Author Profile - Tony Fortunato is a Senior Network Specialist with experience in design, implementation, and troubleshooting of LAN/WAN/Wireless networks, desktops and servers since 1989. His background in financial networks includes design and implementation of trading floor networks. Tony has taught at local high schools, Colleges/Universities, Networld/Interop and many onsite private classroom settings to thousands of analysts. Tony is an authorized and certified Fluke Networks and Wireshark Instructor. His Pine Mountain Group CNA Level I and II certification demonstrates his vendor neutral approach to network design, support and implementations. Tony has architected, installed and supported various types of Residential Wireless High Speed as well as hundreds of WIFI hotspots. Tony uses a variety of technologies from Powerline, Wireless and wired technologies to find the most cost-efficient and reliable solution for his customers. Tony combines custom programs, open source and commercial software to ensure a simple support infrastructure.
As I try to catch up and close up on my latest project, I thought I would illustrate some power no-no's.
I can't count how many times I see power strips HANGING by a power cable. COME ON PEOPLE!! Worst case scenario should be that you have to use a tie wrap or double-sided tape to attach it to the rack or shelf. i have been seen these power cable wriggle free over time.
A little trick I like to do is to tie wrap the AC cables to the equipment, when possible. That way you can't accidentally pull out a cable as you walk by or trace cables.
I use Velcro straps from the dollar store to bundle cables that belong together. For example, maybe cables from the same group on the patch panel, or switch. Make sure not to cinch the wraps too tight. Otherwise tracing them would be difficult. I also use the straps to loop around a single cable when I'm tracing a cable and it goes behind the rack. With the wrap around the single cable, I can easily find the cable on the other side.
In this case I noticed the cabling behind the rack was not supported by anything and was pulling on the cables in the punch down connectors.
So I purchased some brackets to support them. Some cables where actually pulled out from the blocks and I had to punch them down.
Just a bit of a pet peeve; when I see cables running in a cable tray above, I hate it when I see them tie wrap cables, or in this case, ran them outside the cable tray.
And of course, if you have documentation, create a policy or procedure to keep it up to date. in this example the documentation hasn't been touched since 2002.
Whew..... Now on to the router and switch configs...
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