Blowing on Cables: How Tech Support Outsmarted a Stubborn Router (and Its Owner)
Have you ever told a little white lie to your IT support, insisting you “definitely rebooted the router,” all while hoping they’d just move on to the next step? If so, you might want to brace yourself—because tech support folks have seen (and heard) it all. But sometimes, with a dash of creativity and a sprinkle of nostalgia, they’ll outsmart even the most stubborn of us.
Today’s tale from r/TalesFromTechSupport is a masterclass in gentle social engineering, retro gaming references, and the kind of user workarounds that can only come from years spent on the IT frontlines. Spoiler: It involves “dusty” cables, a router that survived nearly a decade without a reboot, and a brilliant bit of psychological judo.
The Case of the Immortal Router
Our story begins at a large car manufacturer’s helpdesk, where u/Salavora_M, the original poster (OP), received a familiar call: “My internet is bad.” The usual troubleshooting ticket was already open and, as so often happens, the prescribed fix was simple—restart the router. The user claimed, with absolute certainty, to have already done so. But OP, armed with admin access, peeked at the router’s uptime: 3,500 days. That’s almost 10 years without a single reboot!
The community quickly jumped on this, with u/Talismancer_Ric pointing out the international notation: “I’m going to suggest the OP is from a culture that uses a dot for thousands, and that is 3,500 days, or about 9 years.” OP confirmed, “The dot is the thousands delimiter in my country so it had been 3,500 days (which is damn impressive but unfortunately very clearly showed that this box had not been rebooted).”
It’s a classic, almost mythical, tech support moment: the user insists they followed instructions, yet the evidence tells a different story.
Nostalgia as a Troubleshooting Tool
So, how do you get someone to actually do what you’re asking—especially when they’re determined to save face? OP’s solution was inspired: “Do you remember the old game cartridges for the Game Boy, where sometimes there was dust in them and you had to blow into the cartridge to get it to work?” OP told the user that their router had a “special problem” with dust in the power cable and instructed them to pull out the plug, blow on the connections, and plug it back in.
Moments later, the router finally disconnected—proof that the power actually cycled. And, wouldn’t you know it, the internet started working again! OP couldn’t resist: “There must have been dust in the cable ;-)”
This playful workaround drew plenty of appreciation from the community. u/Jonathan_the_Nerd quipped, “Good thing you were working for a car manufacturer and not a heart surgeon,” linking to a classic xkcd comic about “blowing on the cartridge” as a universal fix. The nostalgia hit hard, with commenters lamenting just how long ago the Game Boy era really was. u/popejupiter noted, “No, the scariest part is that that comic is nearly 2 decades old.”
The Art of Gentle Deception (and User Psychology)
Tech support pros know that calling out a user’s fib rarely ends well. As u/Taulath_Jaeger put it, “You are much more likely to be speaking to someone who will take it as an insult to their intelligence and a slight on their honour that you would ‘dare accuse them of lying’… it’s just not worth the risk unless you know that client or user really well.” OP echoed this approach: “I prefer not to accuse the user of not having done what I wanted him to do… This was way quicker.”
Other commenters chimed in with their own clever tactics. u/Moneia reminisced about convincing UK customers to check power cables by spinning a tale about “blown fuses” and even getting them to test the cable in their kettle. (u/dreaminginteal responded, “OK, I have boiled the cable in the kettle. What next?”—to which the thread devolved into whether milk or lemon goes best with boiled power cables.)
And who could forget the classic “Have you tried turning it off and on again?” u/Throwaway_Old_Guy reminisced about users who, instead of rebooting, just played the Windows startup sound file, hoping to trick IT into thinking their PC had restarted. Sometimes, support is as much about social engineering as it is about engineering engineering.
When Blowing on the Cable Becomes Gospel
Of course, once a user learns a new ritual, there’s a risk they’ll pass it on. As u/K1yco joked, “I love that he will now think he can solve everyone he knows who has problems by telling them ‘Oh you just need to blow on the cable.’” And as u/Shazam1269 warned, “Careful how you say that, could be a trip to HR 😂.”
But perhaps, as this story proves, a little creative storytelling isn’t so bad if it gets the job done and saves everyone a headache (except maybe the routers, which would probably prefer not to go a decade without a nap).
Conclusion: Tech Support—Where Psychology Meets Nostalgia
This saga of the “dusty cable” is more than just a funny anecdote. It’s a reminder that tech support is as much about psychology and empathy as it is about technical know-how. Sometimes you need to dig into the user’s world—be it childhood memories of blowing on cartridges or making peace with the fact that no one wants to admit they skipped a step.
So next time your IT person asks you to restart something, just do it. And if they start talking about “dust in the cable,” well… maybe, just maybe, they’re onto something.
Have a favorite tech support story or a creative troubleshooting trick? Share it in the comments—or better yet, on r/TalesFromTechSupport. Who knows, maybe your tale will be the next legend to make the internet laugh!
Original Reddit Post: Dusty cables