Caught a service call where the customer's internet kept dropping every 15 minutes on the dot

Turned out it was a faulty grounding block that was heating up and losing connection. Swapped it out for a $3 part from the truck and the problem was gone. Has anyone else run into weird intermittent issues that trace back to something simple like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

owens.willow5d ago

Oh man, that's such a good find. Was it a total pain to trace or did you just get lucky? I had a similar thing a few months back where a printer in an office would just randomly drop off the network every 90 minutes like clockwork. Turned out to be a bad network cable that was partially pinched under a desk. Replaced that cable for like $5 and the problem was gone. It's wild how something so cheap can cause hours of headache. I mean, those grounding blocks can be tricky too because they look fine but the heat cycle just breaks the connection. Good catch on that one.

mary_kelly5d ago

Wait was it the outdoor grounding block or one inside a patch panel? I'm trying to picture where it would get hot enough to break connection without setting off alarms earlier.