Holy holy fuckeroo!
So my computer is in the hall (living room). My TV is in the hall. We were all, my 2 brothers and me, sitting around in the hall watching TV. We noticed a small puddle on the floor. We had noticed this the previous day as well. Walking around the house barefeet it’s difficult to miss the puddle.
Mildly annoyed that our feet got wet, we started blaming each other for being the cause of the puddle. Each one denying any wrongdoing ofcourse. We concluded that it’s probably because of the bottle of water lying on the floor. It’s hot out here, and when we take the bottle out of the fridge it’s entirely possible that condensation on the outside of the bottle caused the puddle.
It’s raining like crazy outside. You can hear the thunder and see the lightning. Not necessarily in that order. We looked around for leaks in the ceiling above. Nope. Maybe the floor is leaking water upwards. That’s not possible, we thought.
I cleaned up the puddle and we decided that we won’t keep water bottles out this way again. My computer is in the hall and there are wires everywhere. There’s a 1 PC plus 3 laptop LAN in the hall and there’s wires absolutely everywhere. Voltage stabilizers, power strips, peripherals, etc. add to the jumble of wires criss-crossing along the floor. It’s quite a bloody mess.
So we continue watching TV, having settled the minor issue. About 10 mins later I realize that there’s still some water on the floor. Maybe I missed a spot while cleaning up earlier. I follow the trail of water and notice that a good part of the jumbled mess of wires is wet, right next to the power strips. The power strip is also wet. I’m intrigued. And scared. I wipe up, thinking I’ve got it settled. No water bottles shall be anywhere near these wires again, I announce.
A few minutes later I figure that my friggin’ ISP’s cable coming in is leaking fuckin’ water!!! How the mother fuckin’ fuck on a duck. It’s a CAT 5 cable coming into the house, terminating at a small box where I connect another cable from it to my router. The box is leaking water, and two points along the wire that have a small slit (from wear and tear) are leaking water!
A massive clean up job later - switching off all power, unplugging all wires, unjumbling the tangled mess, wiping dry everything - having figured out the source of the puddles, I’m astounded.
I’ve raised the terminating box high above the ground to keep the box from leaking (water was coming right out of the crimped end, I didn’t want a short there). One of the leaks on the wire was right next to the box, so being raised it’s not leaking anymore either. That leaves one leak that’s now got it’s own bucket. It’s not too much water coming through. About one drop every few seconds. But it’s fucking water coming out of my Internet connection!
Ironically, my ISP is named Powersurfer.net
Gives a whole new meaning to Powersurfer. Woohoo I’m surfin’ alright.
I’ve got everything back up now, and I’m still astounded. How does the water come all the way through the wire from the terrace 10 floors above me. Is it safe to continue surfing, or should I avoid using my Internet connection. I was thinking of making a tiny slit at the point where the wire is coming in through the window, so that the water doesn’t leak inside the house, but I’m scared that if I cut too deep I’ll lose my Internet connection.
So I’ll just leave it be and change buckets for now. I’ll be calling the ISP first thing in the morning. I’ll keep you posted.
This is my first pit thread. Woohoo.
High speed Internet. Low speed water supply. I need to be paying these guys a bit more, don’t you think ?
