Network pics thread

[feffrey]

LOL It's complicated. Gotcha.

Yeah, we mostly occupy commercial towers and roof tops up and down the beach. Only two water towers (Watertowers seem to be huge in the wisp industry Ha).

Since we're doing WISP porn now. Can you spot the problem with this radio?



I'll give you a hint. It was at an old customer site, Before grounding was a thing. The rocket was in an ARC panel. Toasted. Melted the ethernet every spot it touched the rohn tower. Blew through the lightning protectors like they were just fire accelerant. Melted the POE's and routers.

It was a fun day.

Looks like the magic smoke was let out.

I found this gem while on the roof a local hospital. The cisco antenna on the outside was not grounded to anything, and a set of fiber converters were used to protect the router on the other side of that old radio.

 

[NickOlsen8390]

Looks like the magic smoke was let out.

I found this gem while on the roof a local hospital. The cisco antenna on the outside was not grounded to anything, and a set of fiber converters were used to protect the router on the other side of that old radio.

Nice, Those are super old AP's too. Did it even have 10Mb/s Ethernet?

 

[wizdum]

LOL It's complicated. Gotcha.

Yeah, we mostly occupy commercial towers and roof tops up and down the beach. Only two water towers (Watertowers seem to be huge in the wisp industry Ha).

Since we're doing WISP porn now. Can you spot the problem with this radio?



I'll give you a hint. It was at an old customer site, Before grounding was a thing. The rocket was in an ARC panel. Toasted. Melted the ethernet every spot it touched the rohn tower. Blew through the lightning protectors like they were just fire accelerant. Melted the POE's and routers.

It was a fun day.

Damn, thats a lot of burnt. I have heard that Ubiquiti APs don't smell like burning plastic when the melt, is this true? We have no lightening protection on any of our gear, so I expect to be there soon. We do have good grounding though.

Yeah, my local school district tried and failed to create a community WISP. They got a few customers up but could not expand. That inspired me to try to start my own WISP 8 years later, with all the nice new Ubiquiti gear coming out. Right after I started, they hired me as a tech. I merged my organization with theirs (they had all the nice towers and tower rights that I couldn't have gotten myself). We partnered with another local WISP that had the experience and tower climbers that I lacked. The school department then let me go, and the local WISP hired me.

Now i'm in some weird situation where i'm being paid to manage and represent the community WISP, which is really my WISP, while i'm working for another WISP (which is headquartered in my old office at the school).

Theres also an incumbent WISP that took over the original "community WISP" project after the school failed. They also failed and are 6 months away from dumping 600 needy customers on the market, which I will gladly pick up.

Here's one of our locations, at a water tank that used to be part of an air base:




Theres two 80 gallon barrels of chlorine in there, and no fans. It is not nice to my hardware.

Anyone have any ideas on what I could use this old 900MHz and 5GHz Alvarion gear for?

 

[NickOlsen8390]

Damn, thats a lot of burnt. I have heard that Ubiquiti APs don't smell like burning plastic when the melt, is this true?

No, The smell like burning plastic. That and the smell of internets escaping.

Anyone have any ideas on what I could use this old 900MHz and 5GHz Alvarion gear for?

Target practice? Put it on it's widest channel width, On a known in-use freq of a competitor and just bandwidth test between radios all day? <3 FCC Part 15.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Got to work on these the other day. Some sort of in-flight wireless internet system. The entire building runs off of DC.



Thats comforting.


The site was a little difficult to get to. I don't get many work orders that list "4WD Truck" under the required tools section.

Telcom porn. That's most likely a microwave transmission tower. Used for point to point links where fibre does not make sense, or as backup. Do you have a pic of the top or any other equipment on it?

All -48DC most likely. I see the batteries in the back. Probably sealed. The bigger COs typically use flooded acid, they last longer and are cheaper. A couple full discharge cycles can kill those gel cells unfortunately but they are well suited for small areas that may not have lot of ventilation. We have a couple cell sites on the highway here that are pretty much flat. Loose the site any time there's a power outage for more than an hour, takes 3+ hours to get a genny out there and they have their political reasons to not have a standby.

Fun stuff though. And yikes at that chlorine one lol.

 

[wizdum]

No, The smell like burning plastic. That and the smell of internets escaping.




Target practice? Put it on it's widest channel width, On a known in-use freq of a competitor and just bandwidth test between radios all day? <3 FCC Part 15.

I think the other WISP in the area has already tried that. For the link I posted that went through all those trees. We had a hard time finding a clear frequency. Did an airview scan and found the other WISPs proprietary omni array was taking up 100mhz of the 5ghz band, without a single subscriber using it.

Telcom porn. That's most likely a microwave transmission tower. Used for point to point links where fibre does not make sense, or as backup. Do you have a pic of the top or any other equipment on it?

All -48DC most likely. I see the batteries in the back. Probably sealed. The bigger COs typically use flooded acid, they last longer and are cheaper. A couple full discharge cycles can kill those gel cells unfortunately but they are well suited for small areas that may not have lot of ventilation. We have a couple cell sites on the highway here that are pretty much flat. Loose the site any time there's a power outage for more than an hour, takes 3+ hours to get a genny out there and they have their political reasons to not have a standby.

Fun stuff though. And yikes at that chlorine one lol.

Here's the rest of the pictures. The battery bank looked really cool, no wires between the batteries, just large copper bars. I had also never seen a breaker panel for a DC system. It was even rack mountable. Its hard to see, but there is some sort of automatic generator controller in the back, right, of the room. Its about the size of a refrigerator. The generator is out back, looked like it ran on diesel. Probably too hard to get a propane truck up there.







There were a bunch of other towers up there too. I recorded a video with a dashcam, but it broke up the video into a bunch of randomly sized videos, so I need to stitch it together. I was surprised that they had guyed wires that close to the path. You really don't want to clip one of those with your truck.


I'm kicking myself for not bringing my DSLR.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Cool stuff, I think that may be cellular actually. That box with all the cards looks familiar as well. I'm wondering if this is CDMA equipment. For HSPA the equipment is in the tower as it can't support waveguide or coax as well from the radio. The second tower does look like microwave. Most likely backhaul.

Though, I could very well be mistaken and this could be totally something else. I just work at a CO, I don't install this stuff.

 

[Deleted member 238539]

Cool stuff, I think that may be cellular actually. That box with all the cards looks familiar as well. I'm wondering if this is CDMA equipment. For HSPA the equipment is in the tower as it can't support waveguide or coax as well from the radio. The second tower does look like microwave. Most likely backhaul.

Though, I could very well be mistaken and this could be totally something else. I just work at a CO, I don't install this stuff.

I was thinking the same thing. I work for a cell service provider and the equipment in that building looks really similar to what we have. We also have a full DC powered switch with acid battery back up, we just have a lot more batteries.

 

[omegatotal]

I would love to have some super long run time UPS gear like they use on these types of sites

 

[Red Squirrel]

I would love to have some super long run time UPS gear like they use on these types of sites

I want to set something like that up eventually. I have a decent setup that can run for about 4 hours but I'd like to go with a 48v rectifier/inverter setupso it's a dual conversion UPS and also add more capacity.

This is what I have right now: The inverter is only 750w though. I'd want to go for 2 or more kw if I upgraded my setup.


Inverter-charger


Racks


Inverter battery switches


Battery rack


Back... kinda bad wiring but it works. The shunt meter is kinda useless though, I need to figure out what to do for that. The numbers mean nothing they just jump all over the place all the time.

 

[wizdum]

Got called back up to the tower again. Brought my DSLR this time.
The view is pretty nice up here:


I have no idea wtf these things are:



This is a Maine PBN relay station or something. It also looks like a Maine forestry service lookout point:


Someone wanted into this thing really badly, looks like they took a hatchet to the wall:


I'm pretty sure these are cellular omni's. We have something similar mounted on a couple of our towers by Verizon and AT&T:



Caution: Radio Frequency fields at this site may exceed FCC rules for human exposure:


Lots of Coax:


Guyed wire mount point:



I have no idea what this cylinder shaped thing is:


There was a tech installing a new Cisco router while I was there, also powered by DC:


DC breaker panel, rack mounted:


Standby generator, with a 60ish year old concrete diesel tank out back:


Not sure what this is:


Charge controller, -54DC float charge, so probably running on -48v:

 

[omegatotal]

I want to set something like that up eventually. I have a decent setup that can run for about 4 hours but I'd like to go with a 48v rectifier/inverter setupso it's a dual conversion UPS and also add more capacity.

This is what I have right now: The inverter is only 750w though. I'd want to go for 2 or more kw if I upgraded my setup.

<<<Snipped some images>>>


Back... kinda bad wiring but it works. The shunt meter is kinda useless though, I need to figure out what to do for that. The numbers mean nothing they just jump all over the place all the time.

Yeah I followed your build thread for that setup

Im not running any major server gear right now, but I would love to get some DC-DC PSU's for a couple of servers that I want to build in the future (vm host with virtualized htpc, ceton m-card DVR setup [with isolated power/network to protect from CATV based surges] and separate file servers), my main workstation and gaming pc can each run off their own 1-1.5kva ups. If I need more run time I'll just add a couple more 9ah SLA batteries to those smaller ups

You are probably having issues with stable voltage/noise powering the meter or em/rf interference on the sense leads. Or possibly needing some decoupling(?) capacitance at the inverter to smooth load across the shunt.

P.S.
For anyone considering building a setup like this, I suggest colored electrical tape on the DC cables, with a simple chart on white printer paper where needed, black/red/green for polarity and ground, other colors in order following the polarity colors for source/dest/etc. this way you dont have to get so close and futz with the wiring to see what its for or where its going

 

[Cerulean]

What difference does DC to servers vs AC to servers make? :?

 

[klank]

What difference does DC to servers vs AC to servers make? :?

DC direct is more power efficient and puts off less heat.

 

[wizdum]

What difference does DC to servers vs AC to servers make? :?

There is a certain amount of power loss from converting AC to DC (usually in the form of heat). Everything inside a computer, and inside most consumer electronics, runs on DC. So rather than having a separate AC to DC transformer for each device, you can save a substantial amount of power by having one large AC to DC transformer and feeding all of your devices with DC. In remote transmitter sites, running everything on DC means you can power your gear from the backup batteries, lowering the amount of equipment that you need (A single AC to DC transformer provides a float charge for keeping the batteries topped off, and powers all the equipment in the building).

 

[NickOlsen8390]

I'm pretty sure these are cellular omni's. We have something similar mounted on a couple of our towers by Verizon and AT&T:

Doubt it. I've personally never seen a cell company use Omni's. They always use Sectors. But I could be wrong.

I have no idea what this cylinder shaped thing is:

Looks a lot like the GPS controlled Microwave link I've seen on some of our huge towers that are owned by the local news station. If I'm right. It's got a Microwave link inside with GPS, And the news helicopter also has something similar, And the two use GPS to keep aligned with eachother as the chopper moves.

Charge controller, -54DC float charge, so probably running on -48v:

I'm sure, -48 is common for telco stuff.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Got called back up to the tower again. Brought my DSLR this time.
The view is pretty nice up here:
--snip--

Nice stuff! Looks like a neat place. Funny how that hut is just sitting on stilts lol. Crazy to see the guy wire leads though, never actually seen how they terminate. I imagine they have pretty deep sleeve anchors going right into the rock. Those probably take quite a lot of tension during storms.

That last pic is most likely the rectifiers, they convert the AC to DC at a specific voltage (-54 volt is typical) and keep the batteries topped up. I think the rule of thumb is 2.25v per cell. With telco DC systems it's actually -54 so your positive is actually the ground and the negative is treated like the positive, sorta. I forget exactly why, think it has to do with minimizing phone line corrosion.

The second last looks like some kind of generator control panel. Maybe switchgear, but I'm thinking generator control panel.

 

[FLECOM]

considering that stuff says Tyco all over them it could also be an OpenSky site

 

[omegatotal]

that pic shows 50A/48V 'rectifiers'

Also, its not as much the losses going from AC to DC its the losses converting DC to AC while running on backup power. Skipping the double conversion in a backup situation gives you a much greater run time.

There is also no issues with syncing the the modified or full sign wave of the UPS output to the actual AC line so the whole setup ends up being a bit less complicated in a way.


The panel with the switches/knobs looks like it is a manual control/test panel of some sort for the generator.

 

[Apachez]

Lots of Coax:

Im thinking about this one...

Looking at that wood-panel its used to isolate whatever is fastened on the wood from whatever the wood itself is fastened to.

You can also see some white isolators(?) being used there.

Now take a look to the right... this panel seems to be a grounding/earthing panel. To the right goes the ground/earth cable to the (supposed) ground/earth below.

Now, take a look at that cable, unisolated...

This unisolated cable goes to some iron or aluminium pipe, which is fastened to the same wall which the wooden plate is supposed to isolate against.

What were they thinking?

 

[Red Squirrel]

That is kinda strange. The building alone would act as a ground but is not a proper ground so they needed the ground cable anyway, so maybe it would cause a ground loop or other issues if the plate was not isolated from the building? I would imagine lightning strike is taken into strong consideration with these grounding systems.

 

[bds1904]

First off, those are bonds, not grounds. They are for noise isolation not electrical protection. if it was for electrical protection that copper cable would be a bus bar going inside.

Second, that grey pipe looks like pvc.

 

[itswag7]

Here is my setup...

Just moved into our new home and decided that it would be nice to "hide" the network gear. Unifi in the attic, raspberry pi based PBX, and some Cisco/Grandstream phones round out the setup.

 

[agrikk]

I moved out of state recently and my wooden 21U cabinet didn't get packed by the movers and was left behind. Mercifully they took all the gear out of it...

Any rate, it was an excuse to buy a 42U cabinet and get all of my gear in one place (all of my home gear- my data center gear lives on. )

So here's the new configuration:

Full frontal nudity:

UPSs, file server, two 24-core folders, 1U monitor and KVM switch

Switch, NSA4500 firewall, domain controller, 2x LTO4 tape unit, backup server, unused servers and switches

From the rear- half-assed cable management

Top rear - Comcast Business cable/phone hardware, Sonicwall firewall (used as a shelf), PDU and other bric-a-brac

 

[omegatotal]

thats allot of UPS and gear for one outlet

 

[Red Squirrel]

Wow that's a nice setup. 1 outlet is probably fine, if I had to take a wild guess I'd say that setup uses maybe 900 watts out of 1800 (or 2400 if it's a 20 amp). Might be a split outlet too.

 

[PigLover]

Wow that's a nice setup. 1 outlet is probably fine, if I had to take a wild guess I'd say that setup uses maybe 900 watts out of 1800 (or 2400 if it's a 20 amp). Might be a split outlet too.

The problem isn't what the system draws - its what the APCs will draw after an extended power failure kills the batteries. Guessing they are 1500KVA units - with batteries on charge they will draw 8-10amps each to recover the batteries and that 15A (or maybe 20A) circuit breaker will pop almost immediately.

 

[Red Squirrel]

The problem isn't what the system draws - its what the APCs will draw after an extended power failure kills the batteries. Guessing they are 1500KVA units - with batteries on charge they will draw 8-10amps each to recover the batteries and that 15A (or maybe 20A) circuit breaker will pop almost immediately.

Yeah true, I could see that potentially being an issue. Unless there's a way to set them to float only or current limit the charging then it may not be as bad of a hit. Longer time to recover if you do that though.

 

[FLECOM]

why do people leave spaces between servers like that? every time I see that it drives me crazy for some reason... but it totally screws up the whole hot/cold aisle design in data centers (obviously doesn't matter much here, but still)

 

[Grentz]

why do people leave spaces between servers like that? every time I see that it drives me crazy for some reason... but it totally screws up the whole hot/cold aisle design in data centers (obviously doesn't matter much here, but still)

Agreed, if you do leave spaces at least leave them 1U so you can put blanks in.

We do that with a few stacks where the servers are easier to slide in/out that way, but always use blanks.

 

[agrikk]

thats allot of UPS and gear for one outlet

It's actually three plugs into two outlets.

The problem isn't what the system draws - its what the APCs will draw after an extended power failure kills the batteries. Guessing they are 1500KVA units - with batteries on charge they will draw 8-10amps each to recover the batteries and that 15A (or maybe 20A) circuit breaker will pop almost immediately.

Each of the folder servers are on their own 1000KVA UPS (Smart-UPS 1000) while everything else is on the third UPS which is a Smart-UPS 1500. The pair of UPSes are on the visible plug which is a 20am outlet, while the other is on a 15amp circuit.

I've already experienced a blackout and maybe I was just lucky but neither circuit popped.

why do people leave spaces between servers like that? every time I see that it drives me crazy for some reason... but it totally screws up the whole hot/cold aisle design in data centers (obviously doesn't matter much here, but still)

This is strictly a result of home vs enterprise use:

Beleive me, I'd prefer to have a nice tight rack. (Look at the top of the rack compared to the bottom.) The problem is that I didn't have rack mounting gear for the 4U cases and have to use some cheapo universal shelf things that don't fit quite right. So I decided to leave a gap and decided to leave a single hole instead of an entire U to preserve space (two-ish U versus 4).

If I were in a data center I would have plenty of space, the proper shelf gear and budget for decent blanking panels. Not to mention hot/cold aisles to preserve...

Agreed, if you do leave spaces at least leave them 1U so you can put blanks in.

We do that with a few stacks where the servers are easier to slide in/out that way, but always use blanks in datacenters.

Fixed that for you.

Considering this cabinet is in my garage with no airflow other than natural convection from beneath the garage door to the side window left partially open, this was a design decision I did not make lightly. if I were to use blanks there would be even less airflow around my gear that already runs hot due to the nature of being folding rigs.

But yeah, a full 1U gap with a blanking panel is cleaner.

 

[FLECOM]

This is strictly a result of home vs enterprise use:

Beleive me, I'd prefer to have a nice tight rack. (Look at the top of the rack compared to the bottom.) The problem is that I didn't have rack mounting gear for the 4U cases and have to use some cheapo universal shelf things that don't fit quite right. So I decided to leave a gap and decided to leave a single hole instead of an entire U to preserve space (two-ish U versus 4).

fair enough, like I said here it doesn't really matter but I've seen it done in data centers and it drives me bonkers...

maybe I suffer from rack OCD?

 

[FLECOM]

posted this over in storage but I guess it belongs here too

got some stuff in the mail

initializing/testing

 

[LOCO LAPTOP]

I want to work where you work. I don't get the build much of anything cool or anything worth a damn for that matter lol. :/

 

[Blue Fox]

Not to burst your bubble or anything, but last I checked, that's his personal stuff, not work.

 

[FLECOM]

correct, I only post personal stuff...

all that is for my media server/www/mail/owncloud/etc

it is at a datacenter though, not at home...

 

[feffrey]

correct, I only post personal stuff...

all that is for my media server/www/mail/owncloud/etc

it is at a datacenter though, not at home...

I was wondering about the floor, does he really have a raised floor at home?!?!?!

My new R610s are nice and quiet. once I get my Hyper-V cluster going I can get rid of one of my noisy SuperMicro servers.

 

[FLECOM]

I am also getting ready to move servers around... replacing my R610 with 3x SunFire X4170's

want to sell off the R610 since it was going to be too expensive to get 2 more R610's... the X4170s are cool but man what a pain (FU Oracle), if they weren't so cheap I would not have bothered

not sure if I am going to go Hyper-V or VMWare

 

[Blue Fox]

I should be able to post some pics from my colo soon once I relocate everything my new cabinet at Cyrus One. Planned for later this month.

Wish I could post more pics from work since we have some respectable hardware, but alas, I like being gainfully employed. ~6000 disks across the 3PARs, Superdomes, and tape library that's in the hundreds of petabytes.

 

[FLECOM]

ya I am at a small (tiny) colo but it's a nice place... rent an office and a tiny corner to stick my 24U rack in lol

it's so hard to go home when you have gig internet at your desk!