Them: “The WiFi is down.”
Me: ‘… No, I still see the TV & the laptop & Pi, on the network.’
Them: “I can’t connect to Flipboard.”
Me: ‘Ohhh, the internet is down. It’s probably at the cable modem. Wait a moment for it to failover to wireless, then try again.’
Them: “Yep, now the WiFi is back.”
Most consumer devices these days, if they detect the internet is down over a wifi connection (e.g. by inability to reach 1.1.1.1), will automatically disconnect from that wifi network, or at least show the same UI as if it had.
Pedantic but correct. Only your connection to the internet is down.
Even when there are massive “internet outages” sometimes it’s just DNS being bad. The internet works just fine, it’s just not working in a way that you can make use of it.
I used to work for spectrum. I’d say around 60% of people legit do not know the difference between wifi and Internet. No wifi means no Internet, to them. Makes some trouble shooting harder
I think people care about different things, networking might not be something they’re interested in so aren’t interested in spending time learning about it. Where as when you are interested in it it’s not so hard to read, watch videos about it and experiment with it. At least that’s generally how I find these things work.
My favourite thing is to hear people talk about having ‘great WiFi’ as if that is an internet connection.
Them: “The WiFi is down.”
Me: ‘… No, I still see the TV & the laptop & Pi, on the network.’
Them: “I can’t connect to Flipboard.”
Me: ‘Ohhh, the internet is down. It’s probably at the cable modem. Wait a moment for it to failover to wireless, then try again.’
Them: “Yep, now the WiFi is back.”
Most consumer devices these days, if they detect the internet is down over a wifi connection (e.g. by inability to reach
1.1.1.1), will automatically disconnect from that wifi network, or at least show the same UI as if it had.‘Ohhh, the internet is down.’
One could argue that’s not right either 😉
Pedantic but correct. Only your connection to the internet is down.
Even when there are massive “internet outages” sometimes it’s just DNS being bad. The internet works just fine, it’s just not working in a way that you can make use of it.
I used to work for spectrum. I’d say around 60% of people legit do not know the difference between wifi and Internet. No wifi means no Internet, to them. Makes some trouble shooting harder
I hate that people refer to ethernet, unironically as a “wifi cable”.
It hurts my soul.
And you want to explain the difference, then decide it’s not worth the effort.
I really don’t understand why it’s such a common confusion. None of these people struggle with the difference between their gas supply and their oven.
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They are
I think people care about different things, networking might not be something they’re interested in so aren’t interested in spending time learning about it. Where as when you are interested in it it’s not so hard to read, watch videos about it and experiment with it. At least that’s generally how I find these things work.