davidwright•2d agoMost Upvoted

Got chewed out by a network engineer over a single dirty fiber patch

I was at a data center off LaGrange Road in Frankfort, and this older guy named Tom from the NOC was reaming me out because I left a dust cap off a LC connector on a patch panel. He pulled me aside and showed me the dB loss on his OTDR, it was like 2.8dB worse than it should have been because of one microscopic speck of crud. I laughed it off at first but now I double check every single connector before I plug it in. Anyone else run into a stickler for cleanliness who actually taught you something?

2 comments

2 Comments

max_jones2d ago

Buddy of mine did a similar thing at a colo in Chicago. Left a cap off for maybe ten minutes, senior tech caught it and made him scrub every connector on the whole row with alcohol wipes. Took him two hours and he still talks about it like it was a war story.

spencer_thomas42d ago

Oh man that's brutal but honestly fair. @max_jones bet your buddy doesn't forget that cap again though. I always wonder if the dust in the air really matters that much or if it's more about making a point so nobody gets sloppy.