Network pics thread

Everything is like over 1k. I looked at Netguardian and a few others, but they're pricy!

The Arduino board was like 30 bucks. If I need more inputs (like double what I have) I could get the "mega" version which is still under 100 bucks. So given this is custom hardware I pretty much have to write the software for it, but it will be pretty simple.

There are some open source options. I've been toying a lot with this sort of thing recently and have "almost" settled on http://domotiga.nl/ it has a whole bunch of modules for hooking into various types of device (I guess massive overkill if all you intend to do is monitor a few environmental bits... but I wouldn't be surprised if you find yourself in a similar position to I- wanting to pull power consumptions, network usage statistics, filerserver stats, sonos usage, and just about anything else with a pulse!
 
^^ interesting....



inside of the netscreen 1000
netscreen.jpg


pretty much an antique.

its a 603 xeon(though the board is dual 604)

pretty impossible to upgrade from what I can tell to anything usefull(1.8ghz xeon 1c 533 fsb) as everything has a higher tdp

I did just order ram for it, to go from 256MB to 2gb based off the approved mem list from supermicro

its a supermicro x5dpe-g2 which is a intel 7501 chipset board
 
oh really ? and it being 4 feet underground in a conduit is suppose to be bad ?

it can still attract lightning.

though I had cat5 sitting out on a roof before and it was 3 years before it took a lightning hit that fried the AP is was attached to.


might be worth it to get something like this:
http://www.metrix.net/cat-5-lightning-arrestor-p-23.html
http://www.provantage.com/minuteman-mms-cat6-lan~7MTMN0HC.htm
http://www.plccenter.com/Shop/LCOM/BTCAT5P1/NSPP?source=GoogleShopping

for each end to protect the gear
 
it can still attract lightning.

though I had cat5 sitting out on a roof before and it was 3 years before it took a lightning hit that fried the AP is was attached to.


might be worth it to get something like this:
http://www.metrix.net/cat-5-lightning-arrestor-p-23.html
http://www.provantage.com/minuteman-mms-cat6-lan~7MTMN0HC.htm
http://www.plccenter.com/Shop/LCOM/BTCAT5P1/NSPP?source=GoogleShopping

for each end to protect the gear

Those won't do jack if the shed isn't properly earth grounded.
 
*explanation of potential difference between buildings* (the real reason you shouldn't join buildings with copper).

and *covered in blood* lol.
 
it can still attract lightning.

though I had cat5 sitting out on a roof before and it was 3 years before it took a lightning hit that fried the AP is was attached to.


might be worth it to get something like this:
http://www.metrix.net/cat-5-lightning-arrestor-p-23.html
http://www.provantage.com/minuteman-mms-cat6-lan~7MTMN0HC.htm
http://www.plccenter.com/Shop/LCOM/BTCAT5P1/NSPP?source=GoogleShopping

for each end to protect the gear

I don't need this, and the shed is not a shed, its a huge garage, with full electrical & proper grounding. Lightning in this area is like worrying about us all running out of air.
 
Actually lightning protection is one of those things I really need to look into more. While all my stuff is on a UPS that also has built in surge protection, and failing that the cheap surge strips do provide a certain degree of protection as well, but I probably need to look at something more, and make sure I'm also protecting phone and cable TV. Cable TV is probably the worse as it's straight in, there's no carbon protector or anything. so that hits the TV (2k bye bye) and possibly can then travel through the rest of the home electrical or ethernet that is plugged into the TV.
 
Cable TV, as a utility, should be bonded to your home earth ground, per NEC. That said, it doesn't hurt to have extra protection on the CPE side.
 
*explanation of potential difference between buildings* (the real reason you shouldn't join buildings with copper).

and *covered in blood* lol.

This issue only exists if the grounds aren't common doesn't it?
 
Actually lightning protection is one of those things I really need to look into more. While all my stuff is on a UPS that also has built in surge protection, and failing that the cheap surge strips do provide a certain degree of protection as well, but I probably need to look at something more, and make sure I'm also protecting phone and cable TV. Cable TV is probably the worse as it's straight in, there's no carbon protector or anything. so that hits the TV (2k bye bye) and possibly can then travel through the rest of the home electrical or ethernet that is plugged into the TV.

Cable TV, as a utility, should be bonded to your home earth ground, per NEC. That said, it doesn't hurt to have extra protection on the CPE side.

yeah both my cable and dish are tied to my ground. I would personally do the same with that cat5 of dash's but I understand the 'ugh thats 120 bucks' mentality

the grounds for the coax were like 10 bucks a piece


you are more likely to lose a tv to a lightning hit on your house, not the buried cable line obviously. I looked into it for my house when I moved in, but a proper system was 4 figures and I was broke
 
Cable TV, as a utility, should be bonded to your home earth ground, per NEC. That said, it doesn't hurt to have extra protection on the CPE side.

I think it is by default as the plug (metal) is ground and contacts the chassis of whatever equipment which is grounded. But this wont do anything if the lightning hits the "hot" side of it. Ex: burns right through ground and electrifies the center core. Lightning being as powerful as it is will most likely arc all over the place and not just stick to that puny little ground mesh. Though that does make me wonder if it should be explicitly grounded right at the entrance, because in my case it's not. Probably would not hurt to do so. In fact I should probably ground my entire rack, while it is grounded through all the equipment chassis, it would not hurt to run a nice fat ground cable lug to it right from the panel. I should probably ground the negative side of the backup batteries too while I'm at it.
 
I have ran into this issue before. The ground differential between two buildings was several thousand volts. After burning up 10 or so switches we set up a wireless bridge.
 
You ignore safe wiring and grounding practice at your own peril. Maybe you never have a problem...or maybe you do. At best, you lose a switch or two before you fix it. At worst you burn your dads house down...

I don't know how you figure, we did about 50-70 feet of cat6 under ground from house to shed, lightning in this city is a Very rare thing. Second the sheds power feed is from he house not off a different feed. So if you think you know what your talking about lets hear what you have to say..

And btw the quoted text I quoted was so not true, I can see mili volts but not thousands of volts, that doesn't make sense at all..
 
I have ran into this issue before. The ground differential between two buildings was several thousand volts. After burning up 10 or so switches we set up a wireless bridge.

What were the amps like? With proper metals used on both sides (copper and nickel I think?) this has great potential for power generation. :p
 
I don't know how you figure, we did about 50-70 feet of cat6 under ground from house to shed, lightning in this city is a Very rare thing. Second the sheds power feed is from he house not off a different feed. So if you think you know what your talking about lets hear what you have to say..

And btw the quoted text I quoted was so not true, I can see mili volts but not thousands of volts, that doesn't make sense at all..

Yeah since you have a ground from the house think you are fine. Pretty sure this is code too, you need to use the same ground, you can't put a separate grounding rod. So you did well.
 
Yeah since you have a ground from the house think you are fine. Pretty sure this is code too, you need to use the same ground, you can't put a separate grounding rod. So you did well.


Well I have done this lots before, if the main feed for the shop wasn't from the house I would have done what was suggested already but the feed is from the same breaker in the house.

Fiber cost's way to much, if he had more money in his pocket and the conduit had nothing in it, then we might have gone fibre, but no need. The cat6 is just for the wap in the house, nothing else.

I think he did fine, I would have done a similar thing.


thanks :)
 
Did a few changes to the rack. Moved the shelf holding my hvac relay controller down a few notches, adding a second DIN rail and moved the enviromental server up (it was in the middle before).



Also added a ground, 5v and 12v output on the server which will feed terminals on the secondary DIN rail. Rather than splicing the ground and +5v off circuit boards to feed all the sensors, I will just have a bunch of DIN terminal blocks fed from the server's PSU. I will also be feeding the circuit boards from there too instead of using their own power adapter. That way shutting down that server shuts down any type of automation system I may add, such as the relay control board for the furnace. Basically, if that server craps out and shuts down, there is less chance of the furnace relay being stuck in the open position, for example. Since it's summer, it's a good time to mess around with this as I can afford the downtime.

Overall this will make for a cleaner setup than what you see there with the crude solder splices. I will be adding a bunch of other sensors too as I got an arduino board to mess around with now. Going to incorporate smoke detectors, gas sensors, flood sensors and other environmental stuff. This is going to look pretty interesting once everything is wired up. I'm sure it's not too often a DIN rail is seen in a server rack. :D
 

Potential Difference could be an issue if the two buldings have different grounding

A basic static shock can be 10,000v and that will kill a switchport.

If one building builds up more voltage than the other building it will simply travel via the easiest path... the copper CAT6 cable.

As long as its grounded ok you shoudl be fine.
 
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Well I have done this lots before, if the main feed for the shop wasn't from the house I would have done what was suggested already but the feed is from the same breaker in the house.

Fiber cost's way to much, if he had more money in his pocket and the conduit had nothing in it, then we might have gone fibre, but no need. The cat6 is just for the wap in the house, nothing else.




thanks :)

with the lack of equipment involved Im sure you will be fine.

and good call about the buildings sharing a ground, hadn't thought about that.

everything I deal with at work has its own ground rods due to lightning hits on 300 ft towers :p
 
Even lightning striking in the area is no bueno. I've had this happen to my dog's electric fence. No, it doesn't shock the dog. However, it was enough to make about 50 feet of high gauge (thin) wire disappear. It also destroyed the transmitter, and blew its power pack off of the wall.

I've also seen this with cable cowboys who install outdoor speakers. They bury speaker cable, which becomes a lightning path back to the amplifier, which is connected to the a/v receiver, connected to the TV, you get the idea.

It's also common with lazy CaTV and Satellite installers who do not run proper grounding.

I get a lot of lightning here in the midwest, though.

More than just a switchport is at stake.
 
Lightning is nothing I care about right now, not even going to worry about it at all..!


LETS GET BACK TO POSTING PICTURES!
 
Got some new goodies in today. I ordered this 6248P off of ebay. actually i ordered a 6224 but got a 6248, i'll take it :D

7444682540_d391296d2d_c.jpg


7444688058_0316e88e00_b.jpg


Needs some SFP's
7444687822_df66824253_c.jpg
 
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