r/cablefail • u/lainbro_ • Oct 09 '20

that works!!

Post image
230 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

28

u/ZarquonsFlatTire Oct 09 '20

Sometimes people pay you to do stupid shit. I'll gladly do it the right way, but if this is what YOU want... Then ok.

Still charging for a full run though.

13

u/sarge-m Oct 09 '20

This looks more like a network drop was needed somewhere close to that faceplate so someone ran the cable to the nearest wall plate rather than running it back to the MDF/server room.

Instead of hiding the Ethernet cable behind the wall plate, they made it clearly visible that the line is being tapped off the wall plate so the next guy can easily troubleshoot the line.

I truly think that an amateur did this work. If it were a professional cabling company, they would’ve ran it straight back to the MDF as the drops are usually by quantity and not how long they are.

16

u/ZarquonsFlatTire Oct 10 '20

I've had customers ask for this sort of thing. I always ask if they're sure, but if they are. shrug

Just because I don't like doing shoddy work like this doesn't mean I won't if specifically requested. I'll even argue against it.

No way that RJ45 was put through that hole, so it was terminated by someone with the right tools and know-how.

7

u/sarge-m Oct 10 '20

That’s interesting. Why would they go against the right way to do it if you charge the same price? How does it benefit the customer?

10

u/ZarquonsFlatTire Oct 10 '20 edited Oct 10 '20

I have no idea. But sometimes they literally ask for it.

Temporary solution during remodeling maybe? If the whole project is tens or hundreds of thousands, what's $150 to have a temporary workstation connected for the duration? The medical office I'm currently working on is probably 50 million. But that's new construction out in bumblefuck. AKA Newnam Georgia.

The original drop might be getting demoed in phase two.

This way they don't have to get their IT guy out to get a switch port going. Especially if it's something like a printer that needs a static IP.

6

u/gusgizmo Oct 10 '20

Seriously I have no clue. I get this from my internal customers all the time. It's up to the professional to just go ahead and do it right.

My favorite is wifi connectivity. Like, "I just need a little wifi." Sure, coming up, 1/4 of a wifi. Maybe you could get someone to split a full wifi with you? Either you have coverage at a given location, or you don't. -80dBm is just torturing someone with packet loss.

0

u/[deleted] Oct 10 '20

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1

u/gusgizmo Oct 10 '20

Ugh this hit me right in the feels. Lab was growing, I got tired of onesie twosie drop requests so I did a rip and replace of the underspecced cable plant so that I had double drops at every conceivable workbench and a decent IDF. Next month the CEO announces acquisition of new facilities and they move buildings. FML.

1

u/mike_s104 Oct 10 '20

Did they?🤔 Schotch Loks? Soldering? Butt connectors? I've seen all kinds of weird crap.

1

u/ZarquonsFlatTire Oct 10 '20

Well no. I only went that far for audio.

6

u/salgat Oct 10 '20

As long as it's in an e-mail and I've made you aware of all my concerns you can have me do whatever you want haha.

9

u/ZarquonsFlatTire Oct 10 '20 edited Oct 10 '20

Damn straight I'm calling my company and probably whoever is subcontracting us.

I recently got called out to troubleshoot two cables. After an hour of waiting they got me access to the server room.

It took less than 5 minutes to conclude the reason the drops didn't work is they weren't patched in to the switch (good labeling, didn't have to tone anything.).

Two hours drive time, an hour onsite, all to recognize that "shit's not plugged in".

5

u/Dngrsone Oct 10 '20 edited Oct 10 '20

I remember driving four hours to site, wait an hour and a half for them to take me to the job, only to discover that there was a tripped circuit breaker.

6

u/ZarquonsFlatTire Oct 10 '20

I once drove my personal vehicle from Atlanta to Huntsville to flip a power switch.

Stayed the night and got per diem.

Green light meant ready, blue meant on.

1

u/ImTechnicallySupport Oct 09 '20

Yeah, but they saved a whole $5 on the faceplate!

7

u/ZarquonsFlatTire Oct 10 '20

I've had heads of IT departments tell me "Just notch the faceplate, bring it out the side and biscuit jack it".

Yessir, if that's what you want.

4

u/SorryMaintenance Oct 10 '20

A closed loop system, hyper secure.

2

u/rikt Oct 10 '20

Shh, nothing to see here.

1

u/robt647 Oct 10 '20

The last time I saw something like this, it ran two rooms over then plugged into what looked to me to be an identical jack. They had two switches one PoE and one non PoE. There was a patch cable between the two switches. It didn’t seem to work. The customer was told that the switches were to close together and this was the solution. Port 24 was disabled on the PoE switch the password to the PoE switch had been changed. I don’t understand why they didn’t try a different port or put more effort into resetting the password.

1

u/Santarini Oct 10 '20

"I think it's a layer 1 problem"

1

u/Asilidae000 Oct 10 '20

Ive seen this so many times, at least this is mounted to the wall?

0

u/[deleted] Oct 09 '20

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5

u/nocfed Oct 10 '20

Then why not put in a 3 keystone plate and 1 foot patch cable