Spent 3 hours trying to fix a signal issue that was just a bad barrel connector

Had a job yesterday where the customer kept losing internet every time the wind blew. Checked the line outside, checked the modem, swapped splitters. After way too long I finally looked at the barrel connector on the side of the house and it was corroded. Replaced it in 30 seconds. Anyone else ever chase a simple fix for way too long?

3 comments

3 Comments

sammartinez15d ago

the long way around is the only way to be sure" man that hits. Reminds me of the time I spent all day chasing a wifi drop on my Xbox, replaced the whole network card, then realized my little brother had unplugged the router during a storm and plugged it back in upside down or something. Sometimes you gotta burn that time just to be sure.

beth_park15d ago

@phoenix_singh25 has a point about the verification thing, but man, three hours to find a loose barrel connector makes me wonder how many brain cells I lost that day. My cat watched the whole thing from the couch, probably judging me for not checking the most obvious thing first. Next time I'll just let her troubleshoot - can't do much worse than me digging through a whole network stack for a problem that wasn't even there.

phoenix_singh2515d ago

I get where you're coming from, but I actually see it different. That 3 hours wasn't wasted time even if the fix was a simple barrel connector. You verified everything else was good so you knew that connector was the real problem once you found it. If you just swapped the barrel first you might have still had issues later from something else you missed. Sometimes the long way around is the only way to be sure you fixed it right the first time.