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I am not mining coal, nor do I have a canary. What I do have is a house with electric wiring, some of which might charitably be called 'vintage' and a TRENDnet wireless access point. This combination gave us trouble (or at least me - since I do not have an unlimited data plan on my phone, so I go wifi or nothing unless I specifically turn on mobile networking). I found I would need to re-set the wireless access point often. It might be fine for a day or so, or it might fall over several times a day. This was, of course, quite annoying. What good is a network that doesn't network?
At first I blamed the TRENDnet device as it was the thing that was falling down constantly. Eventually I got so annoyed with it I looked at replacing it outright or even using a computer with a USB wifi gimmick as my own wireless access point. I didn't go that far, but did get sufficiently irked to move the thing into the office (from the living room) where at least I could more easily reset it. And then it worked. And worked. And kept on working - for a couple weeks solid. That indicates the canary, er, TRENDnet device itself isn't the problem, but something was causing it to fail.
There are only two cables going to the device: power and network. And then I recalled two things. One was that we had a lot of wifi failures when a tree branch was brushing up against a power line and when it finally caused a power outage and was dealt with, the wifi worked well again. That pointed to power quality problem. The other was that the problem might be in the house, as with a charred outlet that at least failed open and didn't start a fire. That had me concerned enough to consider rewiring, but first I would inspect everything on that living room circuit.
The inspection took a bit as there were more outlets and light switches on that circuit than we had recorded (or I read the notebook wrong...) and I found a couple things I wasn't entirely happy about. One was a simple re-doing of a workable, but sloppy, connection. The other was an outlet that felt like it was going come apart. That one got replaced. Only then did I feel it was safe to re-energize that circuit. Due to my work and sleep schedule and how wiped I've been feeling since an illness (bad cold?) this took a few days.
Yesterday I finally moved the access point back to the living room. The wireless setup has been working solid for over 14 hours as I write this. That's no guarantee off success - it's lasted a day or two there before. But it is a hopeful since failure within 12 hours had been the norm. I think I'll know in a week or two for sure. And even if that outlet wasn't the problem, I am glad to have replaced it.
Just to be sure, I've disconnected everything but lights from the suspect circuit. After the wifi has proven itself solid, I plan to re-connect things one at a time, over several days, just in case it was some other device causing trouble.
First off, to get it out of the way: There was not a fire.
My usual routine involves me waking up, getting to the kitchen, and making a mug of coffee. Tonight it didn't happen that way. I woke up, all right, and made it to the kitchen, but noticed the Keurig was off. No lights. Microwave was unpowered, as was the Foreman grill (new one has LEDs that are always on). Geeze, another power outage? Nope, the fridge and the oven clock were on. Did a breaker pop? A breaker re-set later... and nothing changed. Digging out the book that shows what outlets are on what breaker, I found that I'd flipped the wrong breaker. Go flip the right one. Still nothing. What the? Investigation is called for, but first a Coke since coffee isn't happening any time soon.
The breaker is suspected and a trip to the hardware store only reveals that the place is closed for the day (and the Sunday hours are even more limited) so it's decided to swap a less-used breaker into place. That gets done... and still nothing has changed. Voltage reading shows the hot side is indeed hot. But the sockets are not.
Wait, most sockets lack voltage. One is powered. Double check that it is on the previously suspected breaker. It is. Breaker set to OFF. Outlet pulled... and crap, it's charred. At least it then failed open and stopped before things got much worse. Loosen & re-tighten a screw to get a decent connection. Switch the breaker on just long enough to see that another outlet has power again. Switch OFF, not trusting the charred outlet.
Alright, outlet needs replacing, but hardware store is closed. Don't we have a spare? Evidently not. But there are less-used outlets that can be swapped out. An outlet in the basement is pulled (and thanks to a UPS, there is no downtime even with the power off to the circuit for a few minutes.) With less cussing than expected, the charred outlet is replaced with the good one. A test shows that solved the problem and didn't create any ones, and then the outlet is put physically into place and covered.
And after all that, then it could be time to eat. And finally make the coffee.
Now, although no new breaker is needed after all, another outlet is. Only when that is acquired and put into place will this adventure truly be over.
