Cords are Not Red Wires

For better or worse, when you call your Internet Service Provider, no one is involved in a Bruckheimer-esque, bomb-diffusing situation. And while cords seem to have a mind of their own – they seem to sneak and spiral and creep and crawl around one another while no one is looking – thankfully, there’s little harm in verifying their actual connections.

Almost always, your Internet Service Provider can verify connectivity only insofar as the connection to your “gateway” device – typically a router or a modem. Beyond that, the customer is the eyes, ears, nose – not sure what the nose is for, but maybe – for trying to diagnose any internal connectivity problems.

It is nonetheless important to verify these connections. Sometimes, a dog, a cat, a gremlin, or a curious child can disconnect cords and escalations occur.

Likely, the “techie” in your household fears not the cords, although fumbling through them like a pile of serpents can be nerve-wracking and mind-numbing. But if and when you need to take matters into your own hands, it’s important to remember that the cords matter, as much for understanding how things are physically configured at your home as for verifying connectivity. And there is no red wire. In all probable theory, nothing in the home will explode if you disconnect and reconnect or trace wires through each other.
However, Bruckheimer aside, please don’t cut them.

Everything Connects, Even the Wireless

As mentioned, your Internet Service Provider can often verify if your “gateway” device is connected to the Internet or not. Beyond that, if a device in the home cannot seem to reach the Internet, the first step is to verify that the device does indeed have a connection to your modem or router. It may seem complicated, as most electrical appliances often only require power, but imagine if your amplifier or DVD/Blu-Ray player or such had power but no connection to the speakers. There would of course be no audio, but this wouldn’t necessitate a problem with the player itself.

Even wireless devices require an definitive connection to operate, even if there’s no “speaker wire.” There are a few ways of attempting to troubleshoot this connection, and we’ll cover them here in as much detail as possible, but the first and foremost step is know what your “gateway” device is. It could be a Cisco/Linksys router. It could be an Actiontec modem. It could be Netgear. It could be Belkin.

Almost always, these devices will have the manufacturer’s name on them. They also will have a separate “address” for verifying connectivity. These are some of the more common default IP addresses for household devices:

Most of these devices these days come with a web interface. What this means is you can access them directly as if you would a website (even without an Internet connection). All you would need to do is open a web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, Google Chrome, etc…) and erase anything in the address bar (that’s the bar you would use to go directly to a website, the one including either “http://” or “https://”). Type in the address of your device, you will likely get prompted for some sort of authentication. This can differ between devices, but if it hasn’t been altered, can often be found both in the user’s manual or via the Internet.

Sometimes, however, these addresses may not work. If your techie decided to be creative, or needed to be for further networking purposes, you might have a different gateway address. Although finding this address differs from operating system to operating system, the following links may prove useful:

(Please note: XMission does not endorse and cannot be held responsible for external links.)

For Windows users: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/tipstricks/f/default-gateway-ip-address.htm

For Mac users: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_I_find_my_Gateway_address_on_my_MAC

If you find you cannot connect via a browser to your gateway address, or it isn’t showing up in your networking properties, or you cannot ping it (for more information, see http://compnetworking.about.com/od/workingwithipaddresses/ss/how-to-ping-the-ip-address-of-a-computer.htm ), your device likely has no connection, wireless or wired, to your modem or router. And while this is definitely problematic for your device reaching the Internet, it is not necessarily a problem with your Internet connection. Any more so than, say, the power company being responsible for a microwave not being plugged in.

Wireless connections can be especially difficult to troubleshoot, as many things can interfere with the wireless signal (including the aforementioned microwave). If a hard-wired connection seems reliable, but wireless connections do not, it’s relatively safe to assume there’s some other wireless interference.

Thankfully, most wireless devices (via the web interface mentioned above), offer different channels (or frequencies) to operate on. Often times, with a bit of patience and tinkering, you can find a channel that has little to no interference for your internal wireless network.

The Core Problem

Troubleshooting can be difficult. As can be diagnosing an illness. And while I by no means intend to compare technical support to the practice of medicine, it is nonetheless important to identify the problem and not simply treat on the symptom(s).

So the last, and often most inconvenient, step to discover if your internal network, device, or actual Internet has problems is simply to connect a best-guessed-to-be-functioning-correctly-computer directly to whatever device supplies your Internet. This can, depending on your household, require some shuffling and juggling of cables and equipment. But, like those ruthless tests doctors run, it’s important to identify if the problem is external of your network. Often times, simply by bypassing any routers, switches, and/or eliminating frequency interference – or even a combination of differing connections – one can discover a faulty adapter, router, or cable.

In Conclusion

If you’re tired of being revered as the technical genius at home, the best thing you can do is help the people in your home understand how you’re fixing the problem – not just that you’re able to fix it. There may be times when you’re not around, and helping them feel a little less afraid of their technology is a step in the right direction.

Being cautious is of course important, but “knowledge is power” and, in this day and age, cables and mouse clicks can bring an abundance of both.

For over 12 years, XMission has proudly sponsored the Living Traditions Festival in downtown Salt Lake City. We love the color and culture that the Salt Lake City Arts Council brings to the neighborhood each year, and we can’t wait for the celebration to kick off at 5 p.m. tonight.

As a presenting sponsor of Living Traditions, the Utah Arts Festival, and Twilight Concert Series, XMission strongly believes in a vibrant downtown Salt Lake City, and the many benefits these events bring to our community. We feel honored to sponsor these events with so many other local businesses and friends.

So, come down and support our fine Salt Lake City vendors, artists, and musicians by visiting Living Traditions. Here are the details:

Where:
Washington Square

Salt Lake City & County Building

450 South 200 East

When:
Friday, May 17– 5:00 to 10:00 p.m.

Saturday, May 18 – noon to 10:00 p.m.

Sunday, May 19 – noon to 7:00 p.m.

For more information please visit the Living Traditions website.

We hope to see you this weekend at Living Traditions, and at all of the summer festivals and events.

This Thursday, XMission, Third Sun Productions, and the Utah Nonprofits Association will launch the 501 Tech Club Salt Lake City – a local chapter of the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN).

Our local 501 Tech Club will meet regularly to help Utah nonprofits find access to local resources, education, and networking opportunities in a relaxed setting. In other communities, 501 Tech Clubs have connected nonprofits with volunteers and discounted vendors, donated hardware and software, and coordinated presentations from local technologists and business leaders.

The 501 Tech Club will hold an open house this  Thursday, May 9 at 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at The State Room (638 S State Street.)  Attendees must be over 21 years of age.

There is no cost to attend, nor will you be required to become a member of NTEN to participate. Please just show up at the door!

During this first meeting, we want to accomplish three things:

1. Meet attendees (nonprofits, volunteers, vendors, etc.) and learn more about their background and challenges.
2. Gauge the level of interest in regular meetings.
3. Collect ideas for speakers, topics, and other ways that we can help you!

If you would like to attend and cannot make it, please create a free account on NTEN and join our group!

Huge thanks to The State Room for hosting this event for us.

We hope to see you on Thursday!

The results of this indentured servitude to our qwerty keyboard master all whilst confined to cheap office outlet desk chairs means widening waistlines, poor posture, fatigue, and bad backs.

About a decade ago a minor injury turned into constant back pain. To relieve this pain at the office I’ve gone through a countless series of fancy chairs, straps, and even yoga balls. Eventually I found solace in a standing desk. I feel better and my back pain went away (entirely) after just 4 months.

Inspired by a coworker at XMission I upped the ante and hacked together a treadmill desk. Wow, what a change in my personal fitness and ability to stay focused at work. But what was it really doing for me besides a little weight loss and better sleep? How do could I quantify the changes and measure results?

A few years ago my health monitoring efforts started with the LoseIt! app on the iphone. Great for tracking some calories, weight, activity and such. Found limitations in monitoring my movement in that the app only allowed input of time doing an activity. I even tried the Eatery app from Massive Health. Still, I wanted more but what was lacking from the apps? Counting my actual activities. Movement vs. an estimated value based on time. Real, measured data was missing.

Without realizing it I found myself in the world of quantified self which is a hashtag popping up all around the internet these days. Using technology to better my physical health and understand my habits.

The hunt was on for a quality pedometer which morphed into a fitness monitor. That night while looking the Fuelband and FitBit an article popped up announcing the re-release of the Jawbone UP fitness bracelet. Since I already use another of their products I ordered one and joined the UP community on November 27th of last year.

Here are my thoughts about the UP:

1- I wear mine with the clasp side out and the end cap logo turned in. Found that I catch it on fewer things. As well, the clasp side will scratch your laptop deck and interferes with a normal keyboard. Overall, UP is a very well-built and durable bracelet.

2- It is important to learn how to put it on properly. Parallel with the skinny side of your wrist and slide it on with a little twist. Easy and keeps it from getting stretched out.

3- Beware of kids and monkeys! They will grab the bracelet and try to bend it straight in about 2 seconds. They can put all your thoughtful efforts from #2 down the drain.

4- Learn the codes. They almost make sense after awhile and are very useful.

5- Press the button for sleep mode every night. (Zzzz) It is a hard habit to learn and manual sleep input is mostly useless. The band does a great job with sleep monitoring and the alarms to wake you in light sleep are excellent!

6- Try not to plug the band into your phone after every activity. Do it once a day or every couple days. My impression is the battery life decreases faster when synced frequently.

7- When you have fitness goals, find some UP friends to team with. If social isn’t your thing then skip this tip.

8- The iOS app is top notch, really useful and beautiful. Like any great app they are improving it over time. (Although I do wish it had a companion web interface or desktop app.) A co-worker uses the Android app and it is also top quality. Their acquisition of MassiveHealth should bring some excellent improvements.

9- The coating on the end cap for the data plug wears off leaving a shiny surface. I don’t mind it but it does bother others. (Wrist pic shows the shiny surface wear.)

10- Don’t leave home without it! After a couple months this fitness reminder becomes addictive. Accidentally leave it home because you took it off for some reason and forgot it. Well, you will be running home because loosing your day of data is unacceptable… and your wrist will be lonely. It turns fitness into a fun game. Tracking your progress and measuring data.

11- Chainsaw, heavy typing, and clapping. What do these have in common? False data. 10 minutes of running a snow blower with this on and BOOM you have 30,000 steps for the day! Same with heavy typing, an angry missive can slightly impact step count.

Tracking treadmill steps with the UP.

12- Treadmills and biking. The band is ineffective at measuring this data. As mentioned above, I installed a treadmill at my office desk. Great way to get some steps in but I had to get creative to have my steps measured. Simple solution is to clip the UP through a couple lace loops and start walking. Today I’m wearing flip flops and using a cable tie to have my steps measured. (see pic) The UP really needs an accessory market to provide an activity clip option and a better clasp closure system. Check out a creative UP fashion hack. 

13- The meal monitoring is easy, just time consuming so I seldom use it. Bought it primarily to monitor activity and find totally worth it for just that data. The sleep and food tracking are an added bonus.

I did run into an issue with my UP. Just 4 months into it and …dead… my everyday companion gave up on me. At least it was under warranty, although the warranty return and replacement process is painful at best. I lost 2 weeks of personal data waiting on the replacement and only received mine after sending follow-up complaints to their support department and griping to @jawbone on Twitter. But at last my replacement arrived and I am back in the realm of quantified data.

Lastly, enjoy! This has been a great device and effective health reminder. Hopefully it works for you as well as it has for me. I’ve dropped 20 lbs in 4 months and I can say that the UP has been an integral part of my lifestyle change.

Do you have an UP or another type of fitness monitor? I’d really like to hear from you on how you use yours and what success you have had in the comments below.

Find me on LinkedIn and G+ under John801.

Ever since iProvo launched, XMission has tried to negotiate with the city to provide service over their network. At one point it seemed like they would be open to other Internet providers wholesaling their infrastructure, and we had a couple of good talks with them, but shortly after they announced they would be selling the entire network to Broadweave/Veracity. I was present at that surprise announcement and I asked the mayor, “Do you think the sale of a public asset warrants public discussion?” Whether it be a Performing Arts Center or a fiber-optic network, if a city has a considerable cash outlay for a project, they should have public permission. Provo has repeatedly ignored this, and this time is no different.

This morning I learned more details about the iProvo deal. Google, a company with a $255.15 billion market cap, a company that has $48 billion in cash, proposes to buy iProvo, a network valued at $50 million, for $1. Google will not assume any of the debt, the Provo city taxpayer will continue paying that. The network will solely belong to Google and will not be open to other providers. If for some reason a Provo customer decides they don’t appreciate Google’s take on privacy or their endorsing warrantless monitoring of the Internet, they will have no other choice for service that can give them speed and reliability of fiber.

Google Fiber has a great consumer model. Everyone will have access to a minimum of a 5Mb connection for free. A gigabit connection is $70/month. Could XMission do the same? If you subtracted the cost of the infrastructure, and had ubiquitous service throughout a city, these numbers are easy to match and even beat. Ever since the dawn of Internet service to the home, it has been known that 99% of subscribers have minimal impact on the network. The cost of raw Internet bandwidth has plummeted over the last decade, and when you’re Google, it is even cheaper. When Google announced their fiber project, they initially claimed their network would be open to other providers. When Kansas City launched, they quietly retracted that. Even though Google is promising a number of upgrades to iProvo, having a government sanctioned monopoly for $1 is a sweet deal that would have never been offered to a local provider like XMission. Those upgrades will be paid for by subscriber fees, and Google will make a profit. They wouldn’t be doing this otherwise, nor would I.

The most unfortunate aspect of this deal is that cities will continue to lobby Google to monopolize their fiber service, and after the necessary deep concessions, Google will accept. Some day the US may wake up and find that we’ve installed another communications giant that needs to be broken up. I have lobbied hard for the past decade for open municipal fiber infrastructure, and will continue to do so, but so far, that idea is shrinking rather than growing.

How about SOC 2?
To better address the diverse needs of different entities, the AICPA created SOC 2. The official determining factor when choosing between SOC 1 and SOC 2 is whether or not an organization’s controls would affect their clients’ internal control over financial reporting. In layman’s terms, SOC 2 focuses on important policies and procedures not directly tied to revenue. SOC 2 was crafted to address the needs and concerns of a world where hackers and neer-do-wells from anywhere on the globe peck around to steal financial and computing resources, as well as personal information. As a result, a SOC 2 report focuses on at least one of these five principles:

• Security: The system is protected against both physical and logical unauthorized access.
• Availability: The system is available for operation and use as committed or agreed.
• Processing Integrity: System processing is complete, accurate, timely, and authorized.
• Confidentiality: Information designated as confidential is protected as committed or agreed.
• Privacy: Personal information is collected, used, retained, disclosed, and disposed of in conformity with the commitments in the entity’s privacy notice and criteria set forth in Generally Accepted Privacy Principles issued jointly by the AICPA and the CICA.

Which one should you choose for your enterprise?
So, which is best for your organization and what should you require of vendors you rely upon? It really depends on your particular situation. If you’re publicly traded, then SOX already requires SOC 1. If you’re a privately held start-up which relies on IT infrastructure to conduct your business, then SOC 2 might be the better route for you to take, with a focus on security and availability to ensure that everything is secure and always up as you focus on growth and seek private investors.

In some circumstances, a business might determine that a combination of both SOC 1 and SOC 2 are necessary to ensure the broad range of their controls are effective. I think we’ll be seeing more of that in the next few years as businesses seek to meet the demands of their various stakeholders. If you process a lot of credit card transactions then you might already be required by your merchant bank to pass PCI DSS, which requires an entity to adhere to a broad range of IT best practices and includes vulnerability scanning to verify if your servers associated with credit card transactions are up to date and secure. In many cases, that’s a good combination. For example, XMission conducts annual SOC 1 audits with A-lign, a reputable CPA firm, and maintains PCI DSS compliancy with the most rigorous SAQ (Self-Assessment Questionnaire) validation, Type 5: SAQ v2 D. As a colocation and cloud hosting provider, among other things, this complementary blend enables us to cover a broader range of controls than either do alone so we can meet the requirements of our diverse customer base.

Looking for a hosting provider who can help you meet your organization’s auditing requirements? Contact XMission today.

A simple way to think about cloud services is that they provide Internet-accessible information technology; meaning that anyone with any skillset is able to access and maintain their Internet stuff from any Internet connection. Cloud services are just a way of saying that your stuff is available from anywhere. We have provided that kind of service in the technology sector for a long time, so why all the fuss now about “the cloud?”

The immediate win for a business (or individual) looking into cloud hosting is cost. The promise of cloud hosting is that you get a system that works for a monthly cost that scales with your needs.

Imagine that you own a ski-shop that sells ski and snowboard products online (which is easy for me to do, as I live in Utah). Your online business demands website hosting resources throughout the year, and as skiing is a highly winter-oriented business, the resource utilization looks something like this:

If you were to purchase a regular hosting package, you would need to buy resources that fit your maximum utilization, otherwise your site would run slow (or not at all). Your web hosting spend would match the red line in the chart below:

By utilizing XMission’s Cloud Infrastructure product to host your ski shop online store, you can customize the resources by the hour, giving you the ability to specifically tailor your hosting spend based on what you need. Your web hosting spend would look like this when using XMission’s Cloud Infrastructure product:

Leveraging XMission’s Cloud Infrastructure as a small business means that you are able to cut costs while maintaining a quality of service that your customers expect from you. Flexibility and cost savings are only part of the story: find out more about our Cloud Infrastructure product today by visiting http://xmission.com/cloud

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) was developed by the PCI Security Standards Council many years ago to provide “an actionable framework for developing a robust account data security process – including preventing, detecting and reacting to security incidents.” While the credit card industry outlines policies and procedures specifically intended to handle credit card security, the best practices required for compliancy extend well beyond keeping customer credit card data safe.

Why Be PCI Compliant?

If you process credit cards then you at least should have a vendor that is PCI compliant. For many companies, that’s the best solution, although if your organization processes enough credit cards then you might be required to be compliant as well. Since XMission processes tens of thousands of customer credit cards every month, we have been maintaining PCI compliancy for years. As a hosting and colocation provider, XMission is required to complete the most rigorous SAQ (Self-Assessment Questionnaire) validation, Type 5: SAQ v2 D. Lastly, maintaining compliancy should give you some peace of mind while also providing some insurance if you become the unfortunate victim of a hacking attempt.

Why does it matter?

The PCI Data Security Standard and supporting documents represent a common set of industry tools and measurements to help ensure the safe handling of sensitive information. To reduce the risk of compromise and mitigate its impacts if it does occur, it is important that all entities storing, processing, or transmitting cardholder data be compliant. With credit card data being a top target for cyber thieves, taking precautions makes common sense. Post-mortem compromise analysis has shown common security weaknesses that are addressed by PCI DSS, but were not in place in the organizations when the compromises occurred. PCI DSS was designed and includes detailed requirements for exactly this reason—to minimize the chance of compromise and the effects if a compromise does occur. In other words, PCI DSS is based on forensic data from real data breaches. As such, the requirements are designed to protect against known attack vectors.

What does this mean for businesses that rely on ecommerce?

Firstly, don’t think of PCI compliancy as unnecessary hoops you have to jump through but rather some tried and true best practices that can help protect not only your company’s data but also your customers’. If you host elsewhere and don’t know if your hosting provider is compliant, absolutely find out. Ideally, they should also conduct an annual SSAE 16 (SOC 1) audit. If for any reason you’re not satisfied with the answers from your current hosting provider, think seriously about switching to a business that takes security and compliancy very seriously. This is absolutely not something your business can be lackadaisical about.

If you do already host with XMission, note that while XMission’s compliancy is likely an essential component for your colocated and hosted servers to earn compliancy, you must still complete your own PCI DSS SAQ if your merchant bank determines you should be compliant, due to volume for instance. Documents, including a copy of the SAQ are available here.

For more information about PCI DSS, refer to the PCI Security Standards Council website.

We have all been there, haven’t we? You need to be in two places at once. Two years ago, one of these contacts would have been missed.

Today, however, I have solved my own problem. I use XMission Anywhere (a Broadworks based application) on my office extension.

Sure enough, while helping the client in the data center, that call came through. But it didn’t just ring my desk, it rang my personal cell phone as well, so I was able to answer it right there in the data center. After a moment, the client finished up, and I was able to return to my office.

And here’s the difference – with the push of a button, the call on my cell was transferred instantly back to my desk phone. I was able to hang up my cell and free up my hands to go through the documents I had prepared, and the caller was none the wiser.

Anywhere can work the other way to. It is possible, just possible, that I may on the occasion of a long conference call use Anywhere to secretively move that call from my desk phone to my personal cell so that I can go grab a cup of coffee, and then transfer it back when I return.

And think, with this advanced IP based technology, you wouldn’t have to stay at your desk late because you are stuck on a call. Use XMission Anywhere to transfer it to your cell and take it with you. Or if you’re late getting into the office, you can still answer calls before you’re at your desk and then when you arrive you just pass it to your desktop phone with a single button. (Let’s face it, we all prefer to use our cell phones for calls as little as possible, don’t we)

Anywhere is more intelligent than a simple Call Forward feature.  For example, at XMission, we have a NOC queue for emergencies. Most phone systems that have call forwarding do not play with queues. Once a call gets forwarded out of the system, its gone. With XMission Anywhere, my cell can participate in that emergency queue.  And if I am unavailable, the call does not go to my cell voice mail, it goes back into the queue for the next available agent.

And there is even more to it than that. XMission Anywhere allows you to hide your personal cell phone. With Anywhere, you are given a unique portal number. When you call into it, you are presented with a dial tone which functions exactly as the dial tone on your desktop. Dial out, and the caller ID will appear to the called party as coming from your own desk, not your cell phone. Dial by extension. Use a VSC code. Check your Voice Mail. Anything, anywhere.

Anywhere is also fully configurable. Turn it on or off from the keypad, the web portal, or even a toolbar in your browser or Outlook. You only need be available when you want to be.

And this is just one of the features that make XMission Business Phone Services the new era of voice communication. Call us today and find out how else this new breed of office communication platforms can help your business.

Let the “Fun” Begin

There’s the age-old adage that there are two types of people in this world.

This is of course indisputably true – the type that believes there are two types of people and the type that doesn’t.

However, for the sake of this article, we’re going to suppose there are two additional types – those who proactively seek assistance resolving technical problems and those who proactively seek to resolve the same problems themselves.

At XMission, we have no preference on these two types, or really any types at all, and we always enjoy hearing from our customers. But sometimes the second type may be a bit too proud or timid (or just plain busy) to give us a call. Therefore, this article is intended primarily for this supposed second audience.

Restart versus Reset versus Powercycle

It’s a well known fact that people obsessed with computers and networking do not have the slightest clue how to speak any distinct language known to normal human beings. While the words above may appear similar, and even happily sit beside one another in the thesaurus, in the perplexing world of computing and processing they potentially can mean very different things.

A “Restart” is simple. It’s the option that hangs out with “Shut Down,” “Log Out,” and sometimes “Hibernate.” But you’d be surprised, despite or maybe in spite of the British IT Crowd, how useful a restart can actually be. For example, sometimes operating system and Internet security software updates will inadvertently block mail ports, leaving the user wondering what gremlin crawled inside their machine overnight and why it wanted to prevent them from sending out the latest and greatest cute kitten photograph.

Less complicated, but more frustrating, is when your computer freezes. Unless you left it out in the cold overnight, there’s no good reason your computer should be frozen. And yet it happens. To all of us. And unfortunately, at that time, it’s time for a “Restart.” Only this time, it’s the button kind.

We could go on and on about the myriad of problems a “Restart” will fix, but take our word for it – it may seem like a last resort, especially if your computer seems to want only to race a snail upon booting up, but sometimes it can actually save you a lot of time and potential headaches. In fact, if booting up is taking awhile, I find that an excellent time to step away from the computer for a cup of coffee, or to just to take a peek out the window so I can recall what the outdoors look like.

Not to be outdone by personal computers, another myriad of problems (or gremlins) can cause routers and modems to freeze or sometimes just not to operate at full capacity. One step you can take that will often, though certainly not always, resolve a problem with your modem or router is a “Powercycle.” “Powercycling” is different from a “Restart” in that many routers and modems do not offer a helpful “Restart” button externally, and in order to restart them you’d likely have to be inside the web-interface, which is likely inaccessible given the angry frozen nature of the modem or router in question.

It’s time to pull the plug! Literally! “Powercycling” simply means removing the power source from the device, typically for about thirty seconds, which is of course the approximate amount of time it takes starve the electric gremlins residing within.
If your device is frozen, this may very well warm it up. If you seem to be having speed issues (for more information on that, see the next section), a powercycle can quite often force the device to re-establish a stronger connection. If you have switch, or router, or modem (or all three), it may be necessary to powercycle each of them to diagnose and resolve the problem.

Lastly, we have “Reset.” He’s a confusing little button typically hidden in a small hole on your device. The reason he hides is that he does not typically want to be hit. Not only does he restart your modem, he actually restores it to a “Factory Reset” – which means any configuration your device had will be lost when this button is pressed, and the device will be restored to its earlier, pre-purchased, straight-out-of-the-box default configuration.

The “Reset” is typically recommended only for users who are comfortable reprogramming their device.

To hit this button, you’ll have to get something very small and thin (typically we recommend a bent paperclip), dig inside, and poke the clandestine bugger for about 10-15 seconds. When finished, you will likely have to say goodbye to your old internal wireless configuration and any connectivity configuration. Yet, while you may have to re-configure some settings, we have seen the “Factory Reset” give older devices new life.

Breaking the Speed Limit

Troubleshooting speed issues can be a very difficult task, as there are often so many variables that can interfere. If you have an internal network, it’s important to consider that even one device can consume a lot of bandwidth, especially if it’s misconfigured or infected. This can become even more complicated if you have a wireless network, as some bandit may have sorted out how to hijack your connection and could now very well be using it to send out his own latest and greatest cute kitten photographs.

Therefore, one of the most important steps that can be taken when trying to diagnose a speed problem is to remove as many of these variables as possible. The easiest way to do this is to have only a single computer plugged directly into your gateway device. You can use our speed test, available at http://speedtest.xmission.com, to now check the speed. If you notice little to no change, then, despite the previous comments about not calling us, we definitely recommend calling us! However, if you find that the speeds have drastically improved, it’s likely an internal problem that someone more familiar with your home or office network would be more adept at troubleshooting.

What’s a Wiki?

Although it’s been brief, we hope you have found this article somewhat helpful. If not, we have even better news! There’s a ton of information available at your fingertips at http://wiki.xmission.com/ and we are constantly (and consistently) adding more. So for those of you haunted by the want to resolve problems without our delightful assistance, we fully welcome you to explore our wiki. And if you find something you don’t quite understand or that isn’t clear, please ignore your haunted soul and give us a call. We can’t bite over the phone and we pride ourselves on our technical expertise and astounding customer service.

Either way, we look forward to hearing from you and also wish you the best in this brave new world of befuddling words, wikis, gremlins, and the great things that are yet to come as technology and XMission continue to grow!