wired

This is one of those projects where I looked for any excuse not to do it.


Ever since I started as the IT Director at Christian Life Center, the network "wire closet" was a disaster. This "closet" was actually a nook in the worship band's green room. It was completely exposed, unsecured, and horribly unorganized, and I inherited it in this condition.

Maybe half of those CAT5 cables were labeled, and there were a dozen or more that weren't connected to anything. A third of the lines went to the patch panel, and the rest went straight to the switches. I knew something had to be done, but the thought of pulling all new cable in our building was a nightmare. I really believe our original building was specifically designed to punish anyone wanting to retrofit it with new cable.


I was able to partner with our local community college, Sinclair, as part of their CIS senior capstone class. It was a great scenario, because the students got hands-on experience, and I got free labor!

Over the course of 2 weeks, we ran almost 2 miles of brand new Belkin CAT6 cable, along with Leviton CAT6 keystone jacks. I was able to relocate the patch panels and Cisco switches into the existing server room, which is secured and climate controlled. Everything is clearly labeled, both at the client drop and on the patch panels, and those 1' patch cables keep everything clean and easy to troubleshoot. There's still some cosmetic work to be done, but the hard part is over.


The next phase of this project will be to upgrade one or more of the switches to gigabit.