I've run a speed test on my internet regularly for the last 4 weeks. Average was 18 down .5 up. I'm paying for 50 down, 3 up.
So I finally have time to call in and sort things out, and the guy on the phone tells me to unplug the coax from the wall, touch the ends together, and plug it back in. I've been on hold for about an hour and a half now and I just about lost it. I just hung up the phone. Reboot a cable? Residual signals? He could have told me to go fuck myself and I would have felt the same.
But I think to myself maybe there's something to it, or I heard him wrong, and worst case is I call his manager, rip into the guy, and demand a free month or two for not only being bullshitted but also not receiving the proper service.
I unplug ONE end of the cable, tap the bare copper against just about anything metal (other coax ground/shields, my watch strap, a bare nail from some furniture) and screw it all back in. I even check the rest of the connections for tightness. I turn everything back on, and run about 6 speedtests on various servers across canada and the US (datacenters where wow servers are held).
Average: 25 down, 3 up.
What the fuck? Were the connections just a bit loose and I fixed that? Is there some truth to this bullshit about grounding your cables to reset them? Or was he just some punk who was fast on his end of the computer and managed to fix my account while laughing about the lie he told me?