r/talesfromtechsupport • u/RabidMooseAU • 3d ago
Short So I may have made a small error..
So, it was finally time to upgrade my partner's office to a wired connection. (did mine ages ago, but hers wasn't ready at the time)
Decided to do future me a favour, and run a second line for redundancy, or if she ever decides to add a second network device (printer or whatever). Tied one end of cat5 box to rack in basement, then started pulling the loop to under her office, stapling and managing as I went. Office still wasn't quite ready at this point, so I left the loop under the floor where it needed to be, went back to the rack end, terminated and connected everything so I could just fit the wall plate later on and not have to worry about it. The astute among you have probably already worked out what I'm about to do.. both ends terminated, both ends connected to switch, just about to start packing up tools, when the phone rings.. "Hey babe... have you done something downstairs? the TV just stopped streaming" Well WTF? I haven't changed anything.. all I've done is run the new cable, but its not hooked up at the other end, its just a loo-GODFKNDAMMTI. unplugged ends from the switch and all was well.
Just thought I'd throw this little tale out there to remind you all that although we are all fairly well versed in our various fields of expertise, occasionally we all make a rookie error, and that's OK.
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u/Antique_Business2804 3d ago
Back in the old days, we had a number of "dumb" terminals that were wired directly to our mainframe computer. The layout was changed in the computer room, which meant that the cables needed to be longer since the mainframe was moved to the other (farther) side of the computer room. So I had to add about 20 feet to each computer connection so they would reach the mainframe in its new location. I moved ceiling tiles so I could access the cabling, and grabbed my ladder and set it up. I brought all the computer cables down from the ceiling, cut the connectors off (RS-232, 25-pin) and prepared to start. Since I was working in a hallway and classes were still in session, I made sure that my equipment and temp work area were against one wall and not blocking the flow, and to help with this, I looped the cables through the step ladder to keep them out of the way for those passing in the hall. So I proceeded to add the extension to each cable, and reattached the RS-232 connectors; but when I went to push everything back into the ceiling to close up and finish, I noticed that I had left the cables looped through the step ladder; every damned one had to be cut and re-done, WITHOUT THE LADDER!! GGRRRR!
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u/boildkitty 3d ago
To be honest, I'd have cut the ladder.
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u/Antique_Business2804 3d ago
Don't think that didn't cross my mind! I also thought about tossing ladder and all back into the ceiling, but the ladder belonged to a different department and they knew I had borrowed it. On the bright side, though, I was being paid by the hour...
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u/boildkitty 3d ago
Oh, man, I'd pay to see someone years down the line find that ladder!!!!
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u/Antique_Business2804 3d ago
That crossed my mind at the time as well. I was the only guy tasked with pulling cables for a number of years, so any time a new computer lab was stood up, I had to pull all the cabling for computers and printers, which meant a lot of time above the ceiling tiles. I found more tools up there - I now have 3 toolboxes and all have a complete basic set of tools, mostly found in the ceiling. My favourite was the sharpened screwdriver I found, that had been wedged between some of the steel support structure with the point aiming down - I almost found it with the top of my head when I popped into the opening!
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u/Gadgetman_1 1d ago
That was your mistake; letting them know you borrowed the ladder...
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u/Antique_Business2804 1d ago
For whatever reason, the IT department, who pulled all the computer cables in the entire facility, had no ladder of our own, so we had to borrow one from the Maintenance department when we needed one. It was almost a sign out-sign in situation, because ladders tended to disappear often. And not into the ceiling, from what I saw.
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u/duttycat 3d ago
LOL! Reminds me of a professional sysadmin connecting a new PC to the office network on Friday afternoon only to find it all had crashed by Monday morning. After some search and good looking he had connected two 10/100 Mbps ports on autoselect using old office wiring rated Cat3. Once we had that figured out, everything returned to normal.
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u/1947-1460 3d ago
Why run a second line? Just put a small 5 port switch in her office to handle additional devices.
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u/aj4000 1d ago
Because ethernet cable is much cheaper than labour time. This is even more true for business that have to bring in external contractors to run cabling. If you ask a contractor to pull three cables from comms rack A to office B, they won't pull just one at a time, they will pull all three at once. Yeah you'll be paying for the extra materials, but because it takes the same amount of time to pull three as it does one, your labour cost stays the same. If the main cable fails at some point you don't have to pay a callout charge because you've already got a backup line right there ready to go.
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u/vinraven 3d ago
Who runs cat5 to future proof anything?
Did the AI script that wrote this lift it from some Usenet joke from the 90s?
Haven’t we all been using cat6 for the last twenty years?
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u/djfdhigkgfIaruflg 2d ago
My house says no. 300mbps. No CATwhatever will make the connection any faster
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u/No_Negotiation_6017 3d ago
Wi-Fi FTW!
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u/iamcorvin 3d ago
Wifi is great but for devices that don't move wired is the best choice.
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u/spaceraverdk 21h ago
I concur.
I wire everything I can.
I need to do about 10 lines more next year, kitchen, spare for living room, new bedroom, garage, and a handful for the ip cameras. move all the networking equipment to the gaming room in a rack.
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u/Spa-Ordinary 3d ago
Was the switch uncomfortable with self love?