Wifi troubleshooting shifted when I left coworking spaces behind

I spent 6 years bouncing between coworking spots in Bangkok and Lisbon, always blaming the router when video calls dropped. Last month I rented a quiet cabin near Chiang Mai and had the same issue, so I finally looked at my own laptop instead of the building's network. The old wireless adapter on my 2019 ThinkPad was the problem, not the internet service. Since I switched to a wired connection with a cheap USB adapter, calls have been steady for 11 days straight. Have any other nomads hit this after leaving shared offices, or is it just me?

1 comments

1 Comment

morgan.nancy20d ago

Oh man, that story hits close to home. My buddy Dave went through the exact same thing last year, he thought his rental in Medellin had cursed internet until he finally tested his own gear. Turns out his laptop's network card was fried from years of dust and heat in hostels. He spent like two weeks blaming every cafe and apartment before someone told him to try a cheap dongle. After he plugged in that $15 USB adapter, his zoom calls were solid for a month straight. Now he keeps a spare wired adapter in his bag at all times, says it saves him more stress than a backup charger. Funny how we always blame the wifi gods before checking our own machines.