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by tink!

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Boy do I feel stupid! I am not posting this on Facebook or Twitter, but I am sharing this with my TR family because you'll all have a good laugh.

My CEO's laptop suddenly wouldn't connect to the network, either at home or work. After trying several different things and doing alot of online research, I finally resorted to a System Restore to a point a few days before the breakdown.

The thing is, I had moved the laptop to another station - 1. to check that the it wasn't the jack or cable that had gone bad, 2. it was closer to my desk so I could do online research while working on the laptop too.

The system restore did seem to bring things back to normal on his laptop, but it still wasn't able to connect to the network. It kept attempting but not getting anything.

Today, my co-worker alerted me that she attempted to use the phone at that station but it was dead. This immediately raised a red flag in my brain. I checked behind the desk and followed the phone cord. Sure enough - I had unplugged the PHONE and had been trying to connect the laptop through the PHONE JACK instead of the Network jack!

I really gotta label the jacks alot clearer - and somewhere where I can SEE the labels!
Tink :p

21 replies

by gsg

Some years ago, I had a bunch of PCs that I used to test out configurations for Y2K.

Well, one day I needed to test a fix and attempted to power on one of the workstations, but the stupid thing didn't turn on. It was under warranty so I filled out a work order and placed it on the shelf to go back to HP. I went to the next workstation, and it had the same issue, and the next!

I had moved them the previous day from the floor to my other desk and forgot to plug them in. It's kind of hard to power them on when they aren't plugged in. When I unhooked them from the switch box, etc... For some reason, it didn't connect in my brain until the 3rd pc that I wasn't unhooking the power cables before I moved them.

by santeewelding

I only recently realized that to unplug the router from the power strip for 30 seconds, I don't have to put on scuba gear to reach the power strip.

The cord has two ends. One plugs into the back of the router on top of my desk.

by fregeus

..how many times I called to have my password reset on a system, only to realize that I was trying to log on to a different system with different credentials.

;-)

TCB

by mafergus

Kept working to rebuild a configuration on a machine. I (oops he) would get 80% done then all the files would disappear! It only took three times for him to realize that he was rebuilding on the replication slave drive instead of the master.

by nicknielsen

White for voice, blue for data.

It's good to know I'm not the only one who can make a stupid mistake. I had replaced the mainboard in a point of sale controller, and needed to flash the BIOS from floppy to bring it up to date.

I booted the PC, but it didn't access the floppy. No problem, go into the BIOS and enable the floppy, except the floppy was already enabled. Tried again, still not accessing the floppy. I figured I had a mainboard with a bad floppy port, so I went out to the van and got another mainboard.

Went back in, popped the top on the PC, and saw the floppy controller cable folded back on itself, with the mainboard end on top...connected to air. Plugged the cable in and up it came. Kind of embarrassing, since the customer was there watching me every second.

Oh, well, there are two kinds of techs: those who have made a stupid mistake, and those who will.

by hal 9000

To connect to the Internet after the cleaner pulled a Cat cable out of the socket and plugged it into the wrong one just above where it should have been.

I kept insisting that I though that the line was dead and not in use but was told it had always been that way. Eventually when I traced the wire back I found a disconnected line and the one below it hot. Only took a few seconds after I stopped listening to the Owner who was telling me what was right and wrong. :^0

But talk about wasted hours messing around with something that couldn't work. ;)

I did however get to mark all of the used Jacks in the place after that so that issue didn't happen again. :D

Col

by tink!

unfortunately I doubt the company will want to spend the money on replacing all the ports at this time. Too bad I wasn't around when they were first installed!

I'd opt for different colored cables, but I already got them to buy a spool of Cat5e. Of course it's gray, and so are all the phone cables.

I'll probably resign myself to sticking labels on the cables. :)

by nicknielsen

If they do, replace the ports as people call for "can't connect" issues. "Well, they didn't disconnect the network cable, and when they slid the desk along the wall, it broke both the cable and the port..."

In other words, make the change, but sneak it in under the radar. Until then, labels is what you got. :D

I'm faced with a slightly different problem: fixed port assignments on switches. SOP when a port goes bad is not to use a different port, but to change out the switch. Excuse me?

by tink!

apparently quite some time ago since the phone system has got to be over a decade old!

This definitely teaches me to not change cords blindly by hand. :D

by gsg

Or, failing that, you could get a colored Sharpie and outline the port in that color. Not a great solution, but if you can't buy the colored ports, then as you work on equipment, it would be a fairly simple matter to mark them.

by tink!

Great idea! Especially since it's not so much marking the ports themselves, but marking the cables in a spot where I'd see them.

This office (again I wasn't here at the time they moved in) is arranged so that just about every port is up and behind the desk. Rather than lay on my back on the floor to see the ports, I often feel by hand and do whatever it is blind.

by santeewelding

Don't tell me: you work in the office of the United States Treasury. You reaching behind and switching things blind are the cause of it all!

by gsg

We had to put a special dedicated switch box in a shared wiring closet for our fetal monitor strips in OB. To make sure that we kept the cables going to the right box, we used a special color that is only used for OB systems. Can you guess what that color is?

Yes, it's pink. We placed a lable on the switch that reads "Pink Cables Only", so if someone is called out in the middle of the night and is half asleep they won't accidentally plug a cable into the wrong box.

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