Expert advice/opinions/impressions on this building's phone & data wiring?

Cerulean

Cerulean

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I am looking for advice, opinions, and impressions about this building's wiring. I don't have any or very much experience in cabling, only that for the short time I had been in a Network Cabling course at a local community college what I learned was when crimping and terminating CAT Ethernet that bare wiring = VERY BAD and must expose least amount possible to avoid EMI and degradation of line quality.

I want to know what you think of this wiring, what your impression is, what is wrong with this picture, if you have any advice or opinions or thoughts, etcetera.

From my point of view: makes sense phone is not affected because it is analogue and analogue transmissions tend to be more tolerant/don't care about things like this, but is important for digital transmissions because computers are computers and data integrity is a very important thing for everything to work well. To me, this cabling doesn't sit well with my stomach.

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:
First thought: burn it with fire!
What they did was a shortcut. Instead of running individual 4 pair cables from the patch panel to each workstation, they ran 25 pair Cat 5e from the patch panel to the 110 block you said was mounted in a ceiling. From there, home runs go to each workstation.
 
jeffmoss26 said:
First thought: burn it with fire!
What they did was a shortcut. Instead of running individual 4 pair cables from the patch panel to each workstation, they ran 25 pair Cat 5e from the patch panel to the 110 block you said was mounted in a ceiling. From there, home runs go to each workstation.
Click to expand...

yep - to prevent future headaches and confusion. rip it all out and have a licensed contrator with good rep in your region come out and pull new wire for the entire building. most cabling contractors will properly ground strap the racks and stuff as well.

it won't be cheap, and it won't be fast. but doing something right the first time prevents even more money being spent down the road.(not to mention, i'll bet none of that passes any kind of structured cabling codes in your area.)
 
Looks like it started out reasonable (probably a telco) then rapidly spiraled down.

If you have the budget, get it all redone - with proper 4-pair Cat5e/6a from a patch panel to each drop.
If you don't have the budget, at least get things cleaned up and labeled properly.

I've come across quite a few phone installs that look like that - Analog sets are much more forgiving than you might think.
 
Before i read it all get a cover on that breaker ffs!

**EDIT**

looks like its already been said
 
It's a digital phone system...Inter-Tel Axxent. Uses 1 pair per extension. I've worked on them and their big brother, the Axxess.
 
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