Reviewing Cable Fails - Real World Fails from Client Networks 

Love the drinking fountain fail! I had a client that installed beautiful all-new aluminum direction signs around their building. One blocked a sprinkler and a nice wedge-shaped portion of the lawn turned nice and brown. Took them almost as long to fix it as it did to install them.

I laughed out loud at the "proud owner" of such a disorganized mess of a network rack.

Your network cleanups are ASMR for us tech nerds. Always super satisfying seeing a network go from “functional” to absolutely stunning. Keep up the videos man!

I have all these fails and messes in my Network and as a Network engineer I ashamed very much after watching this video. Now I decide to fix it as soon as possible. Thanks

Cargo culting, a new term for me and definitely happens at my work. Loved the descriptions you gave of each fail.

As a Director of IT, it is always wonderful to see someone with pride in their work and clarity of focus. Wish you’d shown the before and after for these. :) Thanks for sharing

Proud to say the network guys at my company keep things nice and tidy. I love looking in the networking closets and admiring the work!

I’ve been an IT guy for so many years, from back in the days of coax network headaches. It’s a real pleasure to see the calm after the storm, when you and your crew kill the mess!! Keep that awesome work, feeding the world with your knowledge!

It's so easy to live with chaos. It starts small and before you know it, you've got a monster on your hands. And who wants to tackle that. One day, One day.

After four years on my current job, I have finally re-cabled and sorted every network closet, every server room and almost every corner of our office building. Seeing these fails reminds me of all the hours I invested in the process of tidying up what my predecessors neglected. Thanks a lot for your videos, tutorials and guidelines - fingers crossed for your channel to grow and a lot of new subscribers appreciating what you do! :)

I watch so many of these and have learned so much about a profession i’ll never call my own. I love the organization of it all. Thank you.

I love this channel. I could watch it for hours. Always amazed on how people see “organization” and how some feel that all is fine. Good luck to all!

Derek, I think you nailed the small business wiring approach. I work with a lot of them, and as you guessed the business usually begins with one or two people, maybe a husband and wife or two guys with an idea. Years go by, the business grows, first to 5 or 6 staff, then 12 or 14, and then maybe 25 or 30 people employed. They never bother to assess their datacomm corner or closet, it's just the way it's supposed to be and they don't know it could be more organized and neat.

- Too many different installers. " Let the next guy clean up this mess." - Too many people in too much of a rush because the next customer is yelling in their ear to come fix something. - Staff turnover at the customer's business which means the new guy who just gets two things connected to make something to work. Then quits 6 months later. - Why use a 12 inch cable when a 36 inch cable works ? Or just use whatever cable is closest. - Customers who are rushing installers to get it done so their staff can get back to work. - And of course, customers who don't understand that it costs money to do the job properly putting the installers under pressure to just get it done and get the hell out.

Network rehabs are the best content for us IT guys I think. And the longer the video the better. Keep up the food work

Derek, love your videos. I’m working on A/V cleanup at my church. Amazing how messy things get if they grow organically over 20+ years!

The before and after photos on this channel are so satisfying.

I like how you acknowledged how some of them may have started out before they got to this point. Lol at the mayonnaise.

These are some of my favorite videos on RU-vid. I'm relatively new to the field (student still) and seeing this stuff just keeps growing my curiosity!

The Mayonnaise hot take was spectacular. I like what you're doing here, and it's been a good review for me. I used to do this work like 20 years back, and your videos always leave me feeling better. Keep up the great work.

We installed our network in our new house this past weekend and took a lot of what we did from your videos. Thanks for the expertise.

Finally someone to show what I see everywhere! I like to fix these wherever possible.

That’s great! I’m the IT admin for a church and it’s been a mess trying to clean up a few networking closets here. Some PCs are running XP.

Back when I had a day job, I saw many of these fails. Fail 3 - Got to put the jack above the level of a normal pallet- say 4 or 5 feet. Patch cords are cheap and easy to replace. Fail 8 - We called it FIIW: F*ck It, It Works Fail 9 - We had a room like this. The building was wired by the renovation contractor and the jumpers were done by in house techs. Fail 10 - Network Archeology. After a new contractor took over from my shop I warned them that this switch in the middle of a former server room was still doing things, but I was ignored and they shut it down and were in the process of cutting the cables when they realized that half the NEW server room was off line.

Stumbled upon your channel when I was planning my own home network. Genuinely helped me out so much.

While not to your business' level of care and quality, finding your videos led me to care more about my home network's and server's maintainability. Some 30 drops, 15 coax, couple servers, router, switch.....gets pretty jumbled over the years. No longer! Learned about cable combs from this channel, a simple 3d print later, a beautiful bundle running across the laundry room ceiling! New network rack, proper patch panel, 3d printed sleds for rack mounting router and fiber ONT, UPS,....feeling much better about it. Thanks for the videos!

There's something about the order of a combed cable bundle coming to to a server rack that is in and of itself clean and neat that just lowers my blood pressure. Everything is so messed up in this world, I find watching a methodical well laid out plan come together very soothing. Judging by all the comments, I'm not the only one. Thanks for the videos and keep up the good work!

@9:28 - Fail 8: "Proud to be Different" Wow! 🤣The owner requested us to make a bigger mess, so we did. LOL! This clip was my favorite.

I cant believe the lack of care in some of these I'm not even in networking yet but my amateur jobs take so much more care than these. Great video.

I install soundsystems in churches from time to time and we do a bit of audio over IP. I enjoy watching your videoes because they inspire me to do a good job and learn new strategies and practices for cable managment which can be very useful in audio systems. Thank you!

Nothing more satisfying than seeing a completely tidied up rack after having to deal with a complete mess for years😊. Thanks for the videos.

I love watching cabling work, both fails, and pretty well done ones. Fortunately in the current office we live in is really superb cabled (copper, fiber, power, etc), and a lot of space to grow (we are using maybe half of 3 racks). We inherited it from other company, but clearly whoever they haired, or haired before they got there was a pro and proud of their work. Previous office was also good, but it was us who did most of the stuff (two sub-rooms for distribution, and then just some runs between them and to access point). Fortunately most runs were already put in place, and also pretty good (and splitting things into two sub-rooms made it even easier to manage). Now we have everything in one room, but cabling is top-notch (all switches at nice comfortable level, cable combing is top notch, colored, zip ties, labels, patch panels, cooling, fire suppression, door locks, etc). I added a custom map and printed sheet of what goes where, just in case we need to rework things or add some stuff, but it was pretty easy to trace everything, put few switches, and connect about 40-50 devices in (some computers, laptops, wifi, cameras, few small servers). We still do have some old stuff (switches, cable modems), but they are fully disconnected, and tucked into separate rack. Just so it does not clutter shelves, and we need to have some backup or run an experiments. And rack at home I have, is a bit of a mess too. Also too small (22 units high), which I tough would be enough. It never is enough ;D And low rack, makes it hard to work on it, because you need to have a chair or constantly bend to do something inside.

I'm not a cable guy, but I'm looking to wire my home properly. I've learned so much from your videos, and like your philosophy of keeping it neat and clean.

Congrats on all the stuff you've survived seeing over the last year. Your line of work is one I'd love to get into here in Scotland and I'm about to move into my first home and have plans for doing full networking and your channel has been invaluable to me in terms of best practices and ideas for how to organise my '11%%-of-an-idea' I have about cabling it all etc. so thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise, hope by next year you've either seen less fails (for the sake of your sanity!) or more (for the sake of our entertainment!)

Derek,i love your videos, i work for a nation wide company as a PM and i really want to get myself into the field but my company wont give me an opportunity to do so because they need me in the office, so ive been self training and doing gigs on my own after work, and i can say watching your videos has helper to be better thank you for putting them out and helping new struggling techs enter the field and tackle some projects i will keep watching and supporting your videos!

Truly validating to see cabling thousands of miles away from my current home in the US Midwest and see so many familiar sights lol. I've never been to Hawaii but I have SEENT these setups 🧐🧐🧐

"Microcosm of every office" , you said it.

Nice to see that things are equal around the globe. Greetings from the other side of this planet (Germany)

Just installed a patch panel and a couple of switches in my own rack! Found a few of your videos very helpful, thx

Im just now getting into the field of Networking and came across your videos. I am loving them so far. Thanks

Nice cabling just makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Don't understand how people can sleep knowing their network is a sloppy mess of wires.

Its crazy how many small businesses do not prioritize their network, it is just an after thought.

I really enjoy watching network setups. There's lots to learn from them. I'm just starting and wish I could learn under the experts. It makes me want to organize my baby network. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

I mean, using mayo is marginally better for your health than butter, so you can lie to yourself about how you're taking care of yourself. That's why I'm team mayo.

I've started watching your videos to improve my own network cabling and cable management skills. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience.

Watching your network rescue videos has been educational. Thanks for all the hard work of making them available for viewing. PS: I don't know if I can agree with your assessment of mayonnaise.

Really appreciate your attention to detail. I have seen some messy telco closets but none like what you have shown.

Thanks. I think the condo one was my favourite. I can’t imagine troubleshooting it and trying to coordinate a tidy up.

Love the video, making me think twice about all my “quick fixes” that come back to bite my in the butt 😂

I loved watching all these fails and with working in the field it is so relatable. Love the videos and work you guys do.

This was fun to watch. My wife is worried that the network I'm planning in our new house will look like some of these

Great video! These cable fails really highlight the importance of proper network infrastructure.

I began to follow your channel a week ago, but its really awsome and useful for me as a IT guy. Thanks for your work!

It gave me anxiety watching those network fails, awesome content. Can't wait for the next video.

It's refreshing to see these kind of videos with real world examples and instructional videos, I'm in IT but never had the chance to build a full network cabling as in the country I live mostly I know a friend that can do it situation or companies or vendors don't put much effort in these installations. And it's nice able to see these videos as makes it much easier to understand the know how, the why and see it in real world examples ! Thanks for the videos !!!

I discovered your channel about a month ago, looked at 5-6 videos, and I honestly enjoyed myself watching (and learning) Good job!

Congrats on passing the year mark, I've really enjoyed watching the chaos!

Very interesting and the ones where you rebuild / fix set ups are particularly rewarding

One of these setups looked very familiar hahaha. I eagerly await the day I will be allowed to clean up our sever room and get rid of all the unnecessary equipment that clogs my brain when I have to troubleshoot.

Without any experience doing network cabling I wired my whole house. Although there is some issues with it, I have learned along the way what not to do. And I have used those lessons to do better for people I have help wire their houses.

Thankfully the new office my employer moved into was pretty organized in the IDF. I then had the pleasure of removing 90% of all the racking. REALLY clean in there now!

watch out for cargo-culting around the 15 minute mark. very nice video series.

I do love this type of content with the before and after photos and videos.

Fail #10 reminded me of a radio station the audio was first distributed via the punchblocks. Then years later the upgraded to audio over IP but when the upgrade was completed … they never removed the old punchblocks and wires. The wiring was undocumented and unlabeled….. I remember the cleaning crew to get a free outlet for their vacuum unplugged what they thought was a ups i4 rooms away and they actually killed power to the master control room for the am station

Love your work! And the detail like the grounding aspect. I would have never thought of that!

I have personally witnessed a patch panel in the wild that was labeled "To Everywhere." Very fitting for this video. Keep up the great work, TCI!

I appreciate seeing the messes you've experienced. Makes the messy work I've been working on improving not look so bad in comparison 🤠

Love the fails! As a 38 yr Master Plumber here on the North Shore of Boston,, I run into the equivalent in my field. As in your field and in mine, it usually happens over time. Both of our trades keep people LITERALLY in business. No IT, no plumbing, no heating...? Thanks for the great content!

Derek, you really need to make this a regular feature. Every year or six months do another edition, especially the hilarious ones like #8.

Beginning my entrepreneurial journey as a designer and installer as taught me to always give room for future system expansion. I believe the failures like these are on facility managers and in-house IT-managers.

It would be impossible to tell you how bad I need that tester...saddly I'ts really hard to get them in stores at a reasonable price in my country! Thank ypu so much for continue teaching us!

It would be impossible to tell you how bad I need that tester...saddly I'ts really hard to get them in stores at a reasonable price in my country! Thank ypu so much for continue teaching us!

I'm so glad I'm not the only one dealing with such wiring. :) :) :)

Ugh, that one at around @10:00 ... I've been guilty of quickly adding a patch cable somewhere with the best of intentions to come back and tidy it up, only to never do that... but that looks like something a bird will raise a family in!

Love your videos showing how a little hard work and a can do attitude you can fix poor networking work man ship and make something beautiful.

Planning on wiring outdoor cameras and I'm trying to learn how to ground the shielded patch panel at my home, love your videos!

What I have seen while working at Comcast cannot be compared to anything 😂

As a network admin it just amazes me how many people have a mess like this in their closets and server rooms.

This video gave me flashbacks of my 30 years in IT

I think a lot of these "fails" are the case where management is just pushing to get things back up and running. While the IT department gets it up and running with the intent of going back to clean it up, they just get buried in work and the changes just keep piling on. I know I am guilty of the "I will get back to clean up later" syndrome.

Hey hey hey, don't go hating on mayo, I love my mayo! I am currently working to clean up a rack for a restaurant. Someone started with a decent patch panel to a switch in a 4 U rack, then added a lot of new cables. The new cables were all terminated with RJ45 connectors and it is a spaghetti mess. I'm going to move the existing patch panel below a switch and add a new patch panel. I will reterminate the RJ45s to keystones in the new patch panel. It should be much more tidy when complete.

Great video again, Derek. Your videos are informative and concise. Keep up the good work! Bad cable management = bad network.

Commenting for the first time BUT also looking forward to winning the network tool! LOVE your videos and following for a while.

Another great video Derek, You have gotten me back into wanting to do some installs / cleanups of my own. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.

I worked for a very large corporate and most of the server rooms I went it, you'd come across somewhere in the room what looks like a kids "My first network" school project...

It's cool to see the fails, and seeing how your team resolved would be interesting! Thanks!

I have inherited a "fun" bunch of buildings that I now need to maintain. Going to be a lot of late nights cleaning up a lot of racks with little to no labeling, lots of cross wiring, and hole lot of spaghetti. Wish me luck 🙂

Sometimes it’s just hard to convince management to spend more money to do it right, when less quality is cheaper.

Wow this was really eye opening about how the mess sprawls. It’s really interesting.

I think I've seen an example of each one of these over my 30 year career! I show these to one of my structured cable guys and they say "I can fix that - CHALLENGE!" But I didn't see any IBM Twinaxial or bus-and-tag gear 😛

I've been there before, a lot of these are caused by the attitude 'if it works, don't touch it', which as you say, is fine until it doesn't work, at which point all bets are off!

Every time I walk into a server room that is spaghettified, I think to myself, "Why are people like this? Why?" Working on a brand new mess right now! Extension cords to extension cords across the floor, and cables in literal knots.

I've got a fail to share, new client called us in to do cleaning of his computers and server. He was so proud that he had a file server built by his previous IT guy to share all of his critical business files. (This was a CNC cabinet making and countertop manufacturer so tons of CNC cut files and design files that are crucial to keep safe). Long story short that "file server" was a windows 10 install on consumer hardware with ONE SINGLE SSD storing all of his critical files, there was a redundant pair of SSD's for the windows install, but the data drive was all on its own so it was misconfigured. No backups or redundancy to speak of, just a lone solitary SSD drive doing its very best. The kicker is that becuase of the nature of the business that server had almost a quarter inch of very fine wood dust inside the case. So that poor "server" was chugging away, choking on highly combustable dust with no backups or redundancy!! Just running on hopes and prayers lol

Wow some of these look tough! I just re-did my own home network so it’s not going to be on your list anytime soon. Agree about mayonnaise vs butter!

Fail #9 broke my heart, it was like a job done by two completely different crews.

mayonnaise are great to lube the cables for long cable pulls, not only are the cables going to be easy to pull through you can get added benifit of having a local ant army!

I have a homelab in my office here at home. I just CAN'T have a cable mess. It messes with me. My boss doesn't always care much at the main office, but every time I'm up there, I end up fixing the newest mess ;)

Derek, thanks so much for your channel. I really enjoy watching your work it inspires me to try to keep doing better.

Worked a summer student job as a 'cable puller' for a small company installing network cables in schools. One old school had water underneath. They gave me black garbage bags to wear on my legs to wade through the water. Smh.

Love the caster and the CAT cable. LOL