Downgrading my Fonera

Ever since I received my Fonera 2.0n, I’ve been using it as the main wifi point at home because my Speedtouch has been playing up of late. However, it had one annoying feature that I suspect was a bug in the firmware I was using. Every time a computer connected to the router, it would proceed to reset itself, essentially causing an outage for everyone on the network. This was particularly annoying as my Dreambox was connected to it, and if I was streaming a movie from a computer, it would essentially kill the stream. I tried playing with the wireless settings, as the FON FAQ seemed to suggest that the router would have problems with certain encryption protocols, but the problem persisted.

In the end, I was lucky enough to receive a tweet from someone who had seen the same issue. He recommended downgrading to a previous firmware (v2.2.6.0 aka Cheeky) which was a few month old. It didn’t have all the features of the newer firmware, but was supposed to be stable. I downgraded last night and lo and behold, all my problems have gone away. Thanks mate for the hint.

A couple of take-aways from the experience: The latest and greatest may not be the best solution for you problem. In fact this validates the maxim that one should be using the latest version but one. I love being on the cutting edge, but not when it affects my day to day. It also helps illustrate the power of social media. Here was a stranger who heard my frustrations and volunteered a working suggestion. I’m loving Web 2.0.

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