Remember last week when I posted about WiFi 6? Well – turns out WiFi 7 was actually launched in January 2024 so I was behind the times. But I was doing a little light reading (LOL) about WiFi over the weekend and read about WiFi 7! No worries – it’ll take some time before routers/devices are all ready for it so you haven’t missed anything yet.
WiFi 7 adds yet another band for speed – 6GHz. So new routers coming to market will be tri-band. Your WiFi enabled devices will still work with WiFi 7 but may not be able to access all the speed available. One of the driving forces behind WiFi 7 is the number of VR devices coming online so the third band of spectrum will make more space – and speed – needed for them.
I realize not all of you will be as fascinated with WiFi as I am but here are some articles about WiFi 7 that will explain it better than I can!
I’ve been daydreaming about what my life might have been like if I had chosen a different career path. Not that I have regrets about the path I took – except maybe that Walgreens laid me off! I’ve had a really great career so far. I’ve had a lot of fun, made some great friends and learned a lot so I can’t ask for a lot more.
But when I was in high school, I wanted to be a physical therapist. I was a candy stripe volunteer at the hospital where my Dad worked and I worked transport for the PT department. I got to see a lot of great work between taking patients to/from their rooms and I really wanted to make that kind of difference in patient outcomes. But then life happened and the college I wanted to go to became out of the question. So I started college at the Ohio State University branch campus, wrote a term paper for my English class on advertising and I was hooked on that!
Once I got to NYC and was working on Madison Avenue, one of my friends transferred out of media planning/buying and went into the TV production department. I remember being jealous at the time – it looked like so much fun! But I couldn’t afford the pay cut to make that move so I stayed in media. Choices right?
Media led to Field Marketing with Wendy’s, my move to Chicago and then my move to the client side. I have loved (almost) every minute of it! I’ve always said I never really had a career plan – but the right people and opportunities have always presented themselves when I needed them. I’m hoping my next new opportunity comes along soon!
What did you want to be and where did you end up? Tell YOUR story in the comments!
This is the fourth day in a row of 90 degree plus heat where I live. And quite frankly, I’m tired of heat/humidity. I don’t like humidity – it makes it hard for me to breathe. So I’m sticking to AC spaces and limiting my time outside. But I’m lucky – I don’t have to be outside. What if you do?
Here’s some tips for keeping cool:
Wear loose, light colored clothing. Cotton is good and so are clothes made out of Dry-Fit cloth – they wick the sweat away from you.
Try to stay out of the sun if you can. Create shade using an umbrella or canopy if you can. And don’t forget the sunscreen! A sunburn will only dehydrate you more and make you feel hotter.
Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate! Water is best but sports drinks are good too. Just avoid sugary, caffeinated drinks if you can. That goes for alcoholic beverages too.
Use a spray bottle with water to cool your skin. I heard yesterday adding a couple drops of peppermint oil to the water in a spray bottle will enhance the cooling effect as well. Take a cool shower. Or hit the pool!
Yesterday, the Village sent a plumber to replace the water meter in my house. What should have been a 20 minute thing, snowballed into calling my own plumber and having the Village Public Works department at my house for 5 hours to get my water working correctly again. And I also had to have my hot water heater replaced. So it was a fun day! (or not….)
But I did learn a lot about hot water heaters and thought I would take this opportunity to share. My last hot water heater was installed in 2008. And typically, a hot water heater needs to be replaced every 8-12 years depending on the design of the unit, water quality and quality of the install. I was apparently very lucky given how my old unit was installed to have gotten 16 years of service from it!
My home did not have lever shut off valves in the places they should be. Local plumbing code says there should be a water shut off before the water meter, after the water heater – and for pure expediency there should be one for the hot water heater as well. My home only had 1 working valve shut off. And of course it broke when the Village plumber turned the water back on after replacing the meter. Thus starting my adventure in plumbing yesterday – but I digress. I was going to write about hot water heaters.
I bet you don’t think much about how your hot water works. I know I didn’t! There is a lot to consider when you get a new hot water heater like:
Natural gas or electric? My old one was gas and the new one is too.
Tank size? Typically, they are 40 or 50 gallons. My plumbers recommended a new “skinny” 40 gallon tank for me. But depending on the size of your family and your hot water needs, you may want to consider a different tank size. There are a bunch of charts online if you search that can help you figure out what you need for your home – but I think working with your plumber might be the best way to figure out what you really need.
Can you go tankless? My HOA rules require approval to do tankless – so even though I’d like the extra space, I ruled this out really fast due to the approval process. But tankless also requires different venting than a traditional hot water heater – and my plumbers say they need a lot of regular maintenance. So glad I didn’t go this route.
Who is going to install it? I didn’t have a plumber before yesterday so the first thing I did was look for recommendations on my town’s Facebook page. Luckily, people ask for recommendations on plumbers regularly there so it was just a matter of searching the recos and I found a local company that was highly recommended multiple times. And BOY were those recommendations right – the plumber I called came right away and didn’t price gouge me either. The two guys that came to my house were just terrific – they know the code for the area and they were great problem solvers.
So I’m all set now for at least 8-12 years of hot showers, clean clothes and clean dishes. It sure was an adventure – complete with the smoke detectors going off twice, the Village Public Works team digging a large hole in my front yard to replace the water shut off from the water main, and oh yeah record heat! But all in all, I learned a lot about plumbing and I have water so it’s all good!
So over the weekend, Xfinity came and replaced my router with a new – more secure – one. So with EVERYTHING changed clear down to my IP address, I’m feeling back to normal after my brush with the hacker.
My NEW router!
I’d encourage all of you to talk with your internet provider and make sure your equipment is up to date. Turns out my old router wasn’t as secure as I would have hoped – even before my stupidity in falling for a hack. It was well over 5 years old – and with the way tech goes, that’s ancient! The new one has a new layer of security in the hardware and other bells and whistles that I hope will keep me protected now.
Did you know the first WiFi router was introduced for regular consumers in 1997? Seems strange that they’ve only been in common use for less than 30 years doesn’t it? If you got your router in 2019 or before, odds are it isn’t giving you all the speed/capacity all the devices in your house want. In 2019, the standard for changed from WiFi 5 to WiFi 6 – resulting in a speed increase of almost 300%! The new WiFi 6 standard also introduced the 5GHz band in addition to the 2.4GHz band which WiFi had been limited too – so less congestion for devices in addition to more speed. I counted up all the internet connected devices in my house over the weekend – I live alone and I currently have over 30 devices attached to WiFi in my house! Imagine how many more devices you have now than you had 5 years ago and you get yet another reason to check the equipment you use for WiFi and make sure it’s up to date.
The job search is heating up (with the weather?) too! Last week, I had an informal interview for a role that isn’t even posted yet! The hiring manager heard about me as a result of interviewing well for a job I didn’t get. I have a couple other things moving too – so keep your fingers crossed!
First, when traveling make sure you are taking good care of yourself. The stomach bug I brought back from Italy was accompanied by a really stubborn, horrible cold. I’m coughing, hacking, sneezing and sniffling like it’s mid-winter.
Second, I have a rather embarassing tale to tell about why I have been off-line a lot of this week. Tuesday morning was such a beautiful morning that I took myself out for a walk right after I got up. But with the cold, I may have pushed myself a little too hard – the last 1/2 mile to get home, I felt like I was walking through waist deep pudding. And I had only taken 2 tissues – which was definitely not enough! So between the cold pills and feeling weird after my walk, I laid down for a little bit – only to be awakened by my phone.
Given that I’m on a job search – and that I’m in the interview process! – I answer my phone much more regularly than I used to. Normally, most calls I get during the day are people offering me car warranties or cleaning services or financial services but since there is the chance right now that it could be a prospective new employer, I answer! The call that woke me up was from an 800 number and the caller identified himself as being from the fraud team at Xfinity. To my credit, I asked him how I knew he was from Xfinity – and he sent an email to me that had a real Comcast service email address when I checked it out to see if it was a scam email.
The story I was told was that they were seeing a great deal of activity on my WiFi router that seemed fraudulent. They asked me to go to my router and tell them what lights were on and what color they are. Then they asked me to get on my computer and they gave me a web address to go to so that we could check the settings for my router. Next thing I knew, they asked me to download software – and I fell for it. Over the next 1/2 hour or so, he asked me to try to track down a fraudulent charge by looking through my bank accounts. But I have 2 factor sign in on all my bank accounts so he wasn’t getting what he wanted and became increasingly agitated with me. When the threats started, I Googled the name of the software I downloaded (AnyDesk) on my phone and realized I was being scammed. The threats escalated to physical as well as to ruin me digitally so I hung up and called the police.
While I was waiting for the police to come, I pulled the plug on my router and used my phone to change my password for my AppleID and began changing every password for all of my financial websites. After the police took my report and reassured me that the physical threats were likely just to scare me, I called Xfinity and got my IP address changed. Incidentally, my router is so old that they are sending me a new, more secure router to install.
I also filed a report with the FTC on their scam site. It likely won’t help anything but at least I reported the phone number that the call came from.
Yesterday, I spent quality time at the Genius Bar at my local Apple store where they checked my computer for malware. I had deleted the AnyDesk software, but wanted someone else to take a look as well. And changing my AppleID password weirded out my iPhone so they fixed the issue with that while I was there.
I’m checking all my financial information at least once a day but I really believe that the 2 factor authorization I have on almost all my accounts is what saved me from what could have been a disaster. So the moral to my cautionary tale? Given the right circumstances, we are ALL vulnerable to scammers and hackers. They have gotten increasingly sophisticated and can really make you buy into their lies. So make sure you question things that seem weird, are using strong passwords, and that you use 2 factor or biometric authorizations for extra security.
Italy was fabulous – the stomach bug and cold I brought back with me, not so much. But the trip itself was amazing – I really loved Rome!
I managed to combine the job search with the trip – the first night we were there, I had back to back interviews. I was proud of myself for how I did in the interviews given that I don’t always think I interview well. After they were done, I knew I had said and done everything I could to land the role. I got a message over the weekend that they went with a strong internal candidate so I did not get the job – but they will keep me in mind for backfill for the person being promoted. So that’s something!
But back to the trip. Rome is amazing. Don’t get me wrong – Venice and Florence were too, but I liked Rome best of our stops. We packed a lot in there – in one day we did a tour of the Colusseum/Forum, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain AND the Spanish Steps. That day I had nearly 20,000 steps on my Apple Watch! We also did most of one day at the Vatican – if you go to Italy, it’s a must!
I’m way behind with networking and personal chores so I need to jump but here’s some pictures from Rome!
The trip is really my friend’s bucket list item so she picked the cities we’re going to and has made all the tour reservations but I don’t think I would have selected any differently. As I may have mentioned, we’re starting in Rome, then traveling by train to Venice and Florence before returning to Rome.
We’re going to hit all the big tourist areas:
The Vatican
The Colusseum
Trevi Fountain
The Spanish Steps
A gondola ride on the Canals in Venice
The Duomo
And I’m sure we’ll hit a lot of other things too. For those of you who have been to Rome, Venice or Florence, what would be attractions that might not be on our radar but that we shouldn’t miss? Let me know in the comments!
I’ve been joking that my 10 days in Italy will be me trying to eat as much gelato as possible. But I cannot wait to dig into the actual food. I lived in NYC for a long time and was privileged to eat at some pretty fantastic Italian restaurants there, but there’s nothing like the real thing in Italy right?
What’s number one on my list? Well, I won’t know until I’m in the first restaurant. Risotto? Braciole? Pasta? Doesn’t matter – I’m sure it will be fantastic. Here are the links I’ve been drooling over:
Learn Or Do 