Re: Wireless (WiFi) MOS equivalent?

2016-03-21 Thread Scott Helms 
Jim,

There isn't such an animal and that's because the notion of an opinion
score for voice is pretty easy to quantify, but a good WiFi experience
depends a lot more on what you find to be acceptable for your deployment
and that normally depends a lot on your budget.  What we do is determine
what our target metrics are and then measure to that, most of the
commercial APs and controllers can provide all this data, average speed,
clients per AP, average RSSI, number of associations and auths per minute,
and error counts.  The reason you can't just get an industry standardized
score is that while most conferences are happy if the average PHY speed is
over 6 mbps that's clearly bad in an enterprise service.


Scott Helms
Chief Technology Officer
ZCorum
(678) 507-5000

http://twitter.com/kscotthelms


On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 1:54 PM, Jim Wininger  wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> Is there a WiFi equivalent to the VoIP MOS score?
>
> We are looking for a way to measure performance of a fairly large WiFi
> deployment.
>
> We have 8000+ access points (All Cisco). WE have the standard Cisco tools
> for managing the wireless network (ISE, Prime etc). But we are coming up
> short with a way to “score” the network.
>
> Does anyone have experience with this that might be able to help? How do
> large conferences “measure” wireless service quality etc? We are already
> doing end user surveys etc. We have “soft date”, we really need data points.
>
> —Jim

Re: 10G tester recommendation

2016-03-21 Thread Eric Litvin 
Yes Darrell   We have a 19" rackmount 1U optical channel monitoring.  Unit 
plugs into the monitor port of the Mux and enables DWDM Channel Monitoring - 
i.e power levels and OSNR.  It can be accessed remotely over SNMP. 

Regards,

Eric Litvin
650 996 7270
e...@lumaoptics.net
PROGRAMMABLE SFP XFP QSFP CFP



> On Mar 21, 2016, at 8:04 AM, Darrell Budic  wrote:
> 
> Eric, saw this on the NANOG lists, figured I’d ask. I’m looking for a device 
> to set on the monitor port of a DWDM mux and provide statistics over an 
> attached network interface via SNMP or cli. Do you have such a product, or 
> know of one?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
>  -Darrell
> 
> 
>> On Mar 20, 2016, at 3:38 PM, Eric Litvin  wrote:
>> 
>> Manuel- my company, luma optics,  has a handheld  to offer at a very 
>> affordable price relative to the big brands. It would be my pleasure to 
>> follow up with you to discuss further.
>> 
>> Regards
>> 
>> Eric Litvin
>> 650 996 7270
>> e...@lumaoptics.net
>> PROGRAMMABLE SFP XFP QSFP CFP & Optical Test Equipment
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> On Mar 20, 2016, at 11:58 AM, Manuel Marín  wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi Nanog community
>>> 
>>> 
>>> We are looking 10G testers for BER and RFC2544 tests and I was wondering if
>>> additional to the JDSU/Viavi, is there something else that you can
>>> recommend like Exfo, Fluke, etc?
>>> 
>>> Your input will be appreciate it
>>> 
>>> Thank you and have a great day
>

Re: Oh dear, we've all been made redundant...

2016-03-21 Thread Tony Finch 
Warren Kumari  wrote:

> Found on Staple's website:
> http://www.staples.com/NetReset-Automated-Power-Cycler-for-Modems-and-Routers/product_1985686

http://thedailywtf.com/articles/ITAPPMONROBOT

Tony.
-- 
f.anthony.n.finchhttp://dotat.at/  -  I xn--zr8h punycode
Viking, North Utsire: Northwesterly 5 to 7, decreasing 4 later. Moderate or
rough. Occasional rain. Moderate or good.

RE: Internet Exchanges supporting jumbo frames?

2016-03-21 Thread Chuck Church 
-Original Message-
From: NANOG [mailto:nanog-boun...@nanog.org] On Behalf Of Tim McKee

>The factor of 6 was just in reduction of overhead.  Granted in the greater
scheme of things the overall 4% is relatively insignificant, but there have
been many times when doing >multiple 10-100+GB transfers that I would have
welcomed a 4% reduction of time spent twiddling thumbs!


The 4% increase in available bandwidth is only part of the equation though.
I would think that having to encap/decap 1/6 the number of packets(frames)
from host to host and all routers/switches along the way would be
beneficial, especially since some of these could be processing these in
software.  Certainly if there are FW or IPS involved.  I'm not sure about
the host side of things, but I'm guessing there would be efficiency
increases there as well.

Chuck

RE: DataCenter color-coding cabling schema

2016-03-21 Thread STARNES, CURTIS 
Just to throw it out there but I always try not to use RED cable.
Normally, RED wire in any building is dedicated as FIRE system cabling.


Curtis Starnes
Senior Network Administrator
Granbury ISD
600 W. Bridge St. Ste. 40
Granbury, Texas  76048
(817) 408-4104
(817) 408-4126 Fax
curtis.star...@granburyisd.org
www.granburyisd.org 
 
 

OPEN RECORDS NOTICE: This email and responses may be subject to Texas Open 
Records laws and may be disclosed to the public upon request. 



-Original Message-
From: NANOG [mailto:nanog-boun...@nanog.org] On Behalf Of Owen DeLong
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2016 7:10 PM
To: Yardiel Fuentes 
Cc: nanog@nanog.org
Subject: Re: DataCenter color-coding cabling schema

I don’t know of any universal standards, but I’ve used the following in several 
installatins I was responsible for to good avail:

Twisted Pair:

RED:Untrusted Network (Internet or possibly DMZ)
YELLOW: Optional for DMZ networks though I preferred to avoid documented in [1] 
below
BLUE:   Trusted Network (back-end, internal, etc.)
GREEN:  RS-232 straight-thru
PURPLE: RS-232 X-Over (effectively Null Modem) 12345678 <-> 87654321 pin map.
ORANGE: Ethernet X-Over (Best avoided documented in [2] below)
GREY:   Special purpose cabling not in one of the above categories

Fiber:
Orange — Multimode Fiber
Yellow — Singlemode Fiber

The absolute most useful thing you can do if you can impose the discipline to 
update the cable map rigorously and/or allocate manpower for periodic audits is 
to apply a unique serial number to each cable. I preferred to document not only 
the cable ID, but also the length. For the installations where I have worked, 5 
digits was sufficient unique ID, so I used formats like I-L[.L] where I 
was a unique ID and L.L was the length of the cable in feet. (e.g. 00123-6.5 is 
cable number 123 which is 6.5 feet in length).

The labels are (ideally) the self-laminating wrap-around types. I prefer the 
Brady labeling system which will automatically print 2-4 (depending on font 
size) instances of the label text on the self-laminating label such that it can 
be read from virtually any side of the cable without requiring you to rotate 
the label into view in most cases.

The Brady labeling system is a bit overpriced compared to the Brother P-Touch, 
but the expanded capabilities and the quality of the label adhesives and such 
is, IMHO, sufficiently superior to justify the cost.

Whatever you do, please do not use Flag labels on cables… I HATE THEM. They are 
a constant source of entanglement and snags. They often get knocked off as a 
result or mangled beyond recognition, rendering them useless.

Similarly, I’ve found that circuit-ID and end-point labels on cables are often 
ill-maintained, so if you do use them, please make sure you remove them when 
the cable is moved/removed.

The length is very useful because it gives you a radius within which the other 
end of the cable must be located and you can usually expect it to be reasonably 
close to the outer edge of that radius.

More than a few times I’ve prevented a serious outage by giving the port number 
to the remote hands guy and then insisting that he read me the cable ID. “No, 
try the other port FE-0/2/4… You’re off by one. It’s above/left/right/below 
you.”

[1] I prefer to avoid Yellow cables because some people have trouble 
understanding that Yellow Fiber and Yellow UTP might have different meanings. I 
also feel that the distinction between UNTRUSTED and DMZ networks is usually 
not all that important in most cabling situations. YMMV.

[2] In this era of Auto-MDI/MDI-X ports and the like, it’s very rare to 
encounter a situation that truly requires a crossover cable with no viable 
alternative. If such is needed, I prefer to document it on the cable tags 
rather than using a special color code. Again, you have the risk of people not 
understanding that orange Fiber might not mean what Orange copper means. YMMV

Yes, I know you can now get virtually any type of fiber in virtually any color, 
but the simple fact of the matter remains that when you send skippy out to buy 
emergency jumpers or such, you’re most likely going to either get orange 
multimode or yellow singlemode and that’s just the way it is.

Owen

> On Mar 12, 2016, at 11:11 , Yardiel Fuentes  wrote:
> 
> Hello Nanog-ers,
> 
> Have any of you had the option or; conversely, do you know of “best 
> practices" or “common standards”,  to color code physical cabling for 
> your connections in DataCenters for Base-T and FX connections? If so, 
> Could you share  any ttype of color-coding schema you are aware of ?…. 
> Yes, this is actually considering paying for customized color-coded 
> cabling in a Data Center...
> 
> Mr. Google did not really provide me with relevant answers on the 
> above… beyond the typical (Orange is for MMF, yellow for SMF, etc)…
> 
> Any reasons for or against it welcome too...
> 
> --
> Yardiel Fuentes

Re: Charter DDOS scrubbing.

2016-03-21 Thread Joe Chisolm 

One option is to do it yourself.  Contact some of the ddos vendors.  I know 
RioRey ( www.riorey.com ) has mb, gb and 10g+ products and a scrubbing center.

On 03/18/2016 03:34 PM, Ethan E. Dee wrote:

Globalvision is an ISP in greenville sc.
We are currently peering with two other ISP's we have a gig link with charter and are getting hammered quite hard with a full gig and more of DDoS on SIP, DNS, NTP, and other random UDP traffic. Alot of folks have said that charter will do DDoS scrubbing. Charter however is telling me they 
absolutely cannot offer this service.

Does anyone have any info on contacting charter or who to bug about this to get 
it in the works? Or does any know for certain that there's no reason to even 
ask?


--
Joe Chisolm
Computer Translations, Inc.
Marble Falls, Tx.

RE: Oh dear, we've all been made redundant...

2016-03-21 Thread Chuck Church 
Uggghhh.  I've always hated this 'reboot, see if it fixes it' methodology.  If 
the CPEs can't recover from error conditions correctly, they shouldn't be used. 
 I blame Microsoft for making this concept acceptable.  LOL.

Chuck

-Original Message-
From: NANOG [mailto:nanog-boun...@nanog.org] On Behalf Of Mike
Sent: Sunday, March 20, 2016 1:22 PM
To: nanog@nanog.org
Subject: Re: Oh dear, we've all been made redundant...


This is great, I now have something I can show to my customers to confirm that 
all this power cycling and such really is an 'accepted problem'...

On 03/19/2016 04:16 PM, Warren Kumari wrote:
> Found on Staple's website:
> http://www.staples.com/NetReset-Automated-Power-Cycler-for-Modems-and-
> Routers/product_1985686
>
> Fixes all issues, less downtime, less stress...
> Improves performance, eliminates buffering...
> It slices, it dices in teeny, tiny slices.
> It makes mounds of julienne fries in just seconds.
> ...
>
> Description - copied here for convenience:
>
> All the issues associated with the Internet being down can be solved 
> by power cycling the modem and router. But that can be hard to do! 
> NetReset resolves network issues by offering sequential power cycling. 
> This means that when the modem and router are plugged into the device, 
> they are powered up at different times. The modem is powered up first, 
> then a minute later, the router is powered up. This rebooting will 
> occur at initial setup, every 24 hours and after a power failure. Do 
> you have a modem/router combo? No problem! NetReset will also power cycle the 
> modem/router combo.
>
>
> Automatically resets user's Internet every 24 hours Maximizes Internet 
> speed & reliability Eliminates media stream buffering Hands-free 
> Internet reset Resets hard-to-reach modem/router Less Internet 
> downtime Less daily stress No need to manually reset Reset occurs at 
> programmed time Updated information from Internet service provider 
> Proper reboot after a power failure Resetting allows equipment to 
> auto-correct issues
>
>

Re: Oh dear, we've all been made redundant...

2016-03-21 Thread Ken Chase 
"how many times did he reboot it?" "once."  "well, i think he needs to try a
few more times."

The Website Is Down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRGljemfwUE#t=6m30s

(old but good.)

/kc


On Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 01:06:35PM -0400, Chuck Church said:
  >Uggghhh.  I've always hated this 'reboot, see if it fixes it' methodology.  
If the CPEs can't recover from error conditions correctly, they shouldn't be 
used.  I blame Microsoft for making this concept acceptable.  LOL.
  >
  >Chuck
  >
  >-Original Message-
  >From: NANOG [mailto:nanog-boun...@nanog.org] On Behalf Of Mike
  >Sent: Sunday, March 20, 2016 1:22 PM
  >To: nanog@nanog.org
  >Subject: Re: Oh dear, we've all been made redundant...
  >
  >
  >This is great, I now have something I can show to my customers to confirm 
that all this power cycling and such really is an 'accepted problem'...
  >
  >On 03/19/2016 04:16 PM, Warren Kumari wrote:
  >> Found on Staple's website:
  >> http://www.staples.com/NetReset-Automated-Power-Cycler-for-Modems-and-
  >> Routers/product_1985686
  >>
  >> Fixes all issues, less downtime, less stress...
  >> Improves performance, eliminates buffering...
  >> It slices, it dices in teeny, tiny slices.
  >> It makes mounds of julienne fries in just seconds.
  >> ...
  >>
  >> Description - copied here for convenience:
  >>
  >> All the issues associated with the Internet being down can be solved 
  >> by power cycling the modem and router. But that can be hard to do! 
  >> NetReset resolves network issues by offering sequential power cycling. 
  >> This means that when the modem and router are plugged into the device, 
  >> they are powered up at different times. The modem is powered up first, 
  >> then a minute later, the router is powered up. This rebooting will 
  >> occur at initial setup, every 24 hours and after a power failure. Do 
  >> you have a modem/router combo? No problem! NetReset will also power cycle 
the modem/router combo.
  >>
  >>
  >> Automatically resets user's Internet every 24 hours Maximizes Internet 
  >> speed & reliability Eliminates media stream buffering Hands-free 
  >> Internet reset Resets hard-to-reach modem/router Less Internet 
  >> downtime Less daily stress No need to manually reset Reset occurs at 
  >> programmed time Updated information from Internet service provider 
  >> Proper reboot after a power failure Resetting allows equipment to 
  >> auto-correct issues
  >>
  >>
  >

--
Ken Chase - m...@sizone.org

Re: Oh dear, we've all been made redundant...

2016-03-21 Thread Bacon Zombie 
Every time I have to ring about my home internet the first think they ask
be to do is reboot the modem and then connect via cable and check the link
light is green.

Had to fight with them before since the  *FRITZ!**Box* they supplied did
not have network link LEDs. Also I know it was a PPPoE auth  issue looking
at the pcap from the router.

Still did not stop them from insisting it was a modem issues and sent me
out 3 replacements.
On 21 Mar 2016 18:33, "Ken Chase"  wrote:

> "how many times did he reboot it?" "once."  "well, i think he needs to try
> a
> few more times."
>
> The Website Is Down: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRGljemfwUE#t=6m30s
>
> (old but good.)
>
> /kc
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 01:06:35PM -0400, Chuck Church said:
>   >Uggghhh.  I've always hated this 'reboot, see if it fixes it'
> methodology.  If the CPEs can't recover from error conditions correctly,
> they shouldn't be used.  I blame Microsoft for making this concept
> acceptable.  LOL.
>   >
>   >Chuck
>   >
>   >-Original Message-
>   >From: NANOG [mailto:nanog-boun...@nanog.org] On Behalf Of Mike
>   >Sent: Sunday, March 20, 2016 1:22 PM
>   >To: nanog@nanog.org
>   >Subject: Re: Oh dear, we've all been made redundant...
>   >
>   >
>   >This is great, I now have something I can show to my customers to
> confirm that all this power cycling and such really is an 'accepted
> problem'...
>   >
>   >On 03/19/2016 04:16 PM, Warren Kumari wrote:
>   >> Found on Staple's website:
>   >>
> http://www.staples.com/NetReset-Automated-Power-Cycler-for-Modems-and-
>   >> Routers/product_1985686
>   >>
>   >> Fixes all issues, less downtime, less stress...
>   >> Improves performance, eliminates buffering...
>   >> It slices, it dices in teeny, tiny slices.
>   >> It makes mounds of julienne fries in just seconds.
>   >> ...
>   >>
>   >> Description - copied here for convenience:
>   >>
>   >> All the issues associated with the Internet being down can be solved
>   >> by power cycling the modem and router. But that can be hard to do!
>   >> NetReset resolves network issues by offering sequential power cycling.
>   >> This means that when the modem and router are plugged into the device,
>   >> they are powered up at different times. The modem is powered up first,
>   >> then a minute later, the router is powered up. This rebooting will
>   >> occur at initial setup, every 24 hours and after a power failure. Do
>   >> you have a modem/router combo? No problem! NetReset will also power
> cycle the modem/router combo.
>   >>
>   >>
>   >> Automatically resets user's Internet every 24 hours Maximizes Internet
>   >> speed & reliability Eliminates media stream buffering Hands-free
>   >> Internet reset Resets hard-to-reach modem/router Less Internet
>   >> downtime Less daily stress No need to manually reset Reset occurs at
>   >> programmed time Updated information from Internet service provider
>   >> Proper reboot after a power failure Resetting allows equipment to
>   >> auto-correct issues
>   >>
>   >>
>   >
>
> --
> Ken Chase - m...@sizone.org
>

Re: DataCenter color-coding cabling schema

2016-03-21 Thread Aaron C. de Bruyn 
That's a good reason to use it.  Who would cut it?  ;)

-A

On Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 8:53 AM, STARNES, CURTIS <
curtis.star...@granburyisd.org> wrote:

> Just to throw it out there but I always try not to use RED cable.
> Normally, RED wire in any building is dedicated as FIRE system cabling.
>
>
> Curtis Starnes
> Senior Network Administrator
> Granbury ISD
> 600 W. Bridge St. Ste. 40
> Granbury, Texas  76048
> (817) 408-4104
> (817) 408-4126 Fax
> curtis.star...@granburyisd.org
> www.granburyisd.org
>
>
>
> OPEN RECORDS NOTICE: This email and responses may be subject to Texas Open
> Records laws and may be disclosed to the public upon request.
>
>
>
> -Original Message-
> From: NANOG [mailto:nanog-boun...@nanog.org] On Behalf Of Owen DeLong
> Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2016 7:10 PM
> To: Yardiel Fuentes 
> Cc: nanog@nanog.org
> Subject: Re: DataCenter color-coding cabling schema
>
> I don’t know of any universal standards, but I’ve used the following in
> several installatins I was responsible for to good avail:
>
> Twisted Pair:
>
> RED:Untrusted Network (Internet or possibly DMZ)
> YELLOW: Optional for DMZ networks though I preferred to avoid documented
> in [1] below
> BLUE:   Trusted Network (back-end, internal, etc.)
> GREEN:  RS-232 straight-thru
> PURPLE: RS-232 X-Over (effectively Null Modem) 12345678 <-> 87654321 pin
> map.
> ORANGE: Ethernet X-Over (Best avoided documented in [2] below)
> GREY:   Special purpose cabling not in one of the above categories
>
> Fiber:
> Orange — Multimode Fiber
> Yellow — Singlemode Fiber
>
> The absolute most useful thing you can do if you can impose the discipline
> to update the cable map rigorously and/or allocate manpower for periodic
> audits is to apply a unique serial number to each cable. I preferred to
> document not only the cable ID, but also the length. For the installations
> where I have worked, 5 digits was sufficient unique ID, so I used formats
> like I-L[.L] where I was a unique ID and L.L was the length of the
> cable in feet. (e.g. 00123-6.5 is cable number 123 which is 6.5 feet in
> length).
>
> The labels are (ideally) the self-laminating wrap-around types. I prefer
> the Brady labeling system which will automatically print 2-4 (depending on
> font size) instances of the label text on the self-laminating label such
> that it can be read from virtually any side of the cable without requiring
> you to rotate the label into view in most cases.
>
> The Brady labeling system is a bit overpriced compared to the Brother
> P-Touch, but the expanded capabilities and the quality of the label
> adhesives and such is, IMHO, sufficiently superior to justify the cost.
>
> Whatever you do, please do not use Flag labels on cables… I HATE THEM.
> They are a constant source of entanglement and snags. They often get
> knocked off as a result or mangled beyond recognition, rendering them
> useless.
>
> Similarly, I’ve found that circuit-ID and end-point labels on cables are
> often ill-maintained, so if you do use them, please make sure you remove
> them when the cable is moved/removed.
>
> The length is very useful because it gives you a radius within which the
> other end of the cable must be located and you can usually expect it to be
> reasonably close to the outer edge of that radius.
>
> More than a few times I’ve prevented a serious outage by giving the port
> number to the remote hands guy and then insisting that he read me the cable
> ID. “No, try the other port FE-0/2/4… You’re off by one. It’s
> above/left/right/below you.”
>
> [1] I prefer to avoid Yellow cables because some people have trouble
> understanding that Yellow Fiber and Yellow UTP might have different
> meanings. I also feel that the distinction between UNTRUSTED and DMZ
> networks is usually not all that important in most cabling situations. YMMV.
>
> [2] In this era of Auto-MDI/MDI-X ports and the like, it’s very rare to
> encounter a situation that truly requires a crossover cable with no viable
> alternative. If such is needed, I prefer to document it on the cable tags
> rather than using a special color code. Again, you have the risk of people
> not understanding that orange Fiber might not mean what Orange copper
> means. YMMV
>
> Yes, I know you can now get virtually any type of fiber in virtually any
> color, but the simple fact of the matter remains that when you send skippy
> out to buy emergency jumpers or such, you’re most likely going to either
> get orange multimode or yellow singlemode and that’s just the way it is.
>
> Owen
>
> > On Mar 12, 2016, at 11:11 , Yardiel Fuentes  wrote:
> >
> > Hello Nanog-ers,
> >
> > Have any of you had the option or; conversely, do you know of “best
> > practices" or “common standards”,  to color code physical cabling for
> > your connections in DataCenters for Base-T and FX connections? If so,
> > Could you share  any ttype of color-coding schema you are aware of ?….
> > Yes, this is actually considering paying for customize

RE: DataCenter color-coding cabling schema

2016-03-21 Thread STARNES, CURTIS 
Good point, never looked at it that way, but I have had techs before that would 
cut anything they thought was data and sometimes even when they knew it was not.
I guess it was Beer:30 time to them :-\

Curtis

From: Aaron C. de Bruyn [mailto:aa...@heyaaron.com]
Sent: Monday, March 21, 2016 2:45 PM
To: STARNES, CURTIS 
Cc: Owen DeLong ; Yardiel Fuentes ; 
nanog@nanog.org
Subject: Re: DataCenter color-coding cabling schema

That's a good reason to use it.  Who would cut it?  ;)

-A

On Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 8:53 AM, STARNES, CURTIS 
mailto:curtis.star...@granburyisd.org>> wrote:
Just to throw it out there but I always try not to use RED cable.
Normally, RED wire in any building is dedicated as FIRE system cabling.


Curtis Starnes
Senior Network Administrator
Granbury ISD
600 W. Bridge St. Ste. 40
Granbury, Texas  76048
(817) 408-4104
(817) 408-4126 Fax
curtis.star...@granburyisd.org
www.granburyisd.org



OPEN RECORDS NOTICE: This email and responses may be subject to Texas Open 
Records laws and may be disclosed to the public upon request.



-Original Message-
From: NANOG [mailto:nanog-boun...@nanog.org] On 
Behalf Of Owen DeLong
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2016 7:10 PM
To: Yardiel Fuentes mailto:yard...@gmail.com>>
Cc: nanog@nanog.org
Subject: Re: DataCenter color-coding cabling schema

I don’t know of any universal standards, but I’ve used the following in several 
installatins I was responsible for to good avail:

Twisted Pair:

RED:Untrusted Network (Internet or possibly DMZ)
YELLOW: Optional for DMZ networks though I preferred to avoid documented in [1] 
below
BLUE:   Trusted Network (back-end, internal, etc.)
GREEN:  RS-232 straight-thru
PURPLE: RS-232 X-Over (effectively Null Modem) 12345678 <-> 87654321 pin map.
ORANGE: Ethernet X-Over (Best avoided documented in [2] below)
GREY:   Special purpose cabling not in one of the above categories

Fiber:
Orange — Multimode Fiber
Yellow — Singlemode Fiber

The absolute most useful thing you can do if you can impose the discipline to 
update the cable map rigorously and/or allocate manpower for periodic audits is 
to apply a unique serial number to each cable. I preferred to document not only 
the cable ID, but also the length. For the installations where I have worked, 5 
digits was sufficient unique ID, so I used formats like I-L[.L] where I 
was a unique ID and L.L was the length of the cable in feet. (e.g. 00123-6.5 is 
cable number 123 which is 6.5 feet in length).

The labels are (ideally) the self-laminating wrap-around types. I prefer the 
Brady labeling system which will automatically print 2-4 (depending on font 
size) instances of the label text on the self-laminating label such that it can 
be read from virtually any side of the cable without requiring you to rotate 
the label into view in most cases.

The Brady labeling system is a bit overpriced compared to the Brother P-Touch, 
but the expanded capabilities and the quality of the label adhesives and such 
is, IMHO, sufficiently superior to justify the cost.

Whatever you do, please do not use Flag labels on cables… I HATE THEM. They are 
a constant source of entanglement and snags. They often get knocked off as a 
result or mangled beyond recognition, rendering them useless.

Similarly, I’ve found that circuit-ID and end-point labels on cables are often 
ill-maintained, so if you do use them, please make sure you remove them when 
the cable is moved/removed.

The length is very useful because it gives you a radius within which the other 
end of the cable must be located and you can usually expect it to be reasonably 
close to the outer edge of that radius.

More than a few times I’ve prevented a serious outage by giving the port number 
to the remote hands guy and then insisting that he read me the cable ID. “No, 
try the other port FE-0/2/4… You’re off by one. It’s above/left/right/below 
you.”

[1] I prefer to avoid Yellow cables because some people have trouble 
understanding that Yellow Fiber and Yellow UTP might have different meanings. I 
also feel that the distinction between UNTRUSTED and DMZ networks is usually 
not all that important in most cabling situations. YMMV.

[2] In this era of Auto-MDI/MDI-X ports and the like, it’s very rare to 
encounter a situation that truly requires a crossover cable with no viable 
alternative. If such is needed, I prefer to document it on the cable tags 
rather than using a special color code. Again, you have the risk of people not 
understanding that orange Fiber might not mean what Orange copper means. YMMV

Yes, I know you can now get virtually any type of fiber in virtually any color, 
but the simple fact of the matter remains that when you send skippy out to buy 
emergency jumpers or such, you’re most likely going to either get orange 
multimode or yellow singlemode and that’s just the way it is.

Owen

> O

Re: Oh dear, we've all been made redundant...

2016-03-21 Thread Larry Sheldon 

On 3/21/2016 12:06, Chuck Church wrote:

Uggghhh.  I've always hated this 'reboot, see if it fixes it'
methodology.  If the CPEs can't recover from error conditions
correctly, they shouldn't be used.  I blame Microsoft for making this
concept acceptable.  LOL.


Any trouble case that does NOT have the word "replaced", "repaired", or 
"patched", followed with a specific, identifiable device name was not 
"closed".  It is still an open, unsolved case.




--
sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Juvenal)