Can someone explain to me a bit about wireless routers? [View all]

[TorchTheWitch]

I've got this wireless router on the corner of the desk that I got when I first finally played the funeral march for my old dial-up and FIOS laid pipe around here. I can't help but notice after all these years what the various little green lights are supposed to be doing so I know it's working as it should. If that's the case than there's five lights: the power indicator, something called a "WAN coax", the last one at the bottom just says "wireless", but right before that one are two lights, one for "internet" and one for something called "LAN Ethernet". I know one of those two is supposed to blink a bit, but it's the only one that's supposed to. Yet the last couple of days since I've been having all manner of sudden issues with my computer most likely all do to that creepy thing the Babylon malware beast I've noticed that both of them sometimes look normal with just one flickering a bit while the other is steady, but most of the time the two lights are both blinking frantically.

I can't remember which of the two (Internet or LAN Ethernet) is supposed to be the one that blinks, but I definitely know only one of them is supposed to. What does this mean? Which one of them is supposed to be the one that flickers? And what is LAN Ethernet anyway? Sounds like a minty fresh chewing gum.

I hate not knowing at least something about stuff like this. It's been sitting on my desk for years now, and I've never really took much notice of it other than it bugs me that it always seems to be in the way of the pen cup and the ashtray. It's bothering me though that I've been having those two lights flickering or blinking furiously when I know only one of them is supposed to. Right now things seem not so bad in the creaky pen and paper slows I've been having for a couple of days, and the Internet light is steady while the LAN Ethernet light is flickering a little. I just don't know if the proper light is behaving normally. I DREAD the thought of having to call FIOS tech support because they're worse than useless if you're even willing to spend four hours trying to get a human person on the phone.