Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Way behind schedule

I had it all planned out - 200m of new cat 5e solid core cable, wife & kids out for the day, everything ready to go. By the time they got home later I intended to have all 8 network ports rewired through the walls (dbl brick) & connected to the server gear which will soon reside in the hall cupboard instead of taking up the spare bedroom. I'm replacing the old paired cat 5 with 5e as part of the process.

So I start pulling up the first of the old cables, and the join breaks. And two hours later I'm still trying to fish the bloody end with a string & weighted hook, something I've done many, many times over the years with ease. It doesn't help that the waste pipe for the aircon runs along the top of the cavity, nor that the roof is in the shade & still damp, nor that the sunlight is in my eyes and the torch has no appreciable effect.

I've paused for brekky & a coffee now, and then I'll get that sucker pulled up the cavity if I have to use levitation.

For the rest, I'm going to solder the bloody joins in a lump. Watch THAT break.

Edit: 30 seconds after posting this I hooked the network cable on the first attempt. See, it DOES pay to whinge aloud.

Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)

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