Lost Ends

[Umhoefer]

I have been asigined to track down and map all the network wires. I am looking for equipment that i can use to find where specific CAT 5 wires go. We have about 45 stations on the network with 5 mini hubs on the plant floor and 3 hubs with one main switch in my office. Do to an almost constant change over of staff in the past two years the main hubs/switch look like a mess. nothing is labeled and i have no idea who wired what. Please give me some advise as to where to start.

Thank You.

 

[MMAshwin]

Hi,

Just a quick thought.
In the middle of the night, or whenever there is no one in the office, switch off all the PCs, but one.

Then check on the hubs to see which port is active. Note that down, then switch on the other PCs one at a time noting which port on which hub becomes active.

Give each hub a name or number and then each port on each hub has its number. Tie that hub name & port number to a specific PC. You may want to either label the cable to the PC or the PC itself. So what you have now is

PC1+------+P1H1+--------
PC2+------+P2H1+-------- (P2H1 = Port2 Hub 1)
.
.
PC9+------+P9H1+-------- etc etc

This swicthing on and off of station applies also to the server/s, printers, swtiches etc. So that you can identify which hubs/ports/cables handle that data.

Mind you all that being said, I would ask for overtime, come in on a weekend and rewire the whole thing, labeling and logging everything as I went. Especially if its as bad as you say.
Any help ?, yes no let me know.

Regards

 

[Umhoefer]

Thanks Laffalot, Your suggestion is helpfull and that is what i have started doing only a little more in the reverse. We have everyone up and started pulling connections off the hub. It made for a tense day of complaints but we narrowed down who is where. Wouldn't it be better to have one hub and three switches? I have three hubs and one switch now but one hub seems to be choking when everyone is on and the servers read 40% useage.

Once again thanks for the insight.