Networking Equipment and how to return it
First, always keep the wrapping, even the little twisty ties that keep the wires tidy. Keep the paperwork and the CD's - and I try to open the tamper-proof stickers with a sharp knife so that I don't rip the paperwork.
I'm getting very good at this because I've returned multiple routers and associated equipment in the last month.
I was trying to move from my very reliable but old and slow 802.11b router you see. It has a huge range (my office is 100 feet and 5 walls away from the router) though. The 11mbps just wasn't cutting it though when I had a couple of RDC's open and my daughters got onto myspace and youtube in the evening.
My first attempt was an N+ router - great, but the range sucked and no expanders are available yet. Plus 802.11n is a draft spec and there were some issues although I can't remember what they were now.
Next was a Belkin G+ MIMO F5D9230-4 router. Setup easily, worked perfectly with all the laptops and desktops in the house. Out in the office there was still good signal and I was getting 48mbps most of the time. Just one problem; every few minutes all my IM windows would go dark and then reconnnect. Same with RDC - continually trying to reconnect - trust me that's just not going to fly in my job.
It's not my setup - it's a known problem with this router. Gamers were all over the networking forums posting about this router because of course it was dropping them out of their games all the time.
Last night I went back to best Buy again, this time I chose a linksys WRT54G2 - new version of the WRT54G which has to be the most well-known router ever. Great, everything worked but signal sucked a little. Down to 1-2 bars and 11mbps in the office. So I got a WRE54G expander which in theory takes the signal from the limits of the wireless router and sends it out again - doubling the range.
In theory.
The first one had issues, I couldn't set it up wired or wirelessly, automatic config or manual. The infamous red light that apparently many people get. Linksys tech support (India division) tried a few things then told me to take it back to the store. "How old is it sir?" "four hours"...
Another 10 miles and back to Best Buy. Another $3.49 in gas.
I got a replacement and it did setup correctly. And it worked - it took a poor signal up to 3-4 bars and 11mbps to 36/48mbps. Awesome!! But I know from experience that "getting it working" isn't the same as "does it work during work hours".
Today proved that yet again - first up, my little google desktop CPU gadget was showing my CPU going up and down. Sure enough, task manager showed that the network card was bouncing between 0-40% CPU, every other second. Hmmmm.
Then I got a popup; "There is an IP address conflict with another system in this network". Uh-oh.
A few minutes later, same error.
In the event log I see this:
The system detected an address conflict for IP address 192.168.1.102 with the system having network hardware address 00:1D:7E:A0:C2:BE
Ok, not sure what's going on here because the router shows the DHCP clients and none of them clash. In any case, I'll set the IP address manually on this PC.
10 minutes later, same popup.
I go and turn off every other computer on the network.
10 minutes later..you get the idea. I google it, lots of would-be nerds giving the same old advice, blah, blah, but then I realize that I can look up what device I'm conflicting with by MAC address.
It's the expander itself. Odd? I thought so, especially since I just changed the IP address 10 minutes ago - AND NOW THE EXPANDER IS USING MY HARDCODED IP ADDRESS 
Needless to say, it's back in the box with receipt ready to go back home with its buddies tomorrow.
I'm just worried that one of these days Best Buy are going to stop me buying stuff.
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