Years of various internet-related problems, combined with working from home, gave me some serious trust issues. As in, I just don’t trust my network to perform 100% of the time, even though I go to great lengths to make that happen.
And since I don’t trust my network (nor anybody else’s), it makes sense to prepare for the worst-case scenario. Hence, the idea to build a networking drawer that has everything you need to fix or troubleshoot your internet connection. Here’s what I put inside mine.
My networking drawer is as cheap as it is useful
Won’t break the bank here
Like many tech-inclined people, I tend to keep my tech even if I don’t need it. This means I have a lot of stuff lying around, but when I set out to build this magical “networking drawer,” I didn’t mean to pointlessly hoard stuff. I just wanted to know where everything was and made it a point to gather all the useful stuff there.
I didn’t fill it with expensive networking gear that most people, myself included, will never need. The whole point is that everything inside is cheap, small, and useful in the first few minutes after something goes wrong. You don’t need enterprise-grade tools to fix your network; you can either fix it yourself at (usually) minimal cost, or you need to rely on your ISP.
With that said, I didn’t mean for this drawer to replace the process of troubleshooting. It was meant to make everything simpler and to help me establish a quick course of action when my connection goes down. When you work from home, you can’t exactly just sign off for the day and forget about it, after all.
My drawer is built around a few simple things: Ethernet cables, cable testers, USB to Ethernet adapters, some couplers, labels, and a reset pin. That’s it. That’s most likely all you need.
The best part is that you probably already own some or most of this stuff, and even if you don’t, you can build this whole drawer from scratch for around $30. (Drawer itself not included.)
The spare Ethernet cable is the foundation of everything here
Known-good cables are worth their weight in gold
Ethernet cables, when they work well, are an absolute must-have. They’re easily underestimated, as we all gravitate toward Wi-Fi these days, but they’re more than a choice between wireless vs. wired. They’re actually a troubleshooting tool. If you switch to a wired connection and your internet’s suddenly back, the answer is simple: it’s a Wi-Fi problem.
With that said, if you’ve ever swapped a cable and suddenly watched a device come back online, you know exactly why I like keeping spares around. A cable can look perfectly fine from the outside but still hide faults, which is why you should keep not one, but at least a couple of tested, known-good cables.
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A cheap cable tester catches easy problems
It won’t certify your network, but that’s fine
The thing about Ethernet cables is that they can betray you without making it obvious. Sure, if it has bite marks courtesy of your puppy, then it probably doesn’t work. But a lot of the time, a cable is just a cable, and at a glance, it’ll look fine. It’ll click into place, but it won’t make your devices work as intended.
That’s where a cheap cable tester comes in. It gives you a quick way to check whether the cable is at least wired correctly before you waste time troubleshooting everything else.
Cheap cable testers won’t tell you everything, but they should be enough to catch simple problems like bad wiring or broken continuity. For a home networking setup, that’s more than enough.
The USB to Ethernet adapter that keeps saving my home network
I seriously love that thing
I know I’ve talked about this little adapter before, but that’s because it genuinely keeps earning its place in my setup. I use this as my backup internet when my main connection is down, mostly out of sheer laziness, because it lets me keep my main Ethernet cable plugged in while still plugging in the backup connection, too. But in my networking drawer, it has more uses than just supporting my lazy habits.
A lot of modern laptops don’t have Ethernet anymore, which is annoying when you’re trying to figure out whether it’s the internet at large or your Wi-Fi. With a USB to Ethernet adapter, you can plug straight into the router and test the connection without needing a desktop nearby.
It’s also useful for setting up new devices and checking speeds over a wired connection.
Couplers, labels, and reset pins
Cables and adapters are the main event, but the tiny extras are what stop this drawer from turning into just another pile of stuff.
Couplers are great when your Ethernet cable is just a little too short, especially when you’re testing something across the room and don’t want to move furniture around for a quick troubleshooting check. Couplers aren’t something I’d use as a permanent fix if I could avoid it, but for temporary troubleshooting? Yup, definitely.
Labels are just as important, because the whole point is to know which cables are tested and which ones are a little suspicious. I also keep a reset pin in there, mostly because recessed router buttons are a nuisance, and I don’t want to go hunting for paper clips when the internet is down and I’m trying to fix it.
Will it fix every problem? No, but it cuts back on the guessing
This drawer won’t fix ISP outages, dying routers, bad firmware, and all sorts of other network-related weirdness that might happen, but it’ll help. It’ll help you cut down on guessing, which is the worst part of troubleshooting. Get rid of that, and you’re one step closer to a fix.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
