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Mysterious ProblemsOne of the most common frustrations that I've had over the many years that I've been involved with networking is the sometimes mysterious problems that users have had. The problems are never repeatable, seem to happen at random, and all of the routine efforts come to naught. Everybody is scratching their head, repeating the SE's mantra, "It SHOULD work." Remember to consider a couple of areas that are rarely thought of by your average networking guy. Power and sloppy cabling. Everyone thinks they have clean power. You'd be surprised. I once had a customer in a Loop office building who insisted that, because he was plugged into the red plugs on his wall, he had nothing to worry about. Meanwhile, his critical systems were crashing every week, for no apparent reason. And he was getting a little steamed. I insisted that he get a power monitor in to eliminate power as the problem. He balked, but I essentially told him that I wasn't going to return his calls unless he did what I suggested. (Sometimes you just have to use a little tough love.) He relented and I brought in a consulting firm that knew about power. Sure enough, after a few days of monitoring this allegedly "clean" power line, they found problems - a floating ground. I called the customer back a few weeks later and he sheepishly admitted that they were having no more problems. The same thing applies to cable. It isn't like stringing phone or speaker wire! Data transfer is very delicate and susceptible to disruption caused by even the slightest connection problem. I remember the first network I sold, back in 1987. It used thin Ethernet cable and we had the misfortune of having an engineering firm as a client. The network went in OK and everything was smooth for a few days. Then things went totally wacky, to the point that we knew it was the cabling. I called the contractor and he went out to take a look. He found some new cabling in one office that "...isn't mine. I don't know where it came from." The initial responses to the questions he asked were a lot of responses along the lines of "I dunno." After torture, we found that one of the engineers wanted to move his desk farther from the wall and, in true Dilbert fashion, went to Radio Shack and got some more cable. It looked like the stuff going into the back of his TV set and he figured it would be a no-brainer. After more physical abuse and setting up armed guards, the problem was solved. Today, nobody uses thin Ethernet anymore, but you have other problems. The tools used to crimp the plugs for unshielded twisted pair wire have to be used properly. A good, experienced, data cable contractor knows how to do this. The hair on the back of my neck rises whenever I hear about a client having problems with cabling that they, or their nephew installed - and crimped. So if you have mysterious problems and you are getting frustrated - think power and cable.
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