/dev/zero

I got up this morning and schlepped the laptop down stairs, sat down and went to get my mail… but there was no network.
Windows says the only wireless network is “default”, and it’s not giving out IP addresses.

I figured my laptop was f’d up, so I rebooted. No joy.
Walk over to Mom’s computer and boot it up, same thing. That’s odd. Not my laptop then. Her computer sees 3 networks: 2 named “default” (on channels 3 and 11) and one named “NETGEAR”, also on 11. That would be the neighbor’s.
I go up stairs and reset the WAP, but no joy.
So I sit down at the server and log into the router via Ethernet. Or try to. My password isn’t working. OK, that’s a bad sign…
I logged in without a password and saw that the router had been reset to factor defaults. Odd. The only way I know of to do that is to log in and click “factor default”. I don’t even know how to do it from hardware, and I certainly didn’t try to. It was fine when I went to bed last night.
Luckily I had downloaded the router’s config just a couple days ago, so I just uploaded it and reset the router and we’re back in business. I hope this isn’t a sign of an impending hardware failure. I’d have to go back to using the Apple Airport (original graphite). 64 bit encryption, lousy internal antenna, no MAC locking… no thanks.