Network pics thread

Blue Fox said:
A very small portion of the things I get to maintain on a daily basis:

IMG_00000414s.jpg
Click to expand...

That looks awesome!

Mine is not as impressive, but here's a dark pic I took a while back: :D





I'd need a wide angle lens so I can get it all in one pic though.
 
I can't get a better shot sadly due to how wide the cold aisle is and the fact that you can't see anything of the 3PAR units without standing nearly directly in front of them. Here's another of some stuff being installed:

IMG_00000412s.jpg
 
Berg0 said:
A few more pics:

a small install i did a while back
7ExzVPKl.jpg


rolled out some juniper gear, replaces a whole bunch of sonicwall stuff.
o0r2w1Wl.jpg

0fmItIIl.jpg
Click to expand...

What do you think of those juniper firewalls/switches. Only have ever worked with a JSeries router
 
calvinj said:
What do you think of those juniper firewalls/switches. Only have ever worked with a JSeries router
Click to expand...

I really like JUNOS, have only deployed a few of the EX switches, but we'll be changing out our HP's for a stack of EX4200's in the colo fairly soon, and I've deployed dozens of the SRX series. They are a good value for your dollar, rock solid, and support has been pretty good. an SRX100 beats the pants off an ASA5505, but as you get further up the food chain the differences between models in similar price brackets (ASA5512x vs srx240) aren't as huge. I really like the route based VPNs on the SRX platform.

As we bring on clients we generally swap out any outdated hardware with an SRX100 and an EX2200, setup VPN to our DC, and deploy standardized configs, reduces problems so much.

Those SRX100's in the pictures replaced a pile of sonicwall TZ200's, and we rolled out ubiquiti access points at every site, clients have been very happy. We're a Dell partner, but still buy Juniper over sonicwall.
 
Berg0 said:
We're a Dell partner, but still buy Juniper over sonicwall.
Click to expand...

It took a little bit to get use to the layout and how JunOS layed things out, but after a while it was great. I've always wanted to play with the switch stacks.

Do you bother with the Dell Rebranded SRXs?

I tell you the TZ series Sonicwalls sucked. The NSA and up seemed to be ok. Anymore it's Fortigate or bust.
 
I really love JunOS. I started with it instead of Cisco, and honestly, it just makes so much more sense.

I stopped deploying 2200's recently, and am doing 3300's for all my switching. The 10GB uplinks are quite nice to have, esp on 48port switches.
 
I love this thread. It gives me ideas and plans for future. I feel ashamed for posting my little home server. :)

The server has Intel Celeron G1610 CPU, ASUS P8B75-M LX MB, 8GB DDR3 RAM, Dell PSU, Samsung 500GB HDD
5w06ip.jpg


PLANET 8-Port Switch and Linksys router (used as a Wireless access point)

14tv4m8.jpg


GPON Terminal (connection is 50/50Mbps)
2cx9rwx.jpg


For now my plan is to buy an UPS, buy at least 2 HDDs and setup RAID.
 
Here is my basement rack, nothing too crazy, although I do have about 40 IP's in use throughout the house with VM's, Xbox 360's (media extenders) Chromecasts, HTPC, Dropcam, thermostat, laptops, smartphones, Belkin WeMo switches, office upstairs and so on - I recently virtualized more machines to cut down on power use, the rack did have 4 PC's and a NAS going 24/7 before. I do host about 35 small websites commercially as a side gig (Charter Business 60mbits Internet), I have some lab machines set up for my day job etc.

rack_edit.jpg


From top to bottom --

Monitor for console access
Cable modem
Netgear WNDR3700 router
SiliconDust HDHomerun Prime
Tuning adapter
24-port patch panel
3com 24-port 3300XM "Super Stack" 100mbits managed switch
TRENDnet 8-port 1000mbits "GREENnet" unmanaged switch (I have other GREENnet switches around the house, I've had good luck with these)
Old Cisco 2600 router (not in use)
Dell Core 2 Duo box used for FreeNAS, 5TB raw storage
Dell PowerEdge 2950 with ESXi 5.1, 32GB ram, 4x 300GB SAS, 1x 146GB SAS around 10 VM's currently

servers_edit.jpg
 
I was not the one who did this wiring. The problem we experience is that on DSL (have tried NuVox and AT&T three years ago, and now trying AT&T again) is that the internet is relatively unstable/unreliable with frequent disconnects for any program that requires frequent authenticated and secured communication and frequent "Page cannot be displayed" or "Page not found" errors when surfing the Internet.

Years ago when we went NuVox DSL --> AT&T DSL --> switched to MediaCom Cable (cable > DSL, always). Building didn't have any existing cable hookup so they ran brand new everything from deploying a new tap in the neighborhood to a grounded coaxial cable dropping into the telecom room. When we switched to cable, almost all the problems went away (then when I replaced the old HP managed 4U switch with a brand new dumb gigabit 24-port switch, virtually all problems vanished). User did inform me though that even on cable they still every now and then would receive a "Page cannot be displayed"/interruption in connectivity but it would be so quick to resolve itself and the problem happened seldom enough that it was understood as being normal for any internet connection and not a problem at all.

Recently we switched back to AT&T to save on some costs and problems from the past that caused me to switch to cable (different physical transport medium) came back. AT&T didn't run a new line. We are going to have AT&T run either fiber optic (real U-Verse) or a completely brand new isolated DSL/phone line + straight into the server room 100% avoiding all shady naked wiring for a clean connection. If they aren't willing to do either, we'll stick with cable and I'll have MediaCom lower our bills. When the AT&T technician came to install the "U-Verse" DSL last week, he had made a comment that whoever did the wiring deserves to be unemployed.

In the past several months they've been hiking up monthly costs out of greed upwards to 120 USD/month for 8mbit down plan that is supposed to include 1-3 static IPs (as per original contract, which they violated after they later did a network infrastructure hardware upgrade and reasoned that "oh well due to the new way the infrastructure and IP leasing works with the upgrade it is not possible for us to give you static IP addresses anymore"). We were paying I think 80 USD/month for 8mbit down with 1-3 static IPs.

YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrsKx-NHgGU

Click on the photos for 41 MP full size.

(This is the server rack. All those cables you see are all data, no phone line stuff (except for maybe 1 or 2 terminations in the second patch panel row)




(This is how AT&T wired in the DSL last week)






(This is the telecom closet)


(This gray cable goes to the server room into patch panel port #18. The DSL modems from past times have been in this room with this gray cable plugged into their WAN port. Before I removed the cable modem, the cable modem was plugged into this as well, and the other end -- port #18 in patch panel in server room -- would be plugged into the WAN port of our DD-WRT router)








(The following photos are taken in the attic/loft area above the ceiling. Watching the YouTube video may help clear up the next two photos; there are a couple cutouts in the attic floor that reveal these.)






 
Last edited:
This is how I did my phone system wiring. On one side of the server room we had our phone equipment which went to a 66 block. To keep things a bit organized we punched down into the 66 block and went into a patch panel. One patch panel was for the PHONE SYSTEM and the other patch panel went to the JACKS in the offices, made for easy switching if someone moved extensions (non-ip based system):

4549331443_c49423eca2_b.jpg
 
Adam said:
This is how I did my phone system wiring. On one side of the server room we had our phone equipment which went to a 66 block. To keep things a bit organized we punched down into the 66 block and went into a patch panel. One patch panel was for the PHONE SYSTEM and the other patch panel went to the JACKS in the offices, made for easy switching if someone moved extensions (non-ip based system):

4549331443_c49423eca2_b.jpg
Click to expand...

What we have at our new sites too. Terminate the 25 pair cables to a patch panel. We then use regular RJ45 "network drops" (meant for phone, but wired A and work for data) that are terminated on their own patch panels. Use short patch cables to tie a "phone drop" in a room to a physical line.

If we need an extra network drop in a room that doesn't need a phone we can just steal the phone drop and patch it to data in the network closet. We'll be going VOIP here shortly so we are already good to go wiring wise.
 
jeffmoss26 said:
Cerulean, that wiring makes me angry!! Adam's is the right way to do it!
Click to expand...
I'm not the one who did it, and I understand. Your reaction is informative and insightful. I think it's horrible too!

When the AT&T technician came in last week he had commented about how horrible and sickening it was and that whoever it was that did this building's wiring deserves unemployment.
 
Cerulean said:
I'm not the one who did it, and I understand. Your reaction is informative and insightful. I think it's horrible too!

When the AT&T technician came in last week he had commented about how horrible and sickening it was and that whoever it was that did this building's wiring deserves unemployment.
Click to expand...

When a residential phone or cable installer says that, you know it's REALLY bad. LOL
 
Cerulean said:
I'm not the one who did it, and I understand. Your reaction is informative and insightful. I think it's horrible too!

When the AT&T technician came in last week he had commented about how horrible and sickening it was and that whoever it was that did this building's wiring deserves unemployment.
Click to expand...

AT&T Technician here with extensive networking background. It is pretty horrid but i've seen worse lol. Surprised the technician that installed your service didn't just used your patch panel vs pulling the pair.

As far as your service being unstable with AT&T, it's not the service but most likely the feeder cable to your building or the pair itself. Faults or noise on the line is what jacks up our vdsl. It's only likely that they will run a fiber line to your building if you dish out the bucks for it. Otherwise, hope for a good technician and don't go with "uverse ipdsl", make sure it's our "hsia" service. heh.

Side note, that's a crock of sht if they said they can't produce static IPs for you, call and get it switched...and if you get someone who clearly doesn't know what they are talking about just call again lol.
 
Muegen said:
As far as your service being unstable with AT&T, it's not the service but most likely the feeder cable to your building or the pair itself. Faults or noise on the line is what jacks up our vdsl.
Click to expand...
Yep, that's what I think too. I think that's what it has been the whole time on every trial with DSL regardless of provider/modem.
 
So my boss has been trying to contact our AT&T Technicians & Account Reps for the past few days and they haven't communicated at all.

In the mean time, there was already a drilled hole in the ceiling right above the server rack. We found where the location of the rack is above-ceiling, and have determined we can safely drill a perfect hole of several inches. For now, I think we're going to start with a 2" diameter and do a PVC pipe with fittings on both ends to make it look like a nice conduit through the ceiling. :)

Doing this will handy for AT&T running fiber/isolated and brand new DSL line, for rerouting the coaxial cable should we use cable internet again in the future, and for future IP PoE security cameras.
 
Cerulean said:
So my boss has been trying to contact our AT&T Technicians & Account Reps for the past few days and they haven't communicated at all.
Click to expand...

Sent you a PM. Best course of action would be to contact the supervisor of the tech that installed the service (not for malicious reasons, give the tech good words if you feel he deserves it lol. But it's an easier way to explain what you would like rather than getting on with our nasty over seas tech support.) and he can usually push things in the direction they need to go.
 
Too much jibber jabber, need more pics! :D

My current rack at home.

ofOOC.jpg


2x Hyper-V servers and one Windows SAN using ISCSI. The SAN looks empty since I took out my 1.5 tb green drives. I'm going to be selling them soon and buy either a couple of SSDs or more 4tb drives.
On the back side of the rack is 2x HP 2824 switches and a Ubiquity Edge router.
I would like to find a good deal on a c6100 and replace both my current Hyper-V servers, but it seems like the supply is dwindling for them.
 
feffrey, you would get much better cooling on that server if you put in the blank drive caddies. That chassis is not designed to run open.
 
Im not sure what the SM is for, all the guys running the fiber said was each fiber had 12 strands in it, they had a few runs that had 24 strands.

Today got to walk around since no one was in due to the storm
Got to look at the Power room PowerSmith units
Got to see the back side of the Evertz Router (loud as hell unit !) Evertz
 
Nate7311 said:
Now if they were babes in Fiber Optic bikinis? We'd never get Cerulean off the beach...
Click to expand...
only impressive if those fiber optic bikinis were actively capable of transmitting 10GbE (or greater) live data and not just for show. Perhaps they could make an underwear/boxer version too

that would be an incredible experience ...

"hai look! I'm wearing 1tBe+ worth of active data transfer LIVE RIGHT NOW *dances around gently*"

EDIT: fix: "hai look! I'm wearing the internet!"
 
dbwillis said:
Im not sure what the SM is for, all the guys running the fiber said was each fiber had 12 strands in it, they had a few runs that had 24 strands.

Today got to walk around since no one was in due to the storm
Got to look at the Power room PowerSmith units
Got to see the back side of the Evertz Router (loud as hell unit !) Evertz
Click to expand...

Most of the stuff ive seen using SM with APC connectors is for video retransmission.. thats why i asked :)
 
Upgraded the Internet-connection last friday to 10Gbit/s so that each household can have 1Gbps in both directions incl IPv4/IPv6 dualstacking.

Equipment shown is HP A5820-24XG-SFP+ Switch (JC102A) as router and HP A5120-48G EI Switch with 2 Slots 10G (JE069A) as access-switches.

Node1:

fetbandnod19.png


fetbandnod20.png


fetbandnod21.png


Node2:

fetbandnod22.png


Node3:

fetbandnod23.png


Currently thinking if I should fix (or not) that cabling in node1 so that at least the tp-cables will look nicer...
 
Apachez said:
Upgraded the Internet-connection last friday to 10Gbit/s so that each household can have 1Gbps in both directions incl IPv4/IPv6 dualstacking.
Click to expand...

Wait, huh? Can you clarify what you mean by household?

Wherever you are, I want to be your neighbor so I can have gigabit internet access. :D
 
wherever you are and whatever you're doing you have way too much bandwidth requirements to have UPS's sitting on plastic crates.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top