Friday, September 27, 2013

Unifi Modem Hack

No physical hacking nor computer programming was done to the little modem. This post is inspired by a conversation I had with a friend who told of another friend's complaint about the modem (am I making any sense?).

Almost everyone who has modem for his/her internet connection would have had this problem at some point of his/her (internet) life: modem hang. If you don't already know what is it, it's the problem of not being able to connect the internet but is solved merely by switching off and on the modem (or commonly called resetting the modem or modem reset).

I too had the same problem started a few days after the Unifi installation. I too, took the same solution for weeks: modem reset. Then I realized that the USB port on the modem (intended for programming the modem) is just like any other USB port. So...
Hacked?!

I plugged in a cheap laptop cooling fan to that USB port. The modem is switched on almost 24/7. It is in an area without air conditioned; in fact the area have slightly higher temperature compare to the rest of the house during midday. I switched the modem off just to give it a break for 5 minutes or so, every 4 or 5 days. It has been more than a year now, I still use the same modem that they first installed and have no more "modem hang" problem!

I'm not sure if the newer modems come with that USB port. Good luck!



1 comment:

Me said...

The correct term for the device is not a modem, but a "residential gateway/router". In the now-distance-past, "modem", "bridge", "gateway", and "router" were seperate devices. Nowadays they are ofter built as one.