Monthly Archives: February 2021

Thingies for shoes

I can't stop being amazed about the number of things out there. There must be a lot of people with a lot of great ideas. I appreciate that very much because it benefits me. Sometimes I look around on Amazon and stumble upon useful things I didn't know existed.

Are you familiar with shoe trays? Those plastic things you put your dirty shoes on? I never really liked them. I think they are too big and difficult to clean unless you take them outside.

On Amazon, I've found some shoe-formed thingies with similar functionality. I have a patio door with a doormat in front, where I have a pair of shoes standing that I use when I go outside to feed the birds. I often drag a lot of empty seed pods in on the doormat with those shoes, which doesn't look good. When I saw these flexible shoe drip mats, I thought that they would do a good job at the patio door. I also hoped that they would be easier to clean. The last thing is still untested, but they do a great job of keeping the empty seed pods away from the doormat.

Flexible shoe drop mat

D-Link support

I'm still very happy with my ASUS WiFi mesh system, but I was also annoyed because I had a brand new router from D-Link in my closet, which didn't work as expected. Therefore I pulled myself together and created a support case at D-Link. My immediate opinion was that I must have overlooked a setting causing my Skype calls to fail. Furthermore, the connect button for the L2TP connection didn't work. To connect the L2TP, I had to reboot the router.

A week after I created the support case, I finally got a reply. They wanted to let me know that they were sorry for the long wait and that they would start looking at my case. A couple of days later they told me that they couldn't reproduce my problem with Skype. They asked if they could have a copy of my configuration, which I send them. The next message from D-Link said that they were able to reproduce the problem with Skype with my configuration file.

The next step was that they got permission to use my configuration for further troubleshooting and use it for creating a new firmware version. A week later, they send me a beta version of a new firmware that I should test. And now everything works.

I must say that I'm very impressed by the support from D-Link. Of course, it took some time to correct the problem, but they did it. And since it appears that no other customer than me has reported the problem I think it is incredible that they spend so much time on my problem. I felt that they took me seriously, and I'm not afraid of recommending D-Link products or buying their products the next time.

Christmas lights outside
I hope that the real birds aren't buried underneath the snow (the artificial birds are the glowing spots in the snow)

New cutlery

I bought my first cutlery set when I was still living at home with my parents. I still have that set and use it, and I'm very happy with it. It is not fancy in any way, but it works, and the knives are still sharp. When my ex and I moved in together, we bought a new and prettier cutlery set. We purchased two cutlery sets so that we had extra when we had visitors. I've never been satisfied with those sets since I don't think knives are very good at cutting anything. After ten years, they are useless.

Finding a new cutlery set is not easy because I'm very picky. Many modern cutlery sets have squared spoons, or the design has a higher priority than functionality, which doesn't suit me. I also don't understand why they are not allowed to be colored.

At some point, I was looking for Christmas decorations and by coincidence, I saw a cutlery set from Villeroy & Boch which was named Play. It is available in different colors and, to me, it looks great. I would prefer to see the set in real life but that is not possible since the stores are all closed here at the moment.

I had already decided that if I got anything extra in salary from my firm in January, I would buy a set for six persons. Luckily, I received a one-time fee because I had made an extra effort last year on the job, so I ordered the red set.

I received the cutlery set a couple of weeks ago and I started using it immediately, and I'm very happy with it. It is light and very well balanced. The set is also very pretty and the red color will do nicely at Christmas time. Now, all I have to do is decide which other colors to buy.

Cutlery set

New Wi-Fi again

I've never been completed satisfied with the purchase of my new D-Link router. Skype still doesn't work, and the connection is not stable. I'm not blaming D-Link because I haven't contacted them, and that is stupid. I had hoped that a new firmware would solve my problems, but that hasn't happened yet.

In one of the many news mails I receive, I found a review of a Netgear mesh system. Of course, it awakens my curiosity, and I start looking into mesh systems in general. Quickly, I find that Netgear systems are expensive if you want new technology. Instead, I find ASUS mesh systems, which cost a third of the Netgear systems, but they still use the newest technologies. Furthermore, I find the ASUS system on sale, and all of a sudden, I find it difficult not to buy a set.

When I want to get new electronic equipment, I always start by investigating which new technologies would benefit my needs. In regards to wireless systems, I want the newest technology - of course within a reasonable price range. I decided that the wireless mesh system should be Wi-Fi 6 system, and it should be a tri-band system with one 2.4 GHz band and two 5 GHz bands. That way, one 5 GHz band can be used as backhaul between the two devices. I also need the system to be able to create an L2TP connection to a different network. I also want to be able to disable Smart Connect. That way, I can create separate networks for 2.4 and 5 GHz, respectively. The reason for that is that I've experienced devices that are unable to maintain a stable connection with Smart Connect enabled. Finally, I want to be able to connect at least two wired devices to the Wi-Fi nodes.

ASUS ZenWiFi AX XT8 matches all my demands and then some. The devices are identical, which some reviewers don't like, but I think it's a great idea. It is possible to have multiple internet links connected, and it's even possible to have a 4G dongle connected and use that as, for example, a secondary connection. If you already have your house wired, you can use the wires as backhaul between the nodes. The system also has a built-in security package, which is free, but I haven't tried it yet.

Until now, I only have positive things to say about this mesh system. Everything works, and my connection is more stable than with the D-Link router. I still need to explore a couple of things like the security package, but from my point of view, the system is approved.

ASUS mesh routers