My broadband got disconnected accidentally the other day

[steve2470]

Asking all service people and former service people: Is this an easy thing to do with a building with 8 apartments ? It was for less than 24 hours so it wasn't a big deal. The tenant below me moved out and, I assume, disconnected his cable service.

[savalez]

1. Usually there is a locked metal box

somewhere in the building that acts as the hub for all of the connections for each apartment. Maybe the tech that came to disconnect your neighbors service accidentally disconnected yours instead.

[steve2470]

2. That's exactly what happened according to my service tech

I was just wondering how easy it is to make a mistake. My guess is that if everything is not labeled clearly and/or correctly, it's pretty easy.

[HopeHoops]

3. Good guess. It's frighteningly easy if the map/labeling is wrong or confusing.

The phone company workers have an easier time at it because there's a standard order for using twisted pairs based on colors and stripes. Within a building, coax is coax (other than grade). It can be a bloody mess.

On a personal note, I hook a rubber band around each end of a cable (like making rubber band chains) and use a file folder label folded over the end loop to keep it in place and let me label the cable. That makes it far easier than tracing back wires to see where the HELL they came from. It's also a lot easier to relabel them if you change the purpose of a device or replace it with a new one (like a printer).