just never know–as you’ll see.

Naturally, therefore, I tested the DTV setup after it was all done. Live TV–good. DTV VOD, fine. Searching and starting a YouTube video, perfect.

Then it hit me. The cable modem, incidentally, is in the bedroom because that’s where the only cable outlet is–and it has a row of really bright LED and port indicator lights across the front. Fired up by my mastery of the intricacies of the duct taping project, I told myself it would be a simple matter to cover up those annoying lights with a strip of electrician’s tape. (You see, I had already become quite the expert with regard to tape.) I carefully placed the tape over the LEDs, ensuring that it covered no vents or anything else that was obviously necessary with regard to the unit’s function.

Next morning, we tried to use the printer. For other reasons which need not detain us now, we’ve been having problems with this printer, which is supposed to be wireless. In a nutshell, the printer continually goes “offline” and the only way to reverse that is to delete and reinstall it. It’s a hassle to be sure, but at least the reinstall has always worked–until today. Neither computer could find the printer, although it was connected to our local network. On a hunch, I turned on the TV and found that YouTube no longer worked on it, although VOD and broadcast TV were still working fine.

I fixed the printer by cabling it the router; as they are near each other I decided it wasn’t worth the continual issues with the wireless arrangement.

And I restored the YouTube functionality by pulling off the strip of tape.

How do you figure that one?

2

You are a wizard.

3

The lights are connected to the tubes.

4

I suspect that might just be coincidence. If you had an IP conflict with the printer and another piece of gear that may have caused the issue.

Try putting the tape back on and see if you lose YouTube again. If it does happen, I would film it because that would be just freaky.

5

Well, the lights, being diodes, actually are “tubes”, in a manner of speaking.

6

It’s possible, I suppose. Depending on where I am in the house, I often change the network on my mobile phone, and less frequently my computer as well. Besides, we’ve been powering down the printer every night so it may be getting different IP addresses each time we turn it on.

I’ll definitely have to try it. I don’t know about filming it, though. It’s not exactly boffo box office, is it?

7

It would be great for youtube.

Except of course that at that point you won’t be able to actually get to youtube, so that might be a problem.

8

No, I would still be able to watch YouTube on my computer or phone (the latter provided I remember to enable HTML5). It’s just on the TV set via the DirecTV hookup that YouTube wasn’t working. That wouldn’t have mattered much back when YouTube was limited to 15 minute clips, but now that they allow longer vids it’s a great source for foreign TV.

9

Any chance one of the lights is doubling as a push-button switch, and taping it down turned something (say, wifi) off?

Or that the YouTube functionality was controlled via an IR signal (think TV remote control) and you taped over the IR sensor/transmitter on the front of the device?

Was the tape strapped on particularly aggressively, such that you might have deformed the case enough to interfere with the innards? It has been my experience with a variety of electrical devices that they really hate that.

10

My parents have a router that has a button on it that turns off the wi-fi, and does not indicate in any way if that button has been pushed or not. It’s also positioned in such a way as to be very, very easy to push it accidentally when handling it. Perhaps your router has such a “feature?”

In related news, I changed the batteries in my TV remote three times last night, before I realized that there was a stack of DVDs blocking the IR sensor on the TV set.

11

I wish they’d stop putting those bright LED’s on everything in the first place. I too often resort to the tape “trick”. I’ve never had it cause such an adverse effect as this, however.

BTW, the LED’s on my old DSL adapter/router were so bright that even after applying duct tape to cover them up, you could still see them! Through the tape! But they didn’t make the room super bright at night anymore, so it was good enough. But dayum, there’s no reason for something to have LED’s that bright on it in the first place.

12

My initial guess is you pressed an automatic configuration button or even a wireless on/off button. My old broadband router had a “button” that was backlit and just a flat spot on the front panel. Easy to press by mistake, and it would issue a new WPA key.

Could be worse. I had to hide all of the equipment for my Uverse installation in a cabinet as the gateway device and two switches with a couple dozen BRIGHT green lights flashing away was dizzying.