snorthc@pokey.nswc.navy.mil (Stephen Northcutt) (08/17/90)
The organization here is modeled after the feudal (futile?) system. Every group of 10 or more workers is their own empire with their own network. Of course we keep a central organization (my group) so that there is someone to blame when things go wrong. The problem I am seeking help with is spaghetti cabling. All these little nets, and subnets, and multi-port repeaters and bridges and routers are hard to keep track of. Especially since many groups want their own cable. So along the halls are many strands of cable, the older cables are not even labled, but we don't allow that anymore. We would be too far gone to be saved except for one thing. The ceiling insulation here is asbestos (cough cough). So soon we have to move out, while they disbestos us. As part of that effort the contractors are going to rip out all of the wires. When we rewire, we want to be much smarter about how we do it. One thing that might help is colored cable. I know where to get thick ethernet in yellow, blue, metallic yellow and orange. Does anyone know of a source for thinnet (rg-58a) in colors. Yes, we will have labels, but it would be better to have some idea what a cable does, at any point. Also, then the Autocad drawings we make could be adjusted to match cables. It would also be better for phone support... instead of "are you on the 48 or the 49 subnet", we could ask "are you connected to the blue cable or the yellow cable". Finally, we could assign groups that give us a lot of grief *special* colors. Thank You =================================================================== Stephen Northcutt (snorthc@relay.nswc.navy.mil) Work: (703) 663-7745 Home: (703) 371-4184 Paper Mail: Code E41, NSWC, Dahlgren VA 22448
kwe@bu-it.bu.edu (Kent England) (08/18/90)
In article <1990Aug16.201204.15627@relay.nswc.navy.mil>, snorthc@pokey.nswc.navy.mil (Stephen Northcutt) writes: > > The problem I am seeking help with is spaghetti cabling. All > these little nets, and subnets, and multi-port repeaters and > bridges and routers are hard to keep track of. Especially > since many groups want their own cable. So along the halls > are many strands of cable, the older cables are not even labled, > but we don't allow that anymore. > > ... > When we rewire, we want to be much smarter about how we do it. > One thing that might help is colored cable. You have stumbled on the reason why so many of us are enamored of Ethernet on twisted pair. One subnet: one multiport concentrator. Someone wants to move to another subnet? No problem. Where is the other end of this wire? No problem. What color wire is it? Who cares? We tried designer colored thick net two years ago. We installed six cables throughout the building with barrel connectors here and there. Very modular and adaptable. But we gave up and went to UTP Ethernet and then to 10BaseT. There are nice adaptors that convert from thin to 10BaseT and I don't mean baluns. You can mix in thin-net, but you don't have to run thin coax in the walls. You can afford it. Hell, you can't afford not to. --Kent