Backup your Network Config

This Blog Post was originally published on the platform "writelier" (formerly "co-writers" and "200wordsaday"). Sadly the blogging platform was discontinued. I downloaded all my blog posts and prepared them to be republish them here.

Yesterday the Wireless Network Extender I ordered arrived. After I was done with work, I decided I should go and configure it.

A quick look through the manual, nothing too crazy to do, so I started.

I wanted to mount it near my television because I have LAN ports there and it would be a good place to extend my WiFi.

Said and done I. I could connect to the device and it also seemed to have a connection to my existing network. I was excited and thought I would be done soon.

Well, as I got back to a "wired" PC to check why I couldn't connect to the internet through the extender's network I found out that my main router had restarted.

Not only did it restart, but it also reset itself to factory settings. My Port Forwardings, reserved IP addresses, and the WLAN itself.

Great. I knew I had the configuration backed up somewhere, but I can't remember where and so I spent a good hour getting things back up. First the reserved IP addresses I could remember, then some of the forwardings and the WLAN.

Luckily I only have a few devices, so getting back running wasn't as bad as it could have been.

But one thing to remember for the next time: a backup is nothing when you don't know where it's stored.