Re: Label, Label Label
In the place where I volunteer my IT services to seniors, about a month and a half ago, I was contemplating ways of getting better WiFi in the other end of the building. Inside a small room with a sign saying "STORAGE ROOM" on the door, was a network socket, which would have been the perfect place to plug in an old Cisco AP I had found in a cupboard. So I updated and configured the AP while it was plugged into my laptop, then plugged it in to that room, no joy. The network socket had a label saying "PROJECT ROOM", all the staff that had been there way longer than I had never heard of a project room. After some searching, in the main office, laying on the ground, hidden behind a rather heavy desk, was an unplugged network cable, also labelled "PROJECT ROOM". I plugged it into a spare port on one of the switches, ran back to to storage room, and the AP had lit up. Much testing later, and I declared the WiFi issues in that end of the building as solved. The new AP was working perfectly, instead of dropping out all the time at that end of the building like the existing AP would, coz the existing AP was too far away at the other end.
Over the last three weeks, the place had been closed while they replaced the old floor. Prior to that, we packed everything away in labelled boxes, so the construction crew could shift everything to one end of the building, replace the floor in the cleared area, move everything to the other end, and replace the rest of the floor. On Monday we got to move everything back, including plugging all the computers and phones back in. Luckily the network and phone gear had been mostly left in place, being bolted, nailed, glued, or embedded in the walls. Very lucky, that PROJECT ROOM label was the only label. No labels on anything else, would have had no idea what to plug in where. We got everything working again except for one phone, though it turned out the plug on one end of it's cable had been cut off. I don't happen to have any RJ11s, but the IT guy they pay to look after the half of the computers that I don't look after said he has some back at his office, and promised to fix that on Tuesday. I usually only work there on Mondays.
After the dust had settled, I gave a little "Label, label, label" type speech. I'm guessing they'll ask me to do that next week.
P.S. For those wondering, the computers used by the office staff where paid for by the organisation itself, and they have been paying a computer business to look after those computers. The other computers where donated by a government scheme called "Broadband For Seniors", for the purpose of educating seniors, and letting them use these computers. Educating seniors, and helping them with their computers / smartphones is my volunteer job, so I get to look after these freebies. Oddly enough, one of those freebies is the most powerful computer in the entire building.
There are archeological layers of "old" computer equipment in that place. I've learned that it sometimes pays to go digging, which is how I found that Cisco AP. They had asked me to advise them about a new scanner they wanted to buy. They told me their requirements, and my reply was "Hang on, I think I saw one of those in that cupboard over there." Came back a minute later, "Here, will this do?". They've been very happy with that scanner.