• Home
  • Internet Repair Parts You Should Have On-Hand

Internet Repair Parts You Should Have On-Hand

Making Self-Repairs

High-functioning home internet is now critical for daytime business work and schoolwork due to the coronavirus causing many to work or school from home.

So now, more than ever, you need to be able to make in-home repairs to your own equipment, to get back online quickly.

The good news is that, for common in-home problems, LCWA does provide email (and limited phone) support—we can guide you on many of these fixes by email. But that’s only if you have prepared ahead of time by having an internet spare parts kit on hand, and a little foreknowledge.

(For ways to prepare for LCWA internet feed outages, not related to your home, see this article)

Your Internet Repair Kit

There are a large number of things in your home that can be the cause of internet going down. To debug and fix them, there are some things you should know how to do, and there are some tools and parts you should purchase and have on-hand ahead of time.

  • Knowledge: Know how to cycle your router power. A frozen router is incredibly common and that’s why we always first recommend cycling the power on the router. Be sure you know where the plug is, and then unplug it for 2 minutes, and plug it back in. 90% of home internet issues are fixed this way.
  • Tools: The power to your router/radio might be off due to a breaker or a home wiring issue. To make it easy to check the wall sockets, purchase a socket power tester.
  • Tools: Get and plug in now an Uninterruptable Power Supply (UPS). Note that “dirty” or surging electrical power is the main reason routers go bad. Having your router (and rooftop radio) plugged into a UPS will extend the life of your router, prevent intermittent drops in internet, and even give you a little time to do that last upload or download if your home power goes off for an extended period. See this article.
  • Parts: Spare short indoor Ethernet patch cables. All router installs need at least one of these patch cables and they can go bad. Have extras on hand and try swapping them in and out, and then retesting.
  • Parts: Spare 100-foot outdoor Ethernet cable. The wire from your router to your rooftop radio is critical. Over time it can go bad or suffer from a loosening connector. I now recommend members order and have on hand for emergencies a spare 100-ft Ethernet cable. Often when members call, the symptoms they report to us indicate the cable to the roof is the likely problem. So, if we tell you that, you can simply plug one end of this spare into the radio on your roof, run it though a crack in a door or window frame, and plug the other end into the router—that allows you to test if the radio wire is the issue. If that fixes it, later you can have someone do custom wiring for a more permanent replacement. Get this spare now so you have it on hand when you need it.
  • Replacement router: Older routers can go bad without warning. If you have a router older than 2 or 3 years, even though it seems fine now, you might want to proactively get a new airCube from us so that you are not at risk of it going down at the worst time; only $33.
  • Getting an airCube is a good thing to do for another reason: if you report problems, we can do remote diagnostics on this model and solve your problem quicker. With us making zero house calls, this is a good investment. Contact us and we’ll prep one for pickup.
  • Parts: Ethernet adapter for use with newer laptops. When you call LCWA complaining of bad internet, in very many cases the first thing we will ask is this: did you plug an Ethernet cable directly from your laptop into the router and test internet access that way? If you can’t do that, we are stuck—it prevents us from helping you debug things. See this article on adapters you can buy to enable that.
  • Parts: Replacement POE power supply. This is what powers your rooftop radio and, if you have an airCube, powers it too. These POE power supplies can go bad, so it’s good to have a replacement POE power supply on hand. Here’s the right one to get.
  • Tools: Standard tools to adjust your radio aim. Occasionally your internet problem is that the wind has blown your rooftop radio way out of aim, cutting off your radio connection. We can diagnose that problem remotely, but we can’t fix it remotely—you have to do that. So, you’ll need to have a ladder to get to your roof, and some normal wrenches and pliers to loosen the mounting clamp, swing the radio back, and retighten it. You should also have a compass handy (a phone compass works) because we’ll give you a direction to point the radio to for a temporary fix (and plan on hiring a contractor to fully optimize your aim later).
When you are cost of cialis taking Kamagra, your partner will no longer sleep miffed because of your inability to perform can affect your emotional well being. Hence, the primary goal of diabetes treatment is to keep the glucose levels within the normal range and also to prevent the development of any health complications sample viagra prescription that may prove fatal if not addressed early. Kamagra jelly: It is most interesting way of keeping things up in sexual deeprootsmag.org order generic levitra life. More cialis prescription then 50,000 vehicles cross this bridge on a daily basis.

Be Prepared

If you are working or schooling from home, and internet access it critical to you, obtain the above items (and skills) now, to have on hand. Put the parts and tools in a special “Internet Repair Kit” bag ready for quick access. If you do that now, then you will know that we’ll be able to help you when you contact us about failed components at your home, later.