Two weeks to realize my router was the weak link, not my passwords

So back in March I spent two full weeks chasing a phantom. My home network kept dropping every night around 9 PM, right when I sat down to do my banking and bill pay. I changed passwords, ran virus scans on three devices, even called my ISP twice and sat on hold for 40 minutes each time. Turns out my old router from 2016 was overheating because I had it stuffed behind a stack of books on a shelf. The heat sink was caked with dust and it would throttle itself until it reset. A $75 replacement router fixed it in one evening. I felt equal parts relieved and embarrassed that I wasted so many evenings on software when the hardware was the actual culprit. Anyone else ever burn a week on a security scare that turned out to be a physical issue with gear getting too hot or too dusty?

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lily_ramirez41mo ago

Ha, I once spent a whole Saturday convinced I had a keylogger because my mouse kept jumping around on its own. Ran every scan known to man, changed my email password twice, started eyeing my cat like she was in on it. Turns out my wireless mouse batteries were dying and it was just going nuts on the desk. The worst part was I had a fresh pack of AAs sitting in a drawer the entire time. So yeah, you're not alone in fighting a software war when the real enemy was a dusty router or some cheap batteries. At least your fix only cost 75 bucks, mine cost me a Saturday and my dignity.

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