Today's photo caption:  3 Examples Of Times When You DON'T Need A Skilled Technician To Tell You Why Your Network Is Down 

Welcome back to Tech Service Today's IT Disaster of the Week series where we showcase the ugliest IT environment our technicians run into each week.

We love helping customers identify the source of network problems, failures, and/or outages, and fixing them so they are fully operational again. But occasionally we run into situations where even a non-technical person could have quickly identified the root cause just by doing a quick visual inspection. Today we are showcasing three such examples when you don't need a skilled technician to determine why your network is down.

EXAMPLE 1 - When "WAP" becomes an acronym for “What Ain’t Present”

Our first example here is pretty straightforward. The reason the Wi-fi in this restaurant stopped working is simply because someone pulled the Wireless Access Point (WAP) off the ceiling and walked out the door with it. So before sending a skilled technician to this site to assess the problem, make sure you have a new WAP waiting there for them to install.

EXAMPLE 2 - This Network Outage Is For The Birds

Actually, it was caused by the birds.

When a couple of the gas pumps at this service station stopped working, a quick visual inspection revealed this bird's nest. Apparently momma bird didn't like having all those pesky cables in her face while sitting on her eggs, so she pecked right through a couple of them.

By visually recognizing this before dispatching a technician, you can ensure the Technician arrives with the cables and materials needed to repair the problem. Without this knowledge before-hand, the technician may need to make two trips before resolving the problem.

When the cost of down-time is calculated in dollars-per-second, the sooner your systems are restored, the less costly it will be to your business.

(Remember, the early bird gets the worm.)

EXAMPLE 3 - When Your Servers Are On A High-Cholesterol Diet

Pretty much everyone knows that computers (and in this case Servers) run very hot. That's why they all have built-in fans that draw cool air in the front and exhaust it as hot air out the back. But when the grease from your deep-fryer saturates the air in your restaurant, it too will get drawn in the vent holes of your computers & servers. And once those vent holes are clogged, it's only a matter of time before the server overheats and crashes, bringing all your restaurant technology - and your business - to a screeching halt.

While we’ve showcased a few examples of network outages that even non-technical personnel could probably explain after doing a brief visual assessment, this is not the norm. There are myriad reasons why networks fail, and most of them are pretty complicated to identify - especially if you don’t know what you are looking for or where to look.

But that’s the whole reason why Tech Service Today (TST) exists. For companies who have far more locations than they have IT personnel, when your systems or networks fail, TST can provide a skilled technician to troubleshoot, identify, and resolve problems quickly, anywhere in North America – often same day.

If your business can't afford to wait days or weeks to have someone restore failed systems, we hope you will give TST a call and learn why so many companies trust us to keep their IT & telecom equipment and networks running at the speed they need.