who can settle this argument

[klem kedidelhopper]

A friend is doing his own network wiring. He told me what he did and I
have serious doubts as to whether it will work at all. This is what
he's done: he ran an underground shielded cable between metal junction
boxes mounted on the outside of two buildings. The shield is grounded
at one end, not connected to anything just wrapped and taped at the
other, (this was my suggestion). So far everything sounds OK. now
here's the interesting part. He's apparently taken a twenty foot
network cable with RJ45's on either end, chopped it in half, and wire
nutted this to the underground color for color at each end. He plans
to connect this between the new computer which he hasn't received yet
and the network. I told him that he should have used a termination
block and offered that worst case this arrangement won't work at all.
Best case he'll suffer a significant loss of speed. He doesn't believe
that there will be any problem with this at all though, and if it is
it would be minor. So who's right? Can this type of cob job work, and
if so would performance be significantly compromised, and how much?
Thanks, Lenny

 

[Cydrome Leader]

A friend is doing his own network wiring. He told me what he did and I
have serious doubts as to whether it will work at all. This is what
he's done: he ran an underground shielded cable between metal junction
boxes mounted on the outside of two buildings. The shield is grounded
at one end, not connected to anything just wrapped and taped at the
other, (this was my suggestion). So far everything sounds OK. now
here's the interesting part. He's apparently taken a twenty foot
network cable with RJ45's on either end, chopped it in half, and wire
nutted this to the underground color for color at each end. He plans
to connect this between the new computer which he hasn't received yet
and the network. I told him that he should have used a termination
block and offered that worst case this arrangement won't work at all.
Best case he'll suffer a significant loss of speed. He doesn't believe
that there will be any problem with this at all though, and if it is
it would be minor. So who's right? Can this type of cob job work, and
if so would performance be significantly compromised, and how much?
Thanks, Lenny

This is probably OK, if by "network" he's shooting for connecting two 9600
baud lease line modems together.

 

[William Sommerwerck]

Assuming this is an Ethernet * connection...

Ethernet cables (even Cat6) aren't that expensive. Why does he need to make
up his own cable?

This seems to be another example of a complex "solution" to a non-existant
problem.

 

[Cydrome Leader]

Chuckle. I think I know where the friend got the wire nut idea:
<http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/341/p1060034f.jpg/>
<https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=wiring+mess>
<http://www.vibrant.com/cable-messes.php>
Suddenly, I have this craving for spaghetti.

I'm sort of numb to photos like that these days.

I really wish I was allowed to share photos of the bad stuff I've come
across.

 

[Cydrome Leader]

You know those are only installed in lawyer's homes.

There was actually a device called "the moving cable" at a 1990s ISP I
worked at that had a normal power plug connected to a male IEC connector.
It had the obligatory electrical tape "lump" of a splice as you'd expect
to see in something like that.

The end was shrouded so no pins were completely exposed, but the idea was
you could move computers between racks, live by supplying power into the
monitor power out socket that old power supplies had while unplugging the
normal power connector.

I never got to witness it's use, but am still surprised everybody that did
always fed power it power from the correct phase.