I spent some time beginning to document the phone infrastructure situation in the building. I'm writing up my documentation on the imc wiki in the Tech Admin docs which is password secured to the tech group. Once it's complete I'm going to look at creating a Building Infrastructure section of the wiki which would be protected to IMC members & place it there. I'll work with Leon on that- he may have started something already. This could also be a space for others to document infrastructure & building issues like the HVAC system for instance.<br>
<br>Here's the rundown of what I found today:<br><br>- We are indeed on Comcast Voice. The cable modem service terminates on the west wall of the boiler room. The
cable modem has four phone ports, two of which are active, one which is
in use currently. Both lines below were tested at the modem this morning and
confirmed to be working.
<p>
<strong>Line #1: 217-344-8820</strong><br>Active, in use phone line.
This is the main number for the UC-IMC. The line plugged into the modem
runs along the ceiling in the boiler room, through the maintenance room
and along the basement east hall and terminates at the telephone patch
panels near the south basement door. Every few feet or so, this gray
cable is now marked with a green sharpie. <br></p><p>The phone line terminating in the Books to Prisoners space runs through the wall, across the hallway and south to the same telephone patch panels. This cable is also gray and now is marked "BTP" in green marker in several places along the cable run.<br>
</p><em><strong></strong></em>Somehow line #1 is patched to another cable run that terminates in the first floor Finance office. <br>- <em><strong>TO </strong></em><strong>D</strong><em><strong>O: this line needs to be traced back from the Finance office <br>
<br></strong></em><strong>Line #2: 217-344-2536</strong> <br>This is also an active line, though currently not in use. It may have been used in the past as a separate fax line? I plugged a phone into it at the cable modem and called my cell to confirm that it's working. <br>
<br><b>**SUGGESTION** - If this line is not in use, it could be used for BTP, or another purpose. </b>I'm posting this here because I'm not certain whether it's set aside for something or not. Tech group / others - can we talk consensus on what to do with this second line?<br>
<br><b>NEXT STEPS:</b><br>- Trace phone line going to Finance/Production and document<br>- Re-patch cable running to BTP and test<br> - NOTE: I don't have a clear
understanding of how the phone patch panel is used to patch &
connect lines. I'm doing some research, but if anyone has expertise...<br> - There are five large phone wire patching panels near the south door and
another one or two in the boiler room.These are part of the OLD phone infrastructure of the post office and we've simply reused it. We can certainly continue to do so, though I think we should put a box over the patch panels after this. <br>
- We could also go with something much simpler and re-wire using some standard phone junction box connectors at key points, eliminating the old patch panels. Thoughts on this???<br><br>- Pending approval or whatever, we could run a phone line from the boiler room to BTP. Given security concerns on that end of the building, lines could also extend to the Family Room and the Bike Project. <br>
- I'll leave it up to Building/Finance to determine that. Tech can implement whatever is decided..<br><br>A final aside, tech has been talking about rewiring/re-securing phone and data wiring for a while now. This is a longer term project- we have a functioning network where we need it, but want to take it to the next level, make it better looking more secure, etc. Just so folks are aware. It really won't impact people except will clean up the wiring cable tied around pipes, etc., and the network will be better documented for future techies. Brian Duggan's been doing a rad job of recruiting some new folks into the IMC who are tech-savvy, and it's my hope we can begin getting them involved in this initiative maybe by summer.<br>
<br>ttfn -Chris<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Mar 3, 2011 at 6:13 AM, Chris Ritzo <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:chris.ritzo@gmail.com">chris.ritzo@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
<p>Not sure. I think there are just a lot ofwirea running around and the phone stuff near the south file could have been snagged or pulled inadvertently. I plan to do some more tracing sat. and try to map out the lines so stuff is better documented.</p>
<p></p><div class="im">On Mar 2, 2011 8:50 PM, "Mike Lehman" <<a href="mailto:rebelmike@earthlink.net" target="_blank">rebelmike@earthlink.net</a>> wrote:<br><br>
</div><div bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"><div class="im">
Chris,<br>
Well, that's interesting. I didn't look closely the other day
because I didn't have a light, but I thought things looked a little
rough, even for something at the IMC.<br>
<br>
Since I didn't look in detail, I'm just speculating, but...<br>
Maybe someone was trying to steal copper and got interrupted?<br>
<br>
If so, yet another reason for improving security. <br>
Mike<p><font color="#500050"><br><br>On 3/2/2011 8:22 PM, Chris Ritzo wrote:</font></p></div><blockquote type="cite"><p><font color="#500050"><br>><br>> I've taken an initial look at the phone situation and done a little tracing and testing. There'...</font></p>
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