Networking Homework time for a new router

Our home network is good and it reaches the whole house, but, there is a  weak zone.  My home office has access, but, at times the work laptop cannot find the SSID for several minutes when I start it up for the day.  When I check the signal strength it shows as low.  The issue is I cannot move where the router is and it works for every other location in the house, only the office has low signal strength.

Looking for

• Multiple SSIDs.  I want to at least have the work laptop on its own SSID so that nothing can see it even though I use a VPN to connect to work.  I prefer the option to have three.  One for the wife and myself, one for guests and one dedicated to work.  The three SSIDs is what I am running with now and it does work as I don't want any network to see what is running on the other network.
• Tri-Band.  For a mesh network I want the devices themselves to chat over their own band and not share the channel with my home network.
• Simple to use and set up.  I don't want to jump through hoops to get the thing to start and get configured.  The latest device is good and I had it up and running in under 5 minutes and that is the standard I expect from new devices.
• Good configuration software.  I don't want to do a deep dive for the basic setup to figure out how to use the advanced features.  Again the latest router is a bit better, but, I have to dig to find some options that I needed more accessible.
• Reporting was always a problem area and I just want to see a quick report and then save the output for analysis.
• Reasonable price.  I won't mind paying a slight premium, but, if it goes over $300 I will look at other products.

July 2022 Rogers outage

A total of 16 hours with no cell phone, no internet and no TV with little to no information on Rogers on what happened.  In my not-so-humble opinion that is not acceptable as this is the second outage in about 15 months for Rogers.  The start of the outage should have triggered an near immediate BR/DR response and seeing the first update at around 09:00 indicates that someone was sleeping at the switch or hoping things would get better.

Being fair? Hell no! They are supposed to be a national provider and provide critical telecommunications and any failure should be short and not this long.  First update was around 09:00 and just the standard tweet with absolutely no information.  Updates (what few there were) regurgitated the same marketing drivel.

Hopefully our elected representatives and  or the CRTC will demand an report on:

• What happened?  Was this a failed upgrade, failed major piece of infrastructure or a nation state attack on our systems (not likely)?
• Who knew the system was failing or failed and when?
• What was the timeline before invoking the BR/DR plans (if it was)?
• Who was supposed to be informed and when were they?  Don't need names, just roles.
• What plans are being made to minimize what happened so it doesn't happen in the future?
• Will those of us who paid for service get a credit for the loss of service?

This isn't an isolated incident just for Rogers, last week KDDI in Japan was offline for 86 hours.  The government there is asking questions as our government should do with Rogers.  

Too much is now dependent on cell and internet service to be offline (ATM, 911, government services, medical services to name just a few).  Fortunately I was able to commute to work and complete my work there (they use Bell), but, too many cannot do so and at night I had to depend on a co-worker acting as the on-call person instead of me as I had no internet.

Update 2022/07/15:

Looks like the CRTC and others are looking at this outage.  I hope they do a real job and have recommendations to minimize this happening in the future.  Once that is out of the way they should be doing the same for all other telecommunication providers.

Two years of COVID

It has been two years now since we started working at home due to COVID.   A few notes on what worked for me.

● A separate office area is a must so you can concentrate on work.

● A good phone with handsfree.  There are conference calls and not having to hold/cradle the phone is a must.

● A good network setup.  I have a router where I can set up multiple SSID.  I have one for work and only work.  Nothing else in the home network can see that.  It also helps to have decent high-speed internet. 

● A comfortable chair.  If you work all day then a comfortable chair is a must.

● A proper desk with keyboard tray.  It helps having the keyboard (and mouse) at the right height so your hands, wrists and arms aren't stressed.

● Taking regular breaks.  Get up, walk at least a few minutes every 20-30.

● Have your lunch outside of your 'office'.  Take a break away from work and unwind.

● At the end of day shut it all down.  Take 'me' time away from work.