Sometimes, in tech support, you come across problems that really have nothing to do with technology.

So, what would you do if someone called, saying their computer would not connect to the internet, even though it passed all of the troubleshooting steps? Would you assume it was a software issue? Or would you start by checking all the cables?

In the following story, one tech support worker faces this predicament and resolves it with the latter. Here’s what he did.

No, Ethernet does not make a good coat rack.

There I was, another calm morning before the storm. I was sipping away at my Dr. Pepper and took a bite of a donut. The queue is clear, and the emails are quiet. Then, as is to be expected, the phone rang. I clear my throat and pick up the receiver with a cheerful “Hello, this is (me), how can I help you?”

“Good morning, my computer won’t connect to the internet.”

We run through some basic troubleshooting: have you restarted the computer, is the cable plugged in, are the dummy lights on, and is your computer turned on? Still nothing, so I resign myself to a brisk walk down the hall to see what’s going on.

Once in the room, he began to trace the cord.

As I enter the room, I begin double-checking everything we talked about over the phone. The cable is plugged into the computer, the indicator lights are on, but they keep flickering out for a second.

Seeing this, I begin tracing the cable back to where it’s plugged in. This room is set up terribly, by the way, so the Ethernet cable is run around the room so the person can have their desk where they want it.

As I trace the cord, I find that it goes through a closet (not a network closet, but a closet closet), then out the other side and into the wall jack. I go to check the connection and notice the cable is tight, really tight, like I can’t move it an inch.

The problem was pretty shocking to say the least.

The effects of my Dr. Pepper start to take effect, and the connections are forming. I open up the closet and find the culprit. There are coats hanging from the Ethernet cable. We’re talking big, heavy coats. The poor cable was under so much strain that it was being ripped apart.

I quickly removed the coats, made an internal joke about getting a load balancer for all the traffic on this line, and then let the person know that Ethernet does not make for a good coat rack.

Once the weight was removed, everything started working again, and I was off to finish my breakfast.

Wow! You’d think they knew better than to hang them there.

Let’s check out what the folks over at Reddit think about it.

Here’s another coat rack on a cord.

Apparently, this reader tried to use an Ethernet cable for a hammock.

This reader tried to use one as a tow rope.

According to this comment, the wire could’ve exploded and made a mess.

They learned an important lesson that day! Luckily, it seems like they reported it pretty quickly.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.