OK guys, this one's a real winner. This is the reason I haven't been that active in the forums lately; I've been cleaning up after the last @$$hole who was in charge of IT at the place I now work! Take a look at the pics below, and you'll see what I mean. Keep in mind, this is for a medium-sized private corperation! Note the cheap-ass Linksys switch & D-Link router in one picture.... what a mess. And this is just the physical network... you should have seen the "server", and the state of the workstations! They looked even worse than the patch cables (yes, it is possible). I had to rebuild and refurbish each and every workstation to the tune of $200-$400 in parts (each). I wish I would have thought to take pictures of everything before I rebuilt it, but at least I got some shots of the network.... sickening! -AT
I understand that a DIY CAT cabling job isn't always easy (and I've had the opportunity to try making the cables), but that does look like some shoddy work.
Well, I was taught how to make patch cables & deploy networks by some very strict and disciplined network engineers. They practically slapped me in the face if I didn't make them perfectly, so I suppose I'm a bit pickier about that kind of thing than many people. However, there is no excuse for that kind of quality. Out of all the cables deployed, 1 (one) worked... at only 10MiB! I had to redo every cable on the network... :swt:
They're tough to do, but they can be cost effective since you can make them to the exact lengths you need...as long as they're done correctly.
All it requires is some CAT5 (or CAT6 if you want to be GbE okay) and some RJ-45 connectors, and then you need a special crimping tool specially designed for making network cabling. the hard part comes in trying to get the ends of the wires in the RJ-45 connector and getting them to stay there while you use the crimping tool to clamp the RJ-45 head together. I didn't do it enough to get good at it, but it's one of those things that once you learn it, you don't forget...because it tends to get expensive if you frequently screw up.
Really guys, it's not that hard to make good cables! I honestly believe that I could train all of you intelligent and capable gents how to make quality patch cables in a single 15-minute session! Really, there is no excuse for the poor workmanship observed in those photos. This was from a supposedly experienced individual, and none of the cables were even tested.
A little side note... there was another guy, who was contracted to do some work after the first guy was 86ed. He had telnet running root, on the main server, over unencrypted wireless... with a 3-letter root password. :swt:
Here's a web-based lesson: Network Cable HowTo. P.S. - Notice where the insulation comes to in the example pictured below. Compare that to the pictures I posted earlier! (Taking too much twist out of the cable makes for a bad cable).
Thats just sloppy. A disgrace to a company like that. Sorry about that i was referring to the last page.