When you've planned for every contingency, you know something is going to go wrong. I even said so yesterday (repeatedly) before I went to install the Isolated Wireless Network I mentioned in my last post.

The ethernet jack that was wired up for the router was installed when the building was built, by the same people who installed the telephones. I wasn't sure which jack was the other end of it, so I cheated and hooked up a tone probe the the line. What I discovered was that the ethernet jack was wired into the phone system punch down block. This is bad.

It took about 20-30 minutes to positively identify the line so I could reroute it. The biggest setback there was the location of the punch down. It's behind a large set of metal shelves, so it's not easy to get to. It took another 10-20 to get it loose.

The contingency I hadn't planned for was the need to install a new jack. To get it working for now, I just put an end on it and directly connected it to the switch. It's on my list of things to do next time I go out there.

Since I had to put another end on it, and didn't have any wire to spare if I got it worng, I pulled the other end out of the wall to see how to jack was wired. It wasn't any standard I'm familiar with. (Orange, Wh/Orange, Wh/Green, WhBlue, Blue, Green, Wh/Brown, Brown if I recall correctly.)

On the birght side, it's working perfectly now, and I just have a little extra work to do next time I head up there.