On Call: Techie fixed Wi-Fi dead zone with a drill

When wires and wireless mix, the combination can be electric

ON CALL Welcome to another edition of On Call, The Register's reader-contributed column that celebrates the fine art of tech support.

This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Eddy," the one-person IT department for an assisted living company.

"I have had quite a bit of trouble creating a stable Wi-Fi network," he admitted to On Call.

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"The space is crowded with multiple networks because seemingly every other resident has their own router blasting Wi-Fi throughout the building," he explained.

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After extensive troubleshooting, he managed to establish a stable connection everywhere except one hallway at the back of the building.

"I was starting to question my sanity and competence as seemingly nothing would create a stable signal," Eddy told On Call.

"After beating my head on the issue for an unreasonably long time, I decided to take a break and troubleshoot another issue that a user was having: Their monitors would cut out randomly, more so if someone quickly closed the office door."

Eddy examined the desk, where a stand held a pair of monitors, whose power and video cables all snaked downwards through the same hole in the desk's surface.

"When the stand moved, it was also crimping the power cords," Eddy observed. "Jiggle the desk or slam the door and the monitors would cut out briefly."

He drilled a new hole for the stand to sit in and replaced the power cables. That fixed the monitors – and, unexpectedly, restored the Wi-Fi around the desk.

"As near as I can tell, the power cables were crimped just enough that they started to transmit and interfere with the Wi-Fi," Eddy told On Call.

However, Eddy's other Wi-Fi dead zone remained. He signed off his email to The Register: "Now I am going to be haunting the back hallway with a software-defined radio dongle and waving around a Yagi antenna like a demented wizard to see if I can find the second source of interference."

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Have you fixed one problem and found it also fixed another? If so, help us fix the problem of the On Call mailbag being a little sparse by clicking here to send us your story! ®