Tech Tip: Clean Connections With A Coffee Filter

We've had some slow running internet lately and although we've just had new service installed, we still seem to be having a little lag. After checking that all the cables are actually functioning and checking all the things we knew how to, we called tech support and received a truly bizarre request. The technician asked us if we had a coffee filter in the house....

Now assuming this isn't some weird tech guy pick up line, we answered yes and he proceeded to ask us to disconnect all out cables and clean both ends of the connections with a coffee filter. They're lint free and pick up any small particles or grime that might have been on the fingers of the last person to install the cable.

He mentioned that there's been numerous accounts of techs in the field who had a greasy lunch and the install directly after didn't run as smoothly as it should. Although this didn't fix our problem (we had a bad ethernet cable) he claimed its worked wonders for tons of other, now satisfied customers.

Give it a try next time things slow down for you, or remember to clean things off before reconnecting next time you move or switch around your office layout! As Martha Stewart would say, "It's a Good Thing."

(Image: Sarah Rae Trover)

Comments (3)

I suspect that this is similar to the old chestnut of having people unplug cables and blow on the connectors. Blowing on the connects doesn't do anything, but it makes sure the user actually unplugs and re-plugs any (potentially loose) cables.

That might be true paulg... we paralleled it with the old "rub a pink pearl eraser on your Nintendo game cartridge" trick!

As a long time "tech guy" I can confirm that this mostly a way to get people to actually go through and unplug / plugin the cables, hopefully reseating a loose connection. While it's possible that the contacts are dirty or have some corrosion or what have you on them, that's extraordinarily rare. In my whole career I've only seen that once, and that was in a musty basement that often flooded.

I've had several occasions where I've asked someone to reseat a cable, and they claimed they had, or acted like they were doing that on the phone , but in fact did not, since when I came and saw the problem, a loose cable was the culprit.