Troubleshooting network problems is probably my least favorite thing to do regarding my PC (or my home network in general). It can take years, simply because many small factors can manifest themselves in various ways, ruining everything around them with little fanfare. Even something as simple as a Mesh Router Can Ruin Internet SpeedFor example.
That’s why, over the past few years, I’ve adopted a preventative strategy. Instead of waiting for network problems to appear and fixing them, I started trying to find ways to avoid them in the first place… or at least simplify the process of “solving” it as much as I could. That effort led me to a $5 solution that quickly spread to my entire setup.
My network was fine, but my cables were not very good.
Everything was a possible culprit.
My network was fine, but when I looked at my various network-related cables, I realized how bad they were. And that launched a marathon of large-scale improvements.
From an ISP that They disconnected me up to 50 times one day to one that said I broke the connection By “touching the Ethernet cable”, I have had my fair share of network related problems. I’ve been building PCs for 20 years, so I can troubleshoot a desktop or laptop any day of the week with relative ease (although no one knows everything), but there’s only so much network troubleshooting I can do.
The most annoying thing is that there are so many variables and it is not always immediately obvious which one is causing the problems.
With a PC, you can usually tell quite easily whether the problem is, for example, the GPU or the RAM. With your network, many different problems come back with the same symptoms, so it can be almost anything from the router to the Ethernet cable, the switch, the mesh node, or the end device itself.
After a few unpleasant experiences (read the articles linked above if you want to laugh at my misfortunes), I decided I was done with it. I had to find ways to streamline the process in case it happened again, because well, internet downtime happens to all of us. So even though everything technically worked, I decided to clean up the entire setup.
I started with address some network configurationsbut when I inspected the physical state of my setup, I realized that the obvious problem was the fact that my cables were a complete mess. The solution couldn’t be simpler: I needed some plain old cable ties.
- Brand
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Quadafy
- Color
-
black, gray, white
Even something as simple as this 60-pack of hook and loop cable ties can completely transform your entire network setup.
The $5 solution was to simply label both ends
Everything must make 100% sense
The first thing I did was label both ends of the Ethernet cables that mattered. Not just the end near the router, not just the easier-to-reach end, but both. Most reusable cable ties don’t let you write anything on them (they’re Velcro), so I just color-coded mine, but you can buy cable ties with labels or just use Velcro ones with a small paper label on the top.
Taking the guessing game out of the equation was brilliant. If one side says “router to switch” and the other side says the same, you’re golden. Always disconnect the correct cable and quickly learn what the problem is, if any.
I labeled the equipment, not just the cables.
Once I started labeling the cables, it quickly became obvious that I needed to do the same with the rest of my setup.
Router, switch, mesh node, ONT, power adapter, and any random little box hiding somewhere deep under my desk… all of that is labeled.
doing this is A little exaggerated, I admit. You can tell at a glance what you’re looking at, but when your network setup doesn’t look particularly interesting, it’s all just a black box with some LEDs. Plus, I have so much hardware junk around the house that it’s best to label it all.
Power adapters also matter more than you think. You probably have a bunch of nearly identical power bricks in your setup, and reading the fine print on them is annoying. Just stick a label on it and enjoy.
Reusable cable ties made everything easier to follow
I’m sure they’ll make fun of me in the comments section of this one, which, yeah, fair, it’s not a huge discovery. But I’m not trying to tell you that cable ties and labels will suddenly solve every Internet problem you may face. It’s more that they will make it easier to deal with it when it happens.
To me, that’s worth more than $5, but that’s all I had to pay.
