gigabit good

After arriving at the Carr Astronomical Observatory, in short order, I began to work on the network expansion. Cable had been pulled through conduit to the Bob Anderson Dome area as well as the My Own Dome Lots (via a junction box). Kiron offer to help.

Verified I had all the tools and parts needed. Found the category 6 wire spool, male RJ-45 plugs (both types), the strain reliefs, the keystone female jacks, the faceplates, the punch down tools (both Charles's and Tony's), and Charles's Pro'sKit tester. I had my (as yet unused) RJ crimper with integrated sheath stripper.

Built some short test cables. A good one. It showed as properly configured with 3PK-NT005 sender and receiver. Then I created faults, to see how the tester would illustrate the errors. Didn't get a lot of formal errors but clearly the tester showed good continuity and proper pairing.

Tried to use an ASUS netbook with the new Dynex Gigabit 8-Port Switch (DX-GB8PRT) to verify a gigabit connection. Learned, sadly, that the Eee PC 1000 HE supports 100 max. Fortunately, the Dell laptop from the GBO was gigabit ready, and we saw a green LED light up with my test cable. w00t!

Then we wired up the line between the Geoff Brown Observatory and the My Own Dome Lot observatory pads junction box. Tested it for proper connections and continuity and then tested it, once again with the Dell, for a gigabit connection. A-OK. My first full high-speed ethernet cable drop!

That was all that I had intended for Friday. But, with a head of steam up, I decided to continue and we installed Dietmar's line. This meant wiring up a keystone receptacle. Everything went A-OK. I was happy. He was happy. It also was an important milestone, as Dietmar's terminus (terminal, terminus terminal? terminal terminus?!) represents the one furthest downstream.

Once Phil arrived, we did additional testing with Gilles's no-name tester, the S1007. It was slightly better than Charles's at noting faults in the wiring. It also sports a power switch that would not likely get turned on by accident. It was very good to have different was of testing the new lines.

Installed the gigabit switch in its new home. Forgot to add the surge protector. But then there was some work to do tomorrow...

MODL 1 at the CAO has power and data!