2 Ethernet cabling question

[James McKenzie]

On 12/25/10 9:23 PM, Tim wrote:
> On Sat, 2010-12-25 at 12:51 -0800, Joe Zeff wrote:
>> Part of the trouble-shooting was making sure there weren't any cabling
>> issues, so the client brought out an electrician.  Not only weren't
>> the colors on the cable standard, they were different at each end!
>> Our only guess was that there was a splice down in the pipe because
>> whoever'd run the cable had run out of one batch and simply spliced on
>> another.
> Our phone lines do that, thanks to a plumber putting his oxy-acetelene
> torch through the wires a bit near a pipe he cut through.
If he was using oxy-acetylene, he did not know what he was doing or he 
was working with welded iron pipe.  Most plumbers use propane or 
oxy-propane as it cannot overheat copper piping.

>    He could have
> lifted the wires away, but he didn't.  And some of the pairs were so
> badly corroded, that it was impossible to re-splice them, no matter how
> far back we stripped the insulation.
>
Replace the ENTIRE run.  NEVER splice, and I mean NEVER splice, LAN 
cabling.  You might have crossover problems and you might not notice the 
loss in bandwidth until you hit 20MB+ connection speeds and then things 
get very 'interesting'.  Yes, it is a PITA to do so, but in the long run 
you will be happier.

(BTW, who ran your cables, they should not be near plumbing anyway.)

James McKenzie