had a client now need help to know what i did wrong

Okay heres what this client had when I walked in this is also a new building with nicely wired data ports going back to a closet with a patch panel. They also wanted their 8 workstations to be able to use the DSL connection. The DSL is a Westel 2100 router.

So what I did was I plugged the DSL router into the Dlink DSS 5+ switch and then the rj45's from the patch panel into the switch. I could not get anything to function so because of clients need to get up and running quickly I suggested a company thats a lot bigger than I am with ccne's on staff. Out of curiousity I went back after hours and took a look at the closet and this is what I found.

They hocked up a Trendware TE100 S8P which is nothing more than a intelligent switch to the patch panel but no sign of the DSL router so have to assume they have that in the office but how would that work ??? The patch panel the switch and the DSL router need to be strung together to get all high speed access - correct or not correct ???

Help me with my understanding.

 

nicely wired data ports going back to a closet with a patch panel

First problem - and I seem to remember you've run into this before so maybe time to spend some $$ - is that while the wiring may have looked great, you had no way to immediately tell if it was any good.

The other company may have found problems and had to punch everything down again. That wouldn't show unless they left a mess on the floor or something. You needed some way to plug a patch cable to PC, wall plate and then test at the patch panel to see if you had a good connection.

Assuming all was well with that wiring and that you had a working switch, everything should have been connected and talking fine when you plugged them into the switch.

Add the Westel 2100 modem/router with a crossover cable to the switch (or to a crossed port on the switch) and all should have been well assuming the firewall (built into the 2100) was also set up correctly.

If the PCs 'talked' without the 2100 in the circuit, you could immediately diagnose a firewall config issue.

If the PCs now have internet access, the DSL modem certainly has to be in the circuit but can be located anywhere as long as it's not too far from the switch it's plugged into.

 

Newt

Maybe the other company did find some problems that I was unware of and one of these days I will stop in and see how they did it but does it not make sense to have all the hardware in the closet i.e. the dsl router and switch and patch panel. I had the phone company come in and make a rj11 plugin so I could plug the dsl router into it but now the dsl router is nowhere to be seen. If the patch panel and switch are in the closet and lets assume the dsl router is in the office somewhere how would you get all 8 machines to be able to access the dsl router. It has to be plugged into the switch to allow all user access to the dsl does it not ????

I was talking to a Centurytel tech that I deal with and she could not understand how they could get things to work if the dsl router was in hocked into the closet where everythng else is.

Didnt need a crossover cable cuz the specs say it will auto detect the cable and make the proper connection as long as in port 1 for the dlink. My problem in diags some of these things is the fact that I am by myself and in this situation the closet is about 50 feet from the office so was a little hard for me to walk back and forth and see what was happening. This other company has a lot of staff and they usually send a couple people so its makes troubleshooting a little easier when they can talk to each other when testing connections.

Sometimes these things just dont make sense to me as to why they dont work. In my office I have pretty much the same hockup with a router and a dsl modem and when I have machine I am working on I connect them to my router and I have immediate connections to them through the router.

Its always good hearing your feedback Newt and I appreciate all the info I have gotten from you. Hope you had good luck fishing when you were on vacation.

Greg

 

Absolutely some jobs are lots easier with two people and walkie-talkies and trying to troubleshoot by yourself can put some miles on your shoes.

The DSL device does need to be on the network somehow. On the switch if there is only the one or otherwise connected. But no reason for locating it in the wiring closet unless that's easiest. If the system is working now, there has to be a wire leading to it (or to another switch/hub) or a wireless device handling the connection.

Fishing was fair. Visiting with folks I only see at fish-in gatherings was great. Guys in from SC/NC/VA/MD/DC.

 

Newt

But logically speaking if there is a specific closet that contains the phone system wiring, the patch panel would it not make sense to also put the dsl router and the switch in the same location that way all the wiring is at hand.

Doesnt make sense to me that they would use a wireless inside the office when I had an rj11 connection installed that is connected to the dsl phone line. If they had another switch inside the office how would you connect to a data port that would allow all 8 machines to access the dsl ??? Each data ports are independent in that they all go back to the closet to the patch panel and thats where the link to all workstations comes from - right ??? So if you just took another switch and hocked that up to a data port and the dsl to that switch that would only give that one machine dsl connection and not all machines on the system - right ???

I agree having a couple people with walkie talkies does make troubleshooting a lot easier when the closet is not located in the office. In the old days when people started to use normal modems for traveling and when they stayed in hotels a lot of hotels had digital phone lines so that when you plugged in a modem to the digital chances are you would burn the analog modem out.

I have a plug in device that plugs into the phone jack and it tells me whether its analog or digital is there such a plug in device that you can plug into a patch panel port and see if its hot ????