One day, my home internet suddenly stopped working.
I was working from home and often had to attend online meetings using ZOOM, Teams, and Skype. I prefer wired connection over wireless because it is more stable. One day, my network connection suddenly stopped working and I had to troubleshoot during work.
I had connected my company PC directly to the information outlet in my room, so I thought that either the switch or the apartment collective hub beyond the information outlet was broken.
The wireless LAN router connected to the information outlet in another room was working properly, so I realized that neither the home switch nor the apartment collective hub was problematic.
The remaining parts are the LAN cable between the information outlet and the switch, and the information outlet. We installed switches at both ends to check if the link was up, but we found that the link was not up.
My LAN cable was not working, so I suspected that the information outlet was broken. I didn’t think the switch was broken because I didn’t unplug it often. So I decided to replace the information outlet myself.
It would cost at least 10,000 yen for a technician to come and replace the information outlet, so I decided to do it myself. I couldn’t change the 100V power myself because I’m not an electrician, but I could change the information outlet. I bought a Panasonic connector (modular jack) to replace it.
The eight wires in the LAN cable are each color-coded. The connector also has the corresponding colors. I could install it by simply inserting the cable according to the colors. It took me about 30 minutes to do it for the first time, but I was able to open it successfully.
I recommend that people who don’t want to call a technician or want to save money buy the following modular jack and replace it themselves. It was quite easy.