At 2pm we took a phone enquiry from a customer who'd found us on Google — a shop on King St, Mascot NSW 2020. Their in-store computer had suddenly stopped working online: it had always connected fine to the same WiFi, but now it joined the network and had no internet at all. We booked a 6pm visit and, after finishing two jobs over in Rhodes, drove over to sort it.
On-site, we did what saves the most time on this kind of call: compare against known-good gear. Using our own laptop and a phone hotspot, we tested side by side. The tell was decisive — even when we shared our own phone's hotspot as a WiFi, their computer connected but still couldn't get online. That ruled the network out and pointed squarely at the PC itself.
- Tested with our own laptop + phone hotspot to compare.
- Their PC failed even on our hotspot — so the network wasn't the problem.
- Fault isolated to the computer's own configuration.
We asked the right questions first — had they recently installed or used a VPN, run any system updates? Then we checked and adjusted the relevant settings on the computer. Within 20 minutes of arriving it was back online. We restarted the machine to confirm, opened YouTube — video played normally. Job done, customer happy.
The shop had been using a phone's hotspot as the computer's everyday internet. We explained a gotcha: that particular phone (a Ulefone Armor 27T) only shares a WiFi 4 hotspot, capping speeds around 10 Mbps. For comparison we shared from an iPhone 17 Pro (WiFi 6) and it ran 100 Mbps+. So the practical advice was simple — if they want faster everyday speeds off a hotspot, the phone is the bottleneck to upgrade. The customer was pleased enough to ask what else we help with, mentioning they may need a hand with video editing down the track.
Result
Diagnosed as a PC fault (not the network) by comparison testing, restored online within 20 minutes on-site, and gave the customer a clear upgrade path for faster hotspot speeds.