Ethernet cable...

[protege]

Yeah, plus I can now honestly tell people I've kept this place's network and servers running with duct tape and twine.

I'm surprised my company's latest server doesn't have duct tape somewhere on it. The old one had some interesting "repairs" that were made to keep it going. Such as, one of the heat sinks was actually held on with tape...after it fell off one too many times. Even better, was that one of the case fans was replaced with a smaller item that I'd scavenged from one of the scrap computers. Oh, and we do have a few Cat 5 cables that are held in place with tape. Boss wouldn't spring for a new cable

[Buffalo]

Long time lurker, first time poster

When I went to the networking class, I got a wallet card with the color orders for different kinds of cables. If I can track it down AND get my scanner to work (or do it from home), I'll attach a piccy.

I got one of those cards too. It's been in my wallet for about 4 years, so it's not in any condition to be scanned but it's come in handy many a time. Ethernet cables are infuriating at first, but after some practice they're pretty easy. Good tools help a lot, and those EZ-RJ45 connectors are freaking awesome.

Yeah, plus I can now honestly tell people I've kept this place's network and servers running with duct tape and twine.

That's about what some of my equipment looks like. It doesn't help that I have functionally no budget for infrastructure improvements. Instead of spending $200+ for a cable ladder to span between 2 server racks, I picked up a length of PVC rain gutter from the hardware store down the street. That's my cable tray. Before that there was just a mass of CAT-5 zip-tied together and strung across the room

[TheRabbi]

My workplace is basically an oversight and distribution point for certain government programs.

Oh, government. You didn't say government.

Here, have a cookie. Have another cookie. And here's a bottle of good whiskey. And here's a pillow.

[technical.angel]

PS I like the good education about Ethernet cabling, I think I will print some of it out and show our own people lol.

When I went to the networking class, I got a wallet card with the color orders for different kinds of cables. If I can track it down AND get my scanner to work (or do it from home), I'll attach a piccy.

[Geek King]

Heh I got a note from the customer lastnight: "I am telling my sales rep that you are the ONLY reason I did not attempt to breach contract early due to mishandling."

Congratulations! It sounds like you really went above and beyond for that customer. Go treat yourself a bit after work.

Hold onto that for your next review. That kind of thing is pure gold for your file.

[wraiths_crono]

Heh I got a note from the customer lastnight: "I am telling my sales rep that you are the ONLY reason I did not attempt to breach contract early due to mishandling."

I think I will be scared, and I just found out that this customers server had a failed hdd, our daylight hours datacenter group wanted us to box up the server, ship to the customer, have him fix said drive then ship it back, rather than just do a swap of one of the new HDDs sitting in the spare parts section for this guy.... This just keeps getting more entertaining each day now!


PS I like the good education about Ethernet cabling, I think I will print some of it out and show our own people lol.

[Geek King]

You and your boss can make things very clear to your execs with a few choice small words: "If we don't get this stuff, your business will fail soon. You will lose money and time and none of us will be able to work. And then we will need to buy it anyway."

My workplace is basically an oversight and distribution point for certain government programs. The Board is made up of mainly "community activists*" merrily paving the road downward with good intentions. There have been six different IT heads in the last decade, and the systems are a hodgepodge of various people's ideas of proper system management. My boss and I are slowly taming the mess, but its slow going without permission to use machetes and demo charges.

Stupid city ordinances.

The one good thing out of all this is that our lawyer** was reviewing the hiring contracts and job descriptions and discovered some of us, including myself, should be non-exempt slalary rather than exempt salary, by law***. Basically this means I get paid overtime for any weekend calls I have to do. Once we do get the equipment in, I'll get paid a pretty penny to mount hardware and move wires after hours.


*From what I can tell from our board, this means people who want to be on TV after their business fails. Even if its just the local public access.
**yes, we have a full time lawyer on staff. We have that many people try to sue my workplace when we cut them off for fraud and/or refusal to abide by the basic rules.
***Kinda cheesy, since I knew what I was getting into when I signed the contract. Boss made sure of that. Benifits were pretty nice too, for the local market. They wanted to retain whoever the hired for IT. I can't imagine why they were having trouble. But then, who am I to turn down good, easy overtime pay?

[TheRabbi]

Ye gods, Geek King. May I never have to go to those lengths.

You and your boss can make things very clear to your execs with a few choice small words: "If we don't get this stuff, your business will fail soon. You will lose money and time and none of us will be able to work. And then we will need to buy it anyway."

There. 2 two-syllable words and 1 three-syllable word. That should get their attention.

[Geek King]

I sent the pic to my server and network admins.

Yeah, plus I can now honestly tell people I've kept this place's network and servers running with duct tape and twine.

[technical.angel]

I sent the pic to my server and network admins.

Whatever works, baby.

[Geek King]

Pics, or it didn't happen!!

With apologies for the crappy pic, but its the only camera I could lay hands on in short order:



Please also note the multiple dead ports to the right.

[technical.angel]

We, in all seriousness, have a switch running that has been repaired with string (to hold up cables in loose ports so they maintain good connection with the contacts).

Pics, or it didn't happen!!

I'd tell you how much bandwidth we're going to be getting in Dec, but then you'd probably cry.

[Geek King]

Each pair actually has a different number of twists per foot/yard/meter/whatever, and this becomes important in some of the higher bandwidth standards (especially 1000BASE-T aka common gigabit). If you don't follow the spec, it might work, but you'll have noise problems that can crop up with 100mbit and long lines, and really hamper gigabit.

Considering we're just now convincing the board that runs my workplace that a program using multiple Remote Desktop Connections and streaming video from over a dozen security cameras just might require us running more bandwidth out to the remote sites, I'm not thinking we're going to be in too much danger of that anytime soon. My boss had to spell out, in small words, why we needed a major overhaul of our network hardware. The techs from the company that handles the T3 for our network can't believe we're still running the Cisco equipment we have. What we have should have been retired a long time ago, and have so many dead connectors that we keep a running list taped next to the rack. It still took months to get the money okayed.

We might be allowed to order the equipment soon.

We, in all seriousness, have a switch running that has been repaired with string (to hold up cables in loose ports so they maintain good connection with the contacts). I've honestly not worked anywhere as tight on the purse strings as this place. It took a major crash (and three days of lost worktime) for them to allow us to budget for an extra server to be kept onsite. I'm going to have some great "coolness under fire" stories for interviews when I leave this place. If anyone will believe them.

[roothorick]

Is that some kind of standard I haven't been made aware of? I generally just make sure all the colors are in the same order at either end (unless making a crossover cable, or other specialty cable). What do you do when those aren't the colors the company put in the cable? I have some that are all various solid colors. I'm at least fairly sure the electricity doesn't care about the color of the insulation...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIA/EIA-568-B#Wiring

A crossover cable has an A end and a B end. Straight-through has either both A ends or both B ends.

Each pair actually has a different number of twists per foot/yard/meter/whatever, and this becomes important in some of the higher bandwidth standards (especially 1000BASE-T aka common gigabit). If you don't follow the spec, it might work, but you'll have noise problems that can crop up with 100mbit and long lines, and really hamper gigabit.

[TheRabbi]

I find that the RJ-45-ended cables with all solid colors tend to be rollover cables or console cables. If you're buying real Cat5(/5e/6), your cable should always come in the colors in the standard.