…so yesterday I was working in the loft – we have recently cleaned up some additional offices in our building and they needed the inevitable network connections. The ‘simple’ task of routing some cat5 from our server room to the offices was first up.
I do enjoy this kind of work, never really understood why, but I think it’s a break from the normal routine and one that (if you discount carrying boxes up and down stairs) takes you away from either the paperwork or the technical phone/remote/desk-side stuff. The physical side of IT perhaps? I suppose it’s all about variation, but I also like doing the jobs like this from time to time, as I like to think I am able to do them right. Is that a sign of being a control freak? If it is it’s tempered by the fact I’m only an 80% DIY’er, that is to say my work is usually passable, but don’t look too closely!
Our loft posed it’s own problems, as I suspected it might. There was a substantial boarded out area directly above our server room, though fortunately I managed to find an area that hadn’t been covered and sneak a couple of 8mm holes in. We fed up cat5 in taped pairs, the job was to provide eight sockets (in four pairs) so time on the feeding process was effectively halved.
Once the server room was located it was a simpler process to find the previously drilled holes for each office, they were in turn widened (yep, same drill bit!) and pairs of cables fed down. For the first time in a while I used the white plastic trunking with the self-adhesive backing (found in most well-known DIY stores) to good effect, it helps having an uncluttered wall – I will refrain from telling the one about the time we had to install some cables in an old water pumping station with 10′ thick walls – so the trunking went in full of cables and the covers attached.
Wall sockets have now been added and all I have to do now is to wire up. Which brings me on to my problem…
I have failed, historically, to see why companies paid professional cabling firms to come and install networks for them. A previous employer used to contract a company that provided fixed price installations. For my task it would have cost £400. I could save the company that if I did it myself.
Or could I? Two rolls of cable, a bunch of wall boxes and faceplates, and probably close on 20 man hours. Not to mention the initial purchase price of the tools (which, of course, will be used again, but it has a bearing) had I been shrewd I might have just spoken to a couple of local firms and got a deal.
Like I said, I like the work, but can now see the sense in getting in an expert to do their job. I went at this task on a day where I wanted to tackle it, but what if I was feeling lousy? Or simply didn’t have the time.
Manage by exception, pass the right jobs onto the right people, oh, and try to make it cost-effective.