My gaming connection was dying until I checked what was under my rug

A flat Cat6 Ethernet cable run under a living room rug caused intermittent gaming disconnects and latency spikes after years of foot traffic folded and damaged it. Flat Ethernet cables are inherently less durable than round cables due to their side-by-side conductor arrangement, making them more susceptible to interference and physical damage. The fix was replacing the cable and routing it properly — taped flat under the rug or along baseboards in a cable raceway to prevent folding and sharp bends. Physical-layer cable issues can mimic software problems like rubber-banding or disconnects, so a cable swap is worth trying before diving into router settings or ISP calls.