The problems with my routers began a few years ago with some old, crappy, blue router that I actually can’t remember where I got it or who the manufacturer was. I quickly graduated to a Linksys WRT54G. This router was “ok” but every few days it would “lock up”. The internal network would remain perfectly active while the connection to the Internet was severed.

I dealt with this for a little over a year – I think. And when I decided to upgrade to something more reliable, I went with an Airport Extreme. I thought I’d get the “Apple experience” and also take advantage of the Airport’s ability to share USB hard drives with everyone on the network. But I suppose it wasn’t meant to be so.

The Airport Extreme drops the WiFi connection altogether and the SSID disappears from the list on my Macintosh. The USB hard drive that I have is, seemingly, incompatible with the Airport Extreme. I bought this hard drive for this very reason.

I just don’t think I’m supposed to have a reliable WiFi connection.

October 22, 2007 at 6:00pm EST: Why I included the time in this update stamp I may never know – but I’m excited to let you all know that I have solved the issue with my USB Hard Drive not connecting to my Airport Extreme; it was the USB cable. The cable itself must have been bad because it got to the point where the drive wouldn’t even mount to my computer directly.

Thanks to my friend Larry Halff for helping me troubleshoot the problem which led me to believe it was the cable. Often times it is the simplest of reasons why something is happening. Thanks!