I ran for 80 minutes non-stop this morning. I was beat. I’m supposed to be training for a 10k run but I will be out of town when it happens. There will be others.

(get ready for some nerd talk)

After running I went to work because I had to do some wiring on a new network I built for some new office spaces we acquired. Eventually, both buildings will be joined with a conduit underneath the street, but before that happens we need a temporary solution. This means I set up a wireless bridge between the two buildings. I spent all day Friday drilling holes and pulling CAT6 cable. Today I hooked up network sockets using a punch down tool and I affixed antennas to the side of the building. That’s a lot of work for a temporary solution. In the process, I stabbed my finger pretty good and gushed blood onto the pretty pretty floor. Whoops. I also fell out of an attic space, down the ladder and onto the floor. It is a miracle I didn’t kill myself.

Anyway, I wanted to build the network the right way with rack containing a patch panel, the 16port switch and the wireless access point all nicely set up with patch cables and the whole 9 yards, but I wasn’t sure exactly what kind of patch panel to get. Instead I’ll just stick some RJ45’s directly on the cable for now and worry about it later. Technically, it will work just fine, but if a professional network engineer saw it, he would give me a stern talking to.

The reason I’m trying to get it done quickly is because I’ll be going to Florida next week for 2 weeks. It has to be up and running before I go. Preliminary tests show the wireless connection is working and I can see the network and get to the Internet. I’m just not sure how strong the signal is. Is it just barely reaching enough to work or is it full strength?

Hmmm. When we do connect the buildings, should it be a twisted-pair cable or fiber-optic? Fiber-optic will require bringing in people who know what they are doing. I think they are called professionals.