I especially enjoyed his professional advice at the 7:38 minute mark.

People, please don't listen to these DIYs inventing their own way of doing things and advising you to make the same assumptions/mistakes.

HE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT!

This one's even better: This yokel does the entire installation in reverse, literally. He pulls out the old wire instead of using the old one to pull the new one through! I especially liked when he chose to re-use the original T-18 staples (in his words "brads" at the 10:15 mark) instead of those white staples designed for Romex cable. I need to go chew on a gun barrel.

LET'S DO IT IN REVERSE!

Wow. A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. And very little knowledge is very dangerous.

Wow.I didn't watch the whole thing, technically he is not wrong Data does ride the Orange and Green pairs. White blue white brown would be unused (except in poe applications). Would I try to to send data on the orange and green pair and analog voice on Blue and Brown? Hell no.

Go back and look at the edit that I did. You'll get a chuckle.

Man oh Man if we hang in for another 5-10 years when Telecom swings back to where they need guys who know this stuff we should be golden. Alas by then I will probably be a night stocker at my local grocery store. As it is I'm getting tired of the I don't shave yet IT guy telling me what's wrong and what to do.

Nahh, that will never happen. Information like that is just another nail in the coffin.

-Hal

The second guy is a total moron. It's amazing that he said and did 50 wrong things in one video. What a mouth-breather.

When I was a kid, the expression was "never hand a microphone to an idiot." Now we have the added benefit of watching them in addition to hearing them.

Ed, I've had to split cables in very select applications before. I don't like it, but sometimes new wire just can't be run. These two guys have no idea what they are doing though.

Good grief...

The two morons narrating these videos are precisely the reason why I got out of this business 20+ years ago. At the time I was working for a company that did commercial fire alarm and industrial security systems (we did nurse call and some phone systems as well.) We actually knew what we were doing AND took great pride in our work. Many times we would take over the service contracts for systems that were wired by idiots like this. What amazed me is the attitude of some of the so-called professional installers (usually electricians) who installed the original cabling. They would get annoyed when we questioned or corrected them usually making comments like "well it's not power" or (my favorite) "it doesn't have to look pretty, it just has to work." I can't tell you how many jobs I was on with newly installed wiring that had ground faults, shorts, miswired pairs, and split pairs because they didn't want to follow the standard color code (and even using different split pairs in between connection points - inconsistent being inconsistent.) We even serviced a hotel that had a delayed fire alarm activation during an actual fire due to a miswired smoke detector circuit that was "T-tapped."

Ed,

I got a laugh from the response that the moron in the first video made when you informed him of the error of his ways in the YouTube comments. Your analogy with the lamp cord was completely appropriate, but it's obvious that he has the "it doesn't have to look pretty, it just has to work" mentality.

This is the way it is today. Nobody takes pride in their work, nobody want's to put in the time to learn how it's supposed to be done- but why should they? It's all about get it done as cheaply as possible. Training and experience costs money and cuts into profits. Nobody cares what it looks like anyway as long as it appears to work. This generation of useless people are only as smart as the internet and their cell phones.

So really, there is no place for craftsmen anymore.

-Hal

Well I for one still take pride in what I do. It may cut into my profit margins at times. At least I can sleep at night.
A Data company I am friendly with had the electricians run their cat 5e cable. They in turn had to terminate it and said they had trouble because the electricians ran stranded instead of solid. I offerrd them the use of my certifier to see how well it certifies before they build their network, or if they wanted I would do it for them if they paid for transportation. Site is 2 and a half hours from me.

The only thing you should have recommended is to rip it out and start from scratch then back charge the idiot electrician. Why would you even think about certification when none of the terminations can be relied on to begin with? Even if they are lucky enough to have some runs work they are going to fail sooner or later.

Stranded cable is for making patch cords with plugs NOT premises wiring with jacks and patch panels. There is NO WAY that this is a usable installation.

Musta missed the U Tube on that...

-Hal

I did recommend rip and redo. The walls are already up and the data guys don't want to get into it. I only recommended testing with the certifier because they said it passes a normal end to end. I don't have any piece of this. I was just trying to show the light to avoid disaster.

On the second video...my new favorite word is "Gizmo".

When running cable along the outside as he did, should outdoor rated cable be used?

What??? No drip loop where the cable enters the wall from the outside?

Just what I want to see, sparkie and the IT guys going head to head for the biggest idiot trophy!

So the electrician ran stranded wire and the IT morons KNEW about it yet still went ahead and tried to terminate it? Their excuse is that the walls are up? How about: too bad sparkie, you used the wrong wire now you get to replace it by whatever it takes on your nickel.

If you ask me, the OWNER should fire all their dumb asses and sue them to pay for having it done right.

But he won't so I betcha this is going to be a three way tie!

-Hal

Yeah Hal I'm just going to observe from the cheap seats. My offer on the certifier was just to lend credibility the cable job was sh*t. I wasn't taken up on the offer so let the biggest D win.

The problem with that is some runs actually may certify giving them reason for not replacing. Certification doesn't address the real issue here- the terminations will be intermittent and a constant source of trouble. If they don't understand that basic concept I'm not surprised. What I don't understand is why they still have a job.

-Hal

"What I don't understand is why they still have a job."

There's one born every minute.

Sam

Over the years I have had very brief meetings with the same crew of people. I don't beat around the bush. I look at the cable, and speak plainly and clearly and in small words. I say "You used the wrong kind of wire. It needs to be replaced with the right kind of wire. Do you want to do it, or do you want me to do it?"

Sometimes the meeting also includes the architect. That's when it gets really entertaining. I went into a storefront that had been wired with a single blue (of course, blue) Cat5e in a daisy-chain from one desk to the next. (Eight desks.) At every location, there was also a coax. The wires were not terminated; just hanging out of the old-work boxes.

It was all I could do not to just laugh my way to the truck and drive away. I needed the money, so I asked the architect, who had the plans with her, why she had (1) hired a day laborer to run the wire, (2) why had he run the single voice wire in a daisy-chain, and (3) why had she specified a coax at each desk. On her plans, there was a little triangle with an "M" inside it, at every desk. She said that she had specified a "Modem" at each desk, because that's how the computer in her office works. A piece of coax goes to a box, and the computer is plugged into the box. The box is called a "Modem." Therefor, if it works that way for one computer, it must work that way for a number of computers.

Luckily (for them) there was a vacant basement and the building was frame construction, so rewiring was not a big deal. I ripped everything out and did it right. Six hours and $2,000 later I *DID* laugh my way to the truck.

Sometimes a little knowledge can cost a lot of money.

-Hal