• This morning between 7:30 and 8:30, the internet at my house went down silently. The external service deployed on my computer precisely recorded the moment it disconnected, everything happening without warning.

At noon, checking the router status via my phone, it was still offline. I’d experienced similar situations before, usually every few hours, with the network automatically recovering – assuming it was routine maintenance from our telecom provider. The network’s “self-repair” didn’t materialize as expected. Desperate, I embarked on a convoluted path to seek professional help. First, the apartment was self-service rented, and the living room had been renovated, creating a room with a balcony – the light cat and main router were located there, serving as the network hub. The door to this room, separated from the living room, was locked. Fortunately, the owner of this room – my roommate – had just moved out recently. This was a stroke of luck; otherwise, scheduling a repair appointment with a technician during weekdays would likely have been another protracted “tug-of-war.”

• I contacted self-service customer support to request a temporary password.
• Customer support advised me to submit a ticket for the network issue, which immediately transferred me to an outsourced third-party customer service representative.
• Then, that representative forwarded me to telecom customer service.
• After obtaining a temporary password, I opened the door to the room. I looked at the telecom’s light cat – the device had a yellowish exterior and looked quite old, possibly left by the previous tenant or sourced from self-service. It lacked any indicator lights or buttons to press. Considering restarting it seemed like a waste of time after all the troubleshooting, I just wanted to lie down and rest for a bit before heading back to work in the afternoon. Afternoon, telecom technician contacted me, sent the door password to the technician, relying on trust. After arriving at the site, the technician spent half a day troubleshooting, and the final solution was surprisingly simple – he simply restarted the light cat.

Recently, I’ve downloaded a lot of data, which could potentially be due to sustained high load carrying causing the old light cat to crash. In the future, if there are any issues, I’ll ask the technician to replace it with a new one. Since it’s a self-service rental, this maintenance falls within the normal range.