Tidying a comms cabinets, why do I need to? In almost every workplace we visit we come across this. It is not just a visual eyesore; it can lead to all sorts of problems on your network, compounded since it makes locating the fault that much harder. For example stretched and twisted patch leads can produce noise on your telephone calls, slow the network down and worse be intermittent by nature –the hardest and costliest problem to deal with. It costs nothing but good housekeeping & discipline to keep your data rack orderly. If it gets to this stage sooner or later you will require a specialist to come in out of normal business hours to put this right and that will cost.
Whats involed in Tidying a comms cabinets
In this instance we replaced the existing comms rack for a taller and wider (800mm) rack affording vertical cable management. All the loose cabling that had been added subsequently and terminated on RJ45 plugs were removed; rerouted into the rack on cable stocking and reterminated on new patch panels. The distribution cabling patch panels, voice panels, active equipment and phone system were all rearranged so that patching would lead direct into adjacent horizontal cable management. The patch leads were all replaced. The patch lead length was not critical since the slack can be taken up in the vertical management hoops. They can of course be colour coded if required eg blue patch leads=data, red patch leads=PoE voice, green patch leads=analogue voice. This particular example an unsuspecting member of staff had accidentally unplugged the wrong patch lead due to the complete chaos of the cabling and all their PDQ terminals stopped working so they could not take a sale. Once completed we demonstrated how the comms cab and equipment worked to the shop manager. Now they are able to make changes and fault find without the concern of taking out vital services.
