Network pics thread

What are the nodes? The individual houses? What is this for?

You can sure see the 3com-ness on those HPs.
 
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cyr0n_k0r said:
wherever you are and whatever you're doing you have way too much bandwidth requirements to have UPS's sitting on plastic crates.
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I'm surprised this stuff is not powered by a 48v battery plant. That UPS probably gives what, an hour of run time, if that? :p I guess that's what N+1 redundant generators are for.

That's a pretty nice stuff though. Is this a small ISP?
 
agrikk said:
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
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Apartment/flat?

Im not native english speaking if that would be an acceptible excuse ;-)


cyr0n_k0r said:
wherever you are and whatever you're doing you have way too much bandwidth requirements to have UPS's sitting on plastic crates.
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The point of these plastic crates is to get the UPS up from the floor (in case of waterflooding, this way there is approx 20cm or so before stuff will start to shortcircuit =)

Also since they are plastic they can easily be cleaned (just put them outside through some watersprinkler and let dry before putting it back in).


/usr/home said:
What are the nodes? The individual houses? What is this for?

You can sure see the 3com-ness on those HPs.
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See below.


Red Squirrel said:
I'm surprised this stuff is not powered by a 48v battery plant. That UPS probably gives what, an hour of run time, if that? :p I guess that's what N+1 redundant generators are for.

That's a pretty nice stuff though. Is this a small ISP?
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For the previous equipment (Allied Telesyn AT-8748XL) these UPSes had an uptime of just above an hour before the battery was drained (850VA UPS). Also in case of a brown out or such replacing an UPS is far cheaper than replacing the network-equipment connected to it.

In this case its EATON ELLIPSE UPS MAX 850 USBS DIN as UPS.

This is the network for a (in swedish: bostadsrättsförening) housing association (according to Google Translate) / housing cooperative (according to Wikipedia). So people can have Internet when they are home :)
 
So you literally meant household when you said "household". :D

Man... 1 gig to my house would be soooo awesome...
 
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DlBS6RK.jpg
 
Busy day for me. Wired my home for ethernet. Three gigabit ports to the living room. One gigabit port to the office. Two routers flashed to DDWRT as APs (one is on the other side of the house mounted and hidden above a drop ceiling.. Also, installed a dedicated 20 amp circuit to power everything (it's so close to the breaker box, no reason not to do 20 amp). I have a new power center coming, I'll clean up the power wiring after I mount it.

First, time I've ever cut drywall, fished, or wired *anything*, so I think I did OK. I chipped my skim coat on the drywall near the box I put in, but I'll fix that when I paint soon anyways.

DNoIRqD.jpg


1HKNnNW.jpg


FMNoQK3.jpg
 
Please send help.....

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A wooden server rack, huh.
20140122_152923.jpg


The green thing is the "core router":
20140122_152916.jpg


They ran out of ports on that side of the room, so this is on the other side:
20140122_152903.jpg


This is the computer lab:
20140122_152939.jpg


The machines wouldn't make bad terminals, but i'm not a fan of duct-taping wires to the floor or hanging wires over doorways.
 
What is your involvement? I've dealt with businesses (even doctor's offices) that looked like that and worse...

bad-network-01.jpg


It means their primary mission was spending as little as possible on anything and everything --penny wise and pound foolish. If you are going to be their IT guy, I'd strongly urge you to reconsider. The little they spend on their infrastructure is a indicator of how much they're willing to spend on the poor schmuck that has to support it. Run away as fast as you can!!
 
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If you are a perm then i feel sorry for you, if you are a contractor then well done that's going to be a lot of work
 
That duct-taping to the floor thing always pisses me off. Especially when there's carpet.

Duct-tape will gum up everything and will pretty much ruin a carpet and doesn't offer protection against the hard plastic wheels of nearby chairs.

Seriously, folks: 10' of floor molding will cost you about $12 or cheaper if you buy spools in bulk and, with the velcro stickies, will save your cables and your carpets.
 
Cerulean said:
i wonder how many power strips are daisy chained together :D
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If a contractor, an anonymous call to the friendly neighborhood electrical inspector will usually guarantee they have to spend more than they were willing in the past...

...not that I would have ever done anything like that... :D
 
lol this reminds me of the hospital computer lab before they fixed it. Power bars daisy chained everywhere, hanging on their own wires, etc.

Interestingly, that is actually to code. You are not allowed to use extension cords for permanent fixtures but power bars are ok, so if you need to go further you just add more power bars. :D Though there is probably a limit to the number of items that can be on a circuit, I know for hard wired stuff like lights or plugs it's 12 but not sure about things plugged in. You also can't exceed 80% or something like that, of the circuit breaker's rating.

From a safety standpoint it's safe though, it may look terrible, but it's still safe, provided everything is using #14 wire or thicker. If you do pull more than 15 amps the circuit breaker should trip.... unless it's a stab lok. :D If the circuit breaker is 20 amps then you should use #12 wiring.
 
Red Squirrel said:
lol this reminds me of the hospital computer lab before they fixed it. Power bars daisy chained everywhere, hanging on their own wires, etc.

Interestingly, that is actually to code. You are not allowed to use extension cords for permanent fixtures but power bars are ok, so if you need to go further you just add more power bars. :D Though there is probably a limit to the number of items that can be on a circuit, I know for hard wired stuff like lights or plugs it's 12 but not sure about things plugged in. You also can't exceed 80% or something like that, of the circuit breaker's rating.

From a safety standpoint it's safe though, it may look terrible, but it's still safe, provided everything is using #14 wire or thicker. If you do pull more than 15 amps the circuit breaker should trip.... unless it's a stab lok. :D If the circuit breaker is 20 amps then you should use #12 wiring.
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At my workplace, it's illegal to daisy chain more than once (3 or more power strips involved).
 
Cerulean said:
At my workplace, it's illegal to daisy chain more than once (3 or more power strips involved).
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Actually its fire code, no extension cords and no more than two power strips daisy chained and the total combined length cannot exceed 15 ft. At least thats what we were told during a recent inspection.
 
RiDDLeRThC said:
Actually its fire code, no extension cords and no more than two power strips daisy chained and the total combined length cannot exceed 15 ft. At least thats what we were told during a recent inspection.
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Yeah, it's fire code. Though what's allowed would seem to vary by locality. Place I once worked at got dinged on inspection for any power strip daisy chaining. Power strips had to be plugged in directly to an outlet (no extension, etc.), and only end devices could be plugged into the strip.
 
jmroberts70 said:
What is your involvement? I've dealt with businesses (even doctor's offices) that looked like that and worse...

It means their primary mission was spending as little as possible on anything and everything --penny wise and pound foolish. If you are going to be their IT guy, I'd strongly urge you to reconsider. The little they spend on their infrastructure is a indicator of how much they're willing to spend on the poor schmuck that has to support it. Run away as fast as you can!!
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We're IT students that are helping them out for our IT Project Development course. The labor is free, so we're trying to get them to do as much as possible. I haven't even posted the worst pictures yet. Wireless was provided to the building via 7 consumer grade routers, all daisy chained together from the computer lab in the top floor, all the way down two floors into the basement.

We killed all the consumer routers today and replaced them with UniFi's. We hauled 4x 80 gallon trashbags full of junk cable out of there. These were cables that were just sitting on top of the ceiling, hidden in the walls going to nowhere, connected to a switch, looping around a room, and going back into the same switch. 90% of the cable we pulled out either went to nothing on each end, or only connected to something on one end.

As I understand it, they went through about 4 IT guys in 2 years. The current goal is just to leave it better off than we found it.
 
More pictures. Sorry about the blurriness, I don't usually use my smartphone to take pictures, I guess the lens was dirty.

One of the wifi routers, in the back room of the office:
20140130_141729.jpg

Of the wires you can see in that picture, one goes to the previous router, one goes to the next router, two go to desktop computers, and the rest were just tied around things in the ceiling.


Going to a printer in the hall:
20140218_161058.jpg

Because cutting cables and reterminating them is way too much work. They did use a nice APC Velcro tie wrap to hold the bundle together though.

Library switch:
20140218_190705.jpg

That provides internet access for two desktops in the library, from the router in the office, and then continues the chain of routers.

Close up:
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Apparently cat5 (not even cat5e) cables are not rated to support hanging switches.

Hidden light fixtures, complete with bulbs and ballasts:
20140218_193908.jpg

also, this place has like 14' high ceilings, there is a good 4' gap between the top of the suspended ceiling and the ceiling. We joked that we could have put the server rack up there instead.
 
Been working on a network upgrade at my internship. The company is getting a new VOIP phone system, so we ran about 10,000 feet of Cat5e wiring last week (long story why we didn't use Cat6). They didn't want to use a patch panel, so all of the connections were just terminated with a RJ45 plug. A total of six HP POE L3 switches were installed. These aren't the most up-to-date pictures, but I wanted to show how we cleaned up the wiring. Switches are model A5120. There are currently three 24 port switches in this rack and two 48 port switches (Not all shown). In the main server room there is a single 24 port switch. Company bought an additional 24 and 48 port switches as a back up.

This was my first time working with the HP CLI... Had some trouble getting HTTP enabled at first, but we ended up figuring out that we needed to bypass the default config in order to save the new IP and such. I will say once we got the web interface working, I was really impressed by GUI and features of the switches. I'll definitely be considering managed HP switches in the future for my own networks.


I'll be sure to take some more pictures once the phone system server is installed in the cabinet. :D

Before:
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After:
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That pos Netgear has been replaced by a 24 port HP-A5120, as I had mentioned above.
 
wizdum said:
also, this place has like 14' high ceilings, there is a good 4' gap between the top of the suspended ceiling and the ceiling. We joked that we could have put the server rack up there instead.
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I've actually seen it done. 3U wall mount rack with a switch, fiber patch panel and 1u server mounted above a drop ceiling. Just enough room for the rack.

Anyway, glad you guys are doing something about that.
 
AMD_RULES said:
Been working on a network upgrade at my internship. The company is getting a new VOIP phone system, so we ran about 10,000 feet of Cat5e wiring last week (long story why we didn't use Cat6). They didn't want to use a patch panel, so all of the connections were just terminated with a RJ45 plug. A total of six HP POE L3 switches were installed. These aren't the most up-to-date pictures, but I wanted to show how we cleaned up the wiring. Switches are model A5120. There are currently three 24 port switches in this rack and two 48 port switches (Not all shown). In the main server room there is a single 24 port switch. Company bought an additional 24 and 48 port switches as a back up.

This was my first time working with the HP CLI... Had some trouble getting HTTP enabled at first, but we ended up figuring out that we needed to bypass the default config in order to save the new IP and such. I will say once we got the web interface working, I was really impressed by GUI and features of the switches. I'll definitely be considering managed HP switches in the future for my own networks.


I'll be sure to take some more pictures once the phone system server is installed in the cabinet. :D

Before:
12646948985_f7f9efcd5a_c.jpg


After:
12646948625_42084391ef_c.jpg


That pos Netgear has been replaced by a 24 port HP-A5120, as I had mentioned above.
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No point in using CAT6. Stick with 5e or 6a.
 
Wow wizdum that building looks super retro! Just be careful if drilling anywhere I bet those ceiling tiles are asbestos and walls lead paint. :D
 
Red Squirrel said:
Wow wizdum that building looks super retro! Just be careful if drilling anywhere I bet those ceiling tiles are asbestos and walls lead paint. :D
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The building is actually too old for asbestos. There is definitely lead paint though. We're not allowed to do any drilling without an inspection that takes 3 weeks, so we're using all the loopholes we can.

I have not yet had to resort to "Its better to seek forgiveness than ask permission".
 
Yikes...no patch panels, plugs on all of the wires, electrical tape and tie wraps.
I'd walk away from a job like that.
 
BlueLineSwinger said:
Because:
- Absolutely nothing specifies Cat 6.
- It provides virtually no real value over Cat 5e.
- It can't do 10Gb to the full 100m.
- It's much more susceptible to interference/crosstalk than Cat 6a.
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However, doesn't Cat6a cost about twice what Cat6 does? I'd still go with Cat6 over Cat5e for a new installation professionally if Cat6a was out of the question. However, for home use and for VoIP I do see why Cat5e is preferred.

At my company, it wasn't in the cards to have the space wired in Cat6 when was first moved in, however, we did an expansion last year and everything on that side is Cat6. I've noticed very little difference in every day use except on the two machines that are furthest from the switch. They do encounter some network issues on occasion, but not enough to justify me crawling up in the ceiling to run new lines.

At home, I'm using entirely Cat5e for both cost and ease of use. The only Cat6 that I have is the patch cables.
 
Durpity said:
However, doesn't Cat6a cost about twice what Cat6 does? I'd still go with Cat6 over Cat5e for a new installation professionally if Cat6a was out of the question. However, for home use and for VoIP I do see why Cat5e is preferred.
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Material-wise, 6a does typically cost substantially more that 6. However, labor costs should be the same. Not sure how that would total out per-run for a professional install, but it shouldn't be 2x I'd think.

Given the additional cost, limitations, and lack of real benefit of 6 over 5e, it doesn't make sense to me to use it.
 
and 5e is easier to work with in many instances. Not a ton of difference, but it adds up over 100s of runs.

The whole future proofing argument is moot IMO as Cat6 is so close to 5e in real-life performance. Want more? We jump right to fiber and other mediums.
 
Just a couple of 3560G access switches in one of the smaller DC's i look after. Fibre port channels to a 3750x core stack.

Sorry for the massive size, this forum does not auto size. :(

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hows the 3750x working for you as a core switch? We killed those things with iscsi traffic. I wouldn't trust them beyond the access layer.
 
"Been working on a network upgrade at my internship. The company is getting a new VOIP phone system, so we ran about 10,000 feet of Cat5e wiring last week (long story why we didn't use Cat6). They didn't want to use a patch panel, so all of the connections were just terminated with a RJ45 plug."
 
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