All of us are still using some form of outdated technology whether we realize it or not. Landline phone, cable/Dish/Direct TV, ethernet cables, clock/CB/ham radio, fax machine printers, walkie talkies.
Is it bad? No, but at some point it will fail and you will need a new solution.
Back in September, I noticed that I could no longer access our security cameras via the app. I attempted to troubleshoot the problem for over a week reading the user guide, internet posts and watching YouTube videos. None of it worked. I figured out that the NVR (it is no longer called a DVR and is now referred to as a Network Video Recorder) was recording but showed disconnected from our home network on an exact date. It wasn’t using a WiFi connection but was hardwired into our network.
I was fairly sure the ethernet cable plugged into the NVR had failed. It was strung all the way down to the basement utility storage room plugged into a makeshift pseudo patch panel of ethernet cables from the 1990’s. I called the security company to be sure, which they confirmed when trying to ping it and failed.
They made a suggestion to run an ethernet cable down to our gateway (modem + router) which is in an unfortunate location. However, it was one of those instances where I had a “lightbulb” moment of connecting something that had never occurred to me.
The hexagonal object plugged into the outlet in this picture, is called a WiFi pod. It creates a mesh network eliminating dead zones. And each pod has two ethernet slots. So, I plugged an ethernet cable from the NVR into a pod then plugged into an outlet and it worked.
The security company wasn’t aware of these devices and thanked me for the tip. My tip to you, if you don’t have experience with these, don’t buy the cheap Wifi pods from Amazon. Spend the extra money to buy them from your internet service provider because they will provide specific instructions on how to integrate them into your network including the strategic placement of them and the 48 hours needed to fully mesh.
The reason we ditched the landline phone in 2015 because the only calls we received were political. The recent iOS 26 update for the iPhone now includes a feature that silences all calls from phone numbers that are not in your Contacts or recognized as spam. Android users have this capability as well. I wouldn’t call it lifesaving, but it is pretty great.
This past week we disconnected from Hulu Live TV. We dropped cable TV several years ago because the streaming version was frustratingly unreliable. Hulu notified us that their rates were increasing significantly.
Instead, you can now use “apps” that you download to your internet connected TV or a Roku or Fire device which adds that capability to older TVs. All the news stations have their own app, we can even watch Iowa local news with an app. You watch Netfilx, YouTube videos, stream sports all via a downloadable app that sometimes will require a subscription. It becomes more of a strategic method to watch TV.
Cable, Dish/Direct TV, Hulu Live, YouTube Live “package” all the channels together for you. However, if you are channel surfing and not stopping at any of them, it may be time to leave the buffet and start ordering off the menu.
Sometimes you need other people to help you reframe something, so you see it differently in a new perspective to solve a problem and sometimes you just need to update your technology.
Featured Image – the best lightbulb picture I could find. Cambridge, MA
And the piano that is never outdated still requires preservation and the need for a protective cover.
