nyphonejacks

JFK Airtrain extortion!

2012-02-01T22:55:00.000-05:00

I dropped a coworker off at JFK today. He was running late for his flight, so he had to reschedule for a later flight. He decided that since he had some extra time that he would park his car in the airport long term parking lot, and I would take the train home.

This is not a problem, because I remember when I worked at the airport several years ago that you could enter the subway from the long term parking lot. To my shock and disgust when I attempted to enter the subway system from the long term parking lot I was told that I had to pay the $5 fee for the Airtrain. I explained to the idiot reps that I never stepped foot onto the Airtrain and refuse to pay for a service that I did not use. They told me that is the way the system was designed, and that there is nothing that they could do about it, I would have to pay the fee to enter into the subway station - where I would also have to pay the $2.25 to get onto the subway.

This is unacceptable. I then found the telephone number for the Airtrain - which is 877-JFK-Airtrain (877-535-2478) in case anyone decides that they would like to call them up and complain about this or any other issue! The people who answered the phone were of even less help than the people at the gate if you could imagine that, you would think that someone would take the initiative to get a manager or supervisor to look at the situation, realize that they are complete idiots for designing a system that does not allow unrestricted access to the public transit system and let me through with out resorting to these extortion tactics.

After that I found one of those information telephones, which apparently directs calls to the same telephone number that I mentioned above, as the second person I spoke with on the phone was about as useful as a box of rocks.

The only alternative to not paying this extortion fee is to take a 20 minute walk out of the parking lot, across a bridge over the belt parkway - that does NOT have a pedestrian walkway, and to the Aqueduct Racetrack subway station on Conduit Boulevard.

The lack of foresight or planning on this Airtrain project is sickening. Not only should the Port Authority be fined for extorting customers who do NOT use the Airtrain into paying for it anyway just to enter into the subway system, they should also be held liable for safety violations for requiring those who choose not to cave into their extortion practices to walk on roadways that are not designed for, and unsafe for pedestrians.

The long term Airtrain/subway station should be redesigned to allow for customers who do NOT ride the Airtrain to have access to the subway system with out having to pay this extortion fee.

Minor site changes

2012-01-13T01:20:00.000-05:00

Updated the design of the top navigation links, removed the old "share" link for twitter and facebook, and replaced it with a smaller module that also includes the ability to share with email, twitter, facebook and G+. Also the new module will allow you to share a post from the main page. With the previous module you had to be on the post's page to share that particular post. Hopefully these minor changes will make navigation easier, more streamlined, and less obstructed. More minor changes will be coming in the next few days/weeks, as well as a complete rebuild of the store, which is a fairly new feature of the site. I also brought back the link for the "helpful phone numbers" page. The page never left the site, I just had removed the link to it a while ago, but it is now back. Feel free to leave comments here if you think that there are other numbers that should be included.

Door phone ring analog PBX and VoIP phones at the same time.

2012-01-12T21:30:00.002-05:00

As a VoIP tech, I usually leave the old PBX phones in place when we install a new VoIP system. I do this for several reasons.

First, to allow the porting to take place which can take a few days. The reasons why I do not like to just use call forwarding are explained in my LNP post but basically when call forwarding a number only the first call is forwarded then all subsequent callers get a busy signal.

Second, it allows the customer to transition to the new phones at their own pace for outgoing calls until the port process is complete.

Today I had a rather unusual request, as most people that move over to VoIP eventually do away with their old phone system and POTS phone service. This customer has an Partner phone system and VoIP service with us with Cisco phones, so each desk has a VoIP phone and an Avaya phone. This customer wanted the door phone, which was currently run thru their Partner system to at the same time ring the VoIP phones.

After some deliberation, a solution was found to accomplish this. The existing door phone was simply connected to the partner system as an extension. I tapped off of this extension wiring going towards the door phone after it exited the Partner phone system and connected the station wire to the tip and ring of an RC2A relay, then connected the N.O. and common connections of the RC2A to the existing wiring going to the door release. That solved the connection of installing my relay.

My next hurdle was the tricky part, how to ring the VoIP phones AND the phones connected to the PBX. The soloution? Connect the line side of a SPA3102 to an extension port of the Partner system, and configure the SPA3102 to hotdial an extension group on the VoIP system when it detects ringing on the extension port that it is connected to, thus whenever someone rings the door phone all of the extensions on the Partner system ring, and since the SPA3102 is connected to an extension port on the Partner system it too rings, however when the 3102 is ringing, it is forwarding the call via VoIP to the VoIP phones.

Sorry no pictures this time, it is pretty straight forward, nothing too fancy it just works. The RC2A was put in line with the door phone station wire to activate the relay with DTMF tones - if the existing relay would have used DTMF tones to operate the relay it would not have been required, I just would have had to determine the proper digits to dial to activate the relay with a DTMF decoder.

2012-01-05T01:16:00.001-05:00

I had to return to the customer who decided to run all of their wiring AFTER the new building's construction was completed. Here is a before and after of what it looked like before I left on the first visit - more info/pics can be seen of this job HERE

All of the contractors were complaining about this place. The original electrician. The new electrical contractor who was there today, installing yet more CAT5 cabling, the plumbers who were there last time that had to fix a leak from a previous plumbing contractor.

I only spent about 2 hours here today, testing and labeling, installing the router/switch and patch cords, and moving the FiOS router (upstairs behind the bar, not photographed)

With everything going on with this job, using wiring pulled by someone else, having to extend or splice and re-route CAT5 drops only a single brown/white pair failed. Since it was not the green or orange pair I just labeled that jack "no-PoE" and kept it moving.

Here is one of the images of my patch panel from the first visit.
I did NOT install any of the mess of wiring. These were all here when I arrived.
The only wiring I pulled are the white wires entering the panel from below.

Luckily the mess of wiring was cleaned up,
possibly by whoever installed them.
More likely by a different contractor.
This is my complete network.
Wiremolding, router, switch, patch cords
and analog phone jacks.

20 jack network turns into a 44 jack network overnight

2012-01-05T00:59:00.002-05:00

So my 20 jack network install ended up being expanded and became a 27 jack network. Instead of adding a 3rd 12 port panel when we passed the 24 port mark I opted instead to use surface jacks for the extra 3 ports.

The PC guy was wiring patch cords to the panel as I was still pulling cable, and testing jacks, so the network became quite a mess.

Fast forward to earlier this week. The customer needed 17 additional runs, for a total of 44 network jacks. I knew after the second dispatch to this location that they were going to need these additional runs done "some time in the future" so I was not concerned with wasting time neatening up the patch cord mess, because I knew that I was going to have to replace the 2 - 12 port patch panels and the extra jacks with a 48 port patch panel.

The installation of the additional 17 CAT 5 runs, cutting everything over to the new patch panel and labeling the jacks took just one (long) day. I returned for about 2-3 hours to test all of the jacks. Just one mis-wire. In my rush to finish the bulk of the work in a single day I had one of the jacks backwards from how it was punched down. No big deal, quite a quick fix to re-punch the one jack. The remainder of the second (half) day was spent replacing the patch cords and neatening up the network as best as I could.

Some of the PC guys wires were not neatened up by me because I did not want to touch his stuff, and because my company wanted me to only worry about what I had installed, and our companies VoIP phones.

This is what became of my "20 jack network" installation.

I had installed the 2 - 12 port panels, and the cisco router.
The computer guy was connecting stuff as the cabling was still being pulled.

FiOS and another switch was installed since my last visit.
Does anyone have pride in their work any more?

Since I had to add about 17 more runs on top of the 27 existing runs,
I replaced the 2 - 12 port panels and extra jacks with a 48 port panel.
44 ports are being used.

Everything cut over to the new patch panel.
All that is left is to neaten this mess up!

Much better than when I first returned to see the mess that became of my previous wiring job.
Still would have liked some more time to neaten some of the wiring towards the bottom,
but those are the computer guys wires.
My company wanted me to only focus my time on the wiring I installed and our VoIP wiring.

Some additional runs under windows.
Luckily there was space to snake horizontally behind the walls.
Unluckily where I snaked down ended up being behind a beam,
thus the small channel next to the bracket on the right side of the image,

Wide angle of wiring installed below windows for cubicles.

From the network closet down the hall to reception area.

Down hallway (network room down hallway to right)
Door phone to office. Wire in wiremold because wall is concrete.
Room with cubicles and wire under windows at end of hallway to left
(where the light is shining through doorway).

Happy 2012! I have updated the layout of the site.

2011-12-31T21:08:00.000-05:00

I have updated the layout of the site, to try to make navigating from page to page easier, and to try to make the advertising on the page less obstructive, yet still easily available and accessible for anyone that finds any of the ad links that pop up interesting or helpful.

I have also replaced the top banner logo with a new one that is not as tall as the original nyphonejacks logo, in hopes that it will take up less space on the screen and thus have more content on the page when you first visit the site.

I hope that the new layout makes it easier to view this page. The "search this site" is now located on the top of the right frame if you are looking for it. If you love or hate the new layout, or if you have any suggestions feel free to comment. As always, I believe that you should not need to sign up or sign in to anything to leave comments, so they are open for anyone. I have only enabled the captcha to try to reduce spam comments, but i have even permitted spam comments in the past if they are on subject and might be helpful to readers.

PoE injectors, PAP2T, 8 port switch and 2 surge protectors.

2011-12-30T01:28:00.000-05:00

The 66 block and wiring coming out of the ceiling was already in place. The 24 port patch panel was already in place. The blue Netgear switch was already in place. all of the blue patch cords from the 24 port panel to the switch was already in place.

The phone wiring was run with CAT5 wiring and punched into the 66 block. I converted 4 phone jacks into data jacks for VoIP phones. The wiring was not long enough so I added keystone jacks and 8p8c (RJ45) connectors to extend the wire into the patch panel (the orange jacks to the left of the photo).

I installed and mounted the 2 surge protectors (black one on top, and white one on bottom.

I provisioned, installed and mounted a Linksys PAP2T to provide an extension for the overhead paging system (gray box towards top of image.

I installed 6 PoE injectors (the black boxes mounted above the patch panel)

I installed an 8 port switch (above patch panel to right). These power Polycom 331 phones that were installed in various locations within the store.

I installed all of the white patch cords from the 24 port panel to the PoE injectors and switch.

All of the existing wiring that went to the old phone system that was removed before I arrived were taped back and placed above the panel. They were just hanging down and messy.

Still need to test overhead paging system. Currently it remains in an ROH state as soon as dial tone is connected to it. I believe that the telephone interface is defective and may need to be replaced.

I also need to add several ATA devices for several cordless phones. Currently there are 2 Linksys 3102 devices in place for 2 cordless phones, however they need to be replaced with PAP2T or 2102 devices. There is only 1 free port left in the Netgear switch, and 1 port available in a Linksys/Cisco wifi router that was already in place to the right of the panel.

cell phone rate spreadsheet updated

2011-12-13T11:57:00.005-05:00

view the blog post here http://blog.nyphonejacks.com/2011/05/blog-post.html

or the actual spreadsheet on google docs here https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjMbManptfxfdHdkYzE0RVhucGl6NUsySTJIVG8yY0E

Host your own proxy for free on Google.

2011-12-12T10:38:00.001-05:00

Ever have the need for a proxy server? Ever find that the public proxy server that you are trying to use is blocked? Perhaps you just want to be able to have your own proxy just because.

Well, this article http://www.labnol.org/internet/setup-proxy-server/12890/ shows you how easy it is to set up your own proxy. The whole process only takes a few minutes. I set one up for myself, not that I have had much of a use for it yet, but it is there, in case I go to a customers location and I need to access content that might be otherwise blocked on their firewall, or DNS servers, with out needing to adjust the settings on their network. (I am talking work related stuff here people, although your use, or need for a proxy server might be a bit different, such as social media or other blocked sites)

Ooma is upgrading their Voicemail servers on January 3 2012

2011-12-11T13:59:00.001-05:00

Just in case you are an Ooma subscriber and the email hit your spam box, Ooma just sent out the following email today:

Dear Nyphonejacks,
Ooma is upgrading to a new voicemail system! The new servers will bring faster voicemail retrieval and more efficient voice prompts. It will also open the door for us to develop advanced voicemail features and services in the future.

We will officially upgrade all existing Ooma accounts to the new voicemail system on January 3rd, but we're inviting users to make the switch now. This will ensure you have uninterrupted remote access to your voicemail and give you more time to wind down your old voicemail account. You can upgrade your account at any time by clicking here and following the prompts on your screen.

If you do not upgrade your account at this time, we will automatically upgrade it during the week ofJanuary 3rd. If your account is upgraded by Ooma, you will not be able to remotely retrieve voicemail messages until you log in to My Ooma to reset your voicemail PIN.

Keep in mind that voicemail messages on the old server WILL NOT be moved to the new server. This includes both new and archived messages. Voicemail messages from the old server will only be accessible until January 31st, so if you want to keep your messages please download them at your earliest convenience.

If you'd like to learn more about the upgrade process, please see our FAQ. Or, if you're ready to upgrade now, click here to begin.

Until later,
Team Ooma

What kind of crappy VoIP service does Ebay use?

2011-12-11T00:39:00.001-05:00

EDIT This may not have had anything to do with Ebay after all, as I just experienced a similar problem on a phone call just now - I think it must be the stupid WiFi calling feature of my new Tmobile cell phone... I will do some testing to see if the trouble was in fact ebay related, or the fact that Tmobile thinks it is a good idea to use my WiFi to make calls when I am within range of my AP.

I opened an Ebay account several months ago, because I had intended on selling a bunch of the stuff that I have that I no longer need or use. I have been too busy to get around to actually putting anything up on the site, so it sat there dormant for quite a while. Today I logged into the account, because I actually do plan on putting some stuff up on there within the next few weeks or so. When I logged in I found that my account has been suspended - in September! I never received the e-mail telling me that the account had been suspended. The alleged reason for the suspension was the activity on the account. What activity on the account? I have not even logged back into the account after I set it all up.

Unfortunately the only way to resolve this was by a phone call. There was no online option to resolve this problem, either by email, chat, or by providing a form for me to complete the required information that they needed from me.

From the moment that the call connected the call quality was shit, pure shit. I had an extremely difficult time understanding the customer service rep located in India. Since they are located in India, I have no idea why their hours of operation are based on Pacific time! It felt like I was on a bad skype connection or something. A company that has the volume business as Ebay, and the amount of revenue that they generate, you would think that they would invest in some added bandwidth for their VoIP system, or at least use a more reliable VoIP provider than the bottom barrel VoIP service providers.

I am not sure if they still own Skype or not, but the connection quality reminded me strongly of the experiment that I did at my home where I replaced my home phone service with Skype for several months. That experiment failed terribly, and Magicjack provided a much better connection, and simpler solution. It just shows how sad your product really is when the Magicjack can beat you as far as quality, and price.

Well this is just another one of those rant posts. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

I will probably post what I am posting on Ebay here, and on several of the forums that I frequent before putting the stuff up on Ebay. to give people a heads up, and perhaps deal directly with people if possible.

New Blog - Kindle Fire Fanboy

2011-12-11T00:30:00.001-05:00

A few days ago I created a new blog, Kindle Fire Fanboy. I did not have much content prepared, so i did not announce it.

I have been working to add some content to the newly designed blog, and feel that I can now announce it to everyone who visits my other blogs.

You can click HERE to visit the new blog, or click on the new links provided on the top of this page just underneath the NYPHONEJACKS banner.

What to do with a WiFi enabled Blackberry that no longer has service.

2011-12-01T13:45:00.001-05:00

EDIT: Seems that everything broke, strangely except for the built in browser. This is not a top priority of mine, as I have internet access on my new Android phone, and can use my Kindle Fire to browse the web while I am on the phone. I will however play around with this when I have free time, and figure out what settings need to be changed to regain as much functionality as possible.

Since I switched over to an Android phone I no longer have active service on my Blackberry. I have been using my Blackberry on the train as my MP3 player so that I do not kill the battery on my new android phone, but it seems like just using my old Blackberry as a MP3 player is wasting the potential that this device can still do.

Unfortunately I have a CDMA version Blackberry, that means that there is no SIP software that I can install and run, so I am unaware of if any of you GSM Blackberry users can continue to use SIP softphones on your Blackberries.

What I have been able to do so far is to set the default browser as the WiFi browser by going to SETTINGS>ADVANCED OPTIONS>BROWSER then choosing HOTSPOT BROWSER as the default browser, then saving. This enabled me to access the built in browser of the phone to surf the web. For some reason it will not allow me to click on any of my bookmarks - so further testing needs to be done to determine why it is behaving this way.

Other apps that require internet to work are:
Opera browser works just fine over WiFi
Twitter continues to get updates
Google Voice app still updating (although of course you can not use the phone to make calls)

So far I have not been able to get GPS to show my location, AFAIK you should not need a cellular connection or service for GPS to work, so I will need to look into this issue further.

Funny thing of this all? I am using the WiFi hotspot feature of my android phone to power the WiFi of the Blackberry. Well at least it allows me to jump on the internet real quick with the Blackberry while I am on an active call with the Android. Yes I have tested that the hotspot still works while on an active call.

I will update as I find other uses, functionality, or modifications needed to get more use out of my old Blackberry.

History of the telephone

2011-11-30T16:39:00.001-05:00

I researched this information a while ago, and it was sitting in my Google Docs folder. It is a work in progress and is not all inclusive. I tried to keep with most of the major events surrounding the history of telephone communications.

Free DNS service providers.

2011-11-30T11:19:00.001-05:00

EDIT: I made a spreadsheet of the DNS servers posted on this page, may add to it in the future. For now I am just going to provide a link to the spreadsheet instead of publishing it on here, since it is the same information here, minus the source links. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjMbManptfxfdDd2RzBEWHRaU29PUGhDZGg1QmtlcEE

Last night Optimum Online had major issues with their DNS servers leaving many people with out "internet" access. While it was true that most people were not able to use their internet connections during this disruption in service, it is misleading to claim that they lost internet connection. What they did lose was the ability to resolve domain names to IP addresses.

Changing the DNS servers that your computer or network uses to resolve host names resolves issues like the one experienced by Cablevision last night. I do not know why Optimum does not have a contingency plan for an event where their DNS servers go down. Obviously the DNS1 and DNS2 servers that they use must be at the same data center - and quite possibly even on the same server if an outage took out all of their DNS capabilities. This is a major problem for a large internet service provider. They should have redundant servers at multiple data center locations, and should have had the ability to shift traffic from one data center to another almost instantaneously when one or more servers go down. Perhaps they need to take the advise from my post on the importance of network redundancy

Here is a list of DNS servers that you can input into your network adapter settings on your PC, or into your router that are available for free to anyone on the internet regardless of ISP:

These are provided by http://www.opendns.com
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

These are provided by http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

not quite sure who runs it now-a-days, but this one is also pretty easy to remember some links claim owned by level 3
4.2.2.1
4.2.2.2
4.2.2.3
4.2.2.4
4.2.2.5
4.2.2.6

http://www.dnsadvantage.com/ provides these two
156.154.70.1
156.154.71.1

http://www.resolvingnameserver.com/freerns.html provides these for you
208.94.147.150
208.94.147.151

http://www.scrubit.com/ provides these DNS that is family friendly and filter out pornographic websites
67.138.54.100
207.255.209.66

someone over at claims that these are from level3 (could not find the page where they are listed on level 3 website)
209.244.0.3
209.244.0.4

https://dns.norton.com/dnsweb/huConfigureRouter.do offers several options
security: blocks malware sites
198.153.192.40
198.153.194.40
security+pornography, blocks malware and porn
198.153.192.50
198.153.194.50
security+porn+non-family friendly, sounds like a rated G experience (perhaps useful for those with small children)
198.153.192.60
198.153.192.60

http://www.opennicproject.org/ has many DNS servers to choose from
66.244.95.20
74.207.247.4
216.87.84.211
66.90.81.200
64.0.55.201
72.14.189.120
69.164.196.21
72.232.162.195
205.185.120.143
184.154.13.11
128.173.89.246
68.68.18.197
89.16.173.11
192.121.121.14

I could continue to go on forever, I may end up making a spreadsheet of all of these to post at a later date.

Refer to your routers user manual for information on how to change the DNS servers inside of your router, or if you just want to change the DNS on one of your windows computers go to control panel>network and internet connections>network connections and then right click on your LAN adapter and select properties. Scroll to Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) then click properties. Leave the top setting alone which will likely say obtain an IP automatically (do not change this setting, skip over it) instead check the use the following DNS servers, and enter one of the above IP addresses as the primary and one as the secondary. You may need to reset your adapter after making changes before your PC is able to resolve domain names.

Updates 11.28.11

2011-11-28T21:42:00.001-05:00

I finally added the image of the mounted door phone for the wire snaked thru brick post. You can view it by clicking HERE and scrolling to the bottom of the post.

I added an image of someone using a payphone @ trainphones.nyphonejacks.com that post can be viewed HERE.

I added an image of a sign that I found on a building somewhere in midtown Manhattan that seems to have been inspired by OWS/Zuccoti park @ funnycellpix.blogspot.com which can be found HERE.

People, please install your low voltage wiring BEFORE walls go up!

2011-11-26T16:57:00.001-05:00

UPDATE: I returned to this customer to neaten up the patch panel and install the router/switch. An update post can be viewed by clicking HERE

I arrived at this job to install several VoIP phones, and possibly do 1 or 2 CAT5 runs. When I arrived, I found that the restaurant on the first floor was nearly at the final stage of construction. No drop ceilings, laminate walls, and marble floors. The electrician had pulled some low voltage wiring but almost none of it was located anywhere near where they wanted their phones located at.

Unlike most other jobs, most of these photos are photos taken before, not after.

There was a CAT5 run in the ceiling above this post.
It was supposed to be used for an IP camera, but the electrician said I could use it.
I extended the CAT5 from the ceiling and stapled behind this post for the VoIP phone.

There was no CAT5 run behind the bar here, so I had drilled down behind the sink drain,
and ran the wiring on the surface underneath the counter top.

This is some of the low voltage wiring that the electrician left for me.
I stole 2 of his CAT5 drops at this location.
One from the FiOS modem to the network downstairs,
and one from the network downstairs back to the VoIP phone.
I may end up returning and placing the router here, and putting a switch downstairs.

More low voltage wiring installed by the electrician.
Unfortunately the customer did not want a phone at this location.

Steps going down to basement.
Floors are poured concrete between basement and 1st floor.

Tiled walls in basement. Customer wanted a jack at this location.

Another image of the same wall as previous photo.
I ended up taking the face plate off of the electrical outlet.
luckily their was enough space for me to drill thru to the other side of the wall underneath the outlet.
Wire is run on the surface in room on other side of wall.

This is where the electrician brought all of the low voltage drops.

I had to repair these CAT5 jacks in the ceiling.
One is either broken, or going somewhere that I can not trace,
which happens to be the one that I needed to use.
The other goes from the network closet to somewhere that I was unable to trace.
I just swapped the one that I needed to re-route it to the network room.
The other one I just did in case the electrician actually knows where it was going.

Terminating the existing wires that the electrician installed to a 12 port panel.

Existing wires installed by the electrician punched in from top.
New wiring that I had to install on the surface punched down from bottom.

My 12 port panel in the center of the image.
Then all of the existing wiring that the electrician installed all over the place.

My 12 port panel.
Existing wires on top.
My new wires on bottom.

Close up of my 12 port panel installed.

Surface mounted CAT5 wiring.
I really recommend AGAINST stapling CAT5 wiring,
but in this case there was little choice.
I was not about to go out and buy wire molding for this.

Since the wire goes straight down in the panel,
it would not look good with the extra slack on the wall by the panel.
This loop was added so there is slack in the CAT5 wiring
in case changes or repairs need to be made at the panel.
This is the wall directly behind the panel.

Please people, remember your low voltage wiring during the construction phase of your project. Do not think of where you are going to put your phones, computers, cameras, etc after all of the walls have gone up, Especially if you are installing special laminate walls, and marble floors over a poured concrete floor.

I do not like surface mounting wiring, especially not on a new construction, and I do not think that you want to see wiring all over the place after you have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars constructing a new building.

Rethink having the electrician run your low voltage wiring. The electrician is not going to ask the right questions, or have the proper intuition that you are going to want or need wiring at certain locations.

If I were to have had the opportunity to run the wiring when the walls were out there would have been much more CAT5 runs done. I would have pulled 2 drops to each location where they would have possibly needed a phone. I would have also pulled access control wiring to each of the outside doors, and any interior doors leading to offices. I also would have considered the possibility for an overhead paging system in the basement.

What should have been a quick install of 7 VoIP phones and a router - to wiring that should have been installed during the construction phase took 2 long days. (2-8pm day 1 + 11-6pm day2)

I don't do just wiring - replacing drainage in my kitchen sink

2011-11-24T02:31:00.001-05:00

My wife called me in a panic the other day. There was a flood under the kitchen sink. So When I arrived home I found that the drainage pipe was corroded and needed to be replaced. I have lived in this apartment for 5 or 6 years, and this has been replaced at least once since I moved in. Due to the fact that the drainage runs almost horizontally from the strainer to the trap I decided that I would replace it with plastic instead of brass. This should eliminate the potential for the pipe to rot out again.

Hole clearly seen thru top of drainage elbow.

The rotted out brass drainage elbow.

Replaced strainer, tailpipe, and drainage elbows.

Another view of newly installed plastic drainage piping.

Not that it was needed, but I replaced the strainer with a plastic strainer
while I was replacing the drainage pipes.

Old drainage pipes and strainer basket.

I also replaced the washers inside of the sprayer since there was a small drip

Bank of America puts hold on life insurance check and charges overdraft fees even though the life insurance company released the money to BoA

2011-11-11T18:10:00.001-05:00

Bank of America sucks. Here is the story, my wife gave me a check to deposit into our joint account that was drawn off of the life insurance policy she received from her mother. Initially the check was deposited into an ATM machine at Bank of America, but my wife forgot to sign the front of the check. When the charges in the account were initially reversed I went and spoke with the branch manager near where I work. He advised me of what the problem was, and assured me that I would not be responsible for any overdraft fees associated with this check because of the confusion, as long as the check was redeposited once we got it back in the mail.

The check arrived back from BoA, and was signed and redeposited into a BoA ATM machine. It was immediately put on hold for 10 days. (banks love holidays, even though the rest of us have to work) This caused several overdraft fees. Sure I could add funds to cover the negative balance - but I refuse to do so, and should not have to since the money is in the account. My wife called to have the fees reversed, which they did - BUT they turned around and charged another fee the same day that they credited her for the previous overdraft fee. Since I could not reach anyone on the phone the following is what I had to deal with. No information has been changed, the conversation is completely intact - only some personal information has been removed and replaced with bold text indicating what has been removed.

Welcome to an online chat session at Bank of America. Please hold while we connect you to the next available Bank of America Online Banking Specialist. Your chat may be monitored and recorded for quality purposes. Your current wait time is approximately 0 minutes. Thank you for your patience.

Thank you for choosing Bank of America. You are now being connected to a Bank of America Online Banking Specialist.

Jennifer : Hello! Thank you for being a valued Bank of America customer! My name is Jennifer.

Jennifer : How may I assist you with your personal savings and checking accounts today?

You: i would like to know what kind of games you people are playing?

Jennifer : I regret the inconvenience whatever the concern may have caused, however, I will do my best to assist you on that.

Jennifer : Before I can go ahead, can I have your full name as on your bank statement and the last 4 digits of your account number?

You: you hold a check for over 2 weeks that was drawn off of a life insurance policy account - and are continuing to charge overdraft fees to my account when the money is in the account

You: Personal details removed

You: do not understand why i can not get past your IVR to speak with an actual person on a telephone like a civilized person either. .

Jennifer : Thank you for the information, name removed.

Jennifer : Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

Jennifer : I would like to take a moment to review your account to determine the reason behind this deposit hold.

You: what about the overdraft fees? my wife called yesterday to get them removed, only to get assessed another charge the same day.

Jennifer : I understand that getting an unexpected fee can be frustrating, let me review your account.

You: unexpected? what is unexpected is that you hold this check for so long, i have never experienced anything like this before it is completely unacceptable

Jennifer : Please allow me a few moment while I check the information.

Jennifer : I apologize for the delay, please allow me a few more moment to check the information.

You: ok

Jennifer : Thank you.

Jennifer : Thank you for being with me online.

You: don't really have any other choice

Jennifer : After reviewing your account, I can see here that when the funds were deposited on 10/24/11 there was an adjustment or deposit correction made on the account.

Jennifer : I can also see that we have refunded one of the Overdraft fee that was assessed on the account.

You: right, the front of the check was not signed at that time, it was signed and redeposited.

Jennifer : The refund was processed 11/10/11.

Jennifer : Yes, you are correct, I can see that it was deposited on 11/7/11.

You: the branch manager @ branch temporarily removed said i would not be responsible for any overdraft fees associated with this check if it was redeposited

Jennifer : Right now, I can see here that there was a hold place on the deposit for $amount removed

You: what refund was processed on 11/10/11? i see only ONE refund for a previous overdraft fee... then a NEW overdraft fee

Jennifer : Your funds will be available on 11/17/11 by 9 a.m.

You: this whole experience is completely unacceptable...

Jennifer : I apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you.

You: i still have an overdraft fee that i am not responsible for on my account and i have never heard of such a thing that a hold would be placed for so long for a deposit

Jennifer : The refund I am referring to was the one for the previous Overdraft fee and it was processed on 11/10/11

You: you people should be paying me

You: right then you just turned around and added another overdraft fee on top of that

Jennifer : I completely understand that, holds are placed on checks deposited to protect both our customers and the bank from losses in the event that a check is not honored or is returned unpaid from bank on which it is drawn.

Jennifer : The bank follows the Federal Reserve hold guidelines, which were designed to provide time for the check to reach the paying bank and to be returned in the event the check is unpaid.

Jennifer : Let me see what I can with that Overdraft fee.

You: it is a life insurance policy that is in my wifes name going into this bank of america account that she is a joint owner of - insurance company name removed has already released the funds to bank of america

Jennifer : There is no specific dollar amount that will avoid a hold.

Jennifer : The decision to delay funds availability is based on many factors, including your relationship with the bank, the length of the relationship, the combined account balances, the dollar amount, type of check being deposited and the overdraft history on the deposit account.

Jennifer : I suggest that you set up direct deposit in order to prevent holds on a check issued.

You: so you get a lot of bounced life insurance policy checks do you?

You: it is a FUCKI

You: FUCKING life insurance account

Jennifer : I regret the inconvenience this may have caused you, I will do my best to assist you on the Overdraft fee, however, for the check availability, we have to wait for the date mentioned in the system.

You: do not understand how you expect me to direct deposit funds from a life insurance policy that was stupid

Jennifer : That is one way of avoiding hold on a check deposit.

Jennifer : The decision to place a hold is based on many factors, including the account history and overall customer relationship.

Jennifer : Although there is no guarantee holds will be avoided in the future it is less likely when you:

You: i never experienced such problems with checks before

Jennifer : Have an established Account history

You: this is one of the worse experiences that i have ever had to deal with

You: i have been a customer for many years this is absurd

Jennifer : I regret the inconvenience which I understand the fees are causing and we value your business over the years.

Jennifer : Some deposit alternatives such as wire transfer can help you avoid holds with future transactions.

You: or you could just release the funds that have already been released from the account which they were drawn on - this makes on sense.. this is 2011 - everything is interconnected, not like you need to get in a horse and buggy and go to the bank where the check was drawn upon to pick the cash up

Jennifer : I apologize, I am unable to release the hold on the check.

You: look i know that you are not going to do anything about the hold, i am only waiting here to know what you are doing about these ees

You: i think that i have been more than patient

Jennifer : I double checked your account and process the refund, however, we understand things come up from time to time and during those instances we have refunded previous fees on the account.

Jennifer : I apologize, I am unable to provide additional fee refund.

You: what are you saying? i have only disputed fees that should have not been charged in the first place

You: so you are saying that you are not reversing the fee that you are responsible for?

You: hello?

Jennifer : I can understand that you are not happy about the fees. However, the fee was charged due to the recurring debit card transaction that was posted to your account.

You: and the money is in the account so what is the problem?

Jennifer : Please allow me some more moment to check the information.

You: besides the branch manager @branch temporarily removed advised me that i would not be responsible for any fees associated with overdrafts due to this check as long as it was redeposited into the account

You: you are starting to make me feel like i am wasting my time here

You: i do not know what takes so long to click a button on a computer and reverse a fee that should have never been charged

You: hello?

Jennifer : I apologize for the delay, please allow me a few more moment to check the information.

You: with all of the excuses and amount of time that you are wasting i am close to telling my wife to just cancel that check and write a new one to put into my chase account

You: what are you doing over there that is taking so long... i could have wired an entire offices network by now..

Jennifer : I apologize for the delay name removed, I am trying my best to process a refund for the Overdraft fee that was assessed to your account due to the Netflix recurring debit card charge.

You: i really do not understand what is taking so long

Jennifer : I apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you, the system is not allowing me to process the refund as we have refunded Overdraft fees before.

Jennifer : There are several things we can do to avoid the situation in the future, like having an Overdraft Protection and Alert set-up on your account.

You: so so you are wasting my time? so how do i get these unauthorized fees removed

Jennifer : Thank you for your patience, I will be right with you.

You: i really do not have any more patience

Jennifer : I recommend that you visit the Bank of America banking center and request from the Manager if they can override the Overdraft fee that was assessed to your account.

You: i will do that when i am closing out my account

You: this whole experience is unacceptable...

Jennifer : I apologize for the inconvenience, however, we have several ways to avoid the hold and the Overdraft fee.

Jennifer : For the hold it is either you set-up a direct deposit or process a wire transfer.

Jennifer : To avoid the Overdraft fee, you can set-up an Overdraft Protection and alerts on the account.

You: i would like to put in a dispute for unauthorized charges to my account... the fees assessed to my account by your bank

You: i think you are just wasting my time because nothing is different from the time i started chatting with you until now.. and a lot of time has passed....

Jennifer : If you wish to submit a dispute for a certain transaction, we have a Specialized Claims department who will be more than willing to assist you.

Jennifer : Please contact our Specialized Claims department at 1.800.432.1000.

Jennifer : We are available from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday - Friday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday - Sunday your Local time.

You: except today

You: i tried calling - you think i would prefer dealing with someone on the internet than a live person on a phone?

Jennifer : I apologize, it is closed because of the holiday.

Jennifer : However you can contact tomorrow.

You: this was useless and a huge waste of time

Jennifer : I apologize for the delay. I'll be with you shortly.

Jennifer : I regret the inconvenience this may have caused, I have done my best to check if I can refund the fee.

Jennifer : Apart from this, are there any more questions or anything that I can help with?

You: you didnt even help me with this what else could you possibly not help me with ?

Jennifer : I do apologize that we were not able to assist you further with the Overdraft fee.

Jennifer : We do appreciate your business here at Bank of America.

Jennifer : Thank you for choosing Bank of America's Online Chat Service!

Jennifer : To safeguard any personal information, please close this window, by clicking the "Close" button in the upper right corner of this chat window.

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Door phone + keypad install

2011-11-10T20:32:00.001-05:00

Customer had already installed the wiring to the door.

Door phone and keypad mounting brackets installed.

Door phone installed, wiring keypad.

Wiring the keypad.

Door phone and keypad installed (opps! the bracket for the keypad is upside down)

The reason the bracket was initially installed upside down is because

the hole for the wire is on the bottom of the mount, not the top.

RC2A relay installed for door release via phone.

Wiring everything up to the relays, dial tone and power supply.

RC2A mounted and wired.

Everything is done - keypad mount now mounted properly.

Hopefully the wire does not get damaged, since the hole for the

wire is located at the bottom of the mount, and the wire is

run behind the bracket to the hole on the surface of the brick.

Not shown is the Linksys PAP2 that was installed to connect dial tone to the E20B door phone and RC2A relay.

Here is a diagram that I put together that is close to how it is wired (all splices are actually done at the RC2A as you can see in photo above) **upon review of the above image, the solid green wire is going to the door strike not the striped green)***

Unlimited cell phone service for less than $20/mo

2011-11-09T13:30:00.000-05:00

Republic Wireless has just announced a service that will offer cell phone service for about $19 per month with unlimited talk, text and web. They use WiFi as much as possible to keep the costs down. Check the site out at http://www.republicwireless.com/join

Unconventional CAT5 terminations

2011-11-09T12:49:00.001-05:00

Using a single CAT5 wire to terminate 2 data jacks. Since the Orange and Green pairs are only used in a CAT5 cable (not counting PoE or 10/100/1000 installs) the blue and brown pairs are not used, so they can be used to connect as a second "orange" and "green" pair on a second jack (as long as you terminate them both the same way on both ends of the cable). This should be avoided whenever possible, but can help to bring a second CAT5 jack somewhere that would be nearly impossible to pull a

This one is a little bit more creative. I needed to install push buttons for 3 door releases. My company did not want me pulling new runs. There was a CAT5 run near where the buttons needed to go to, but the fax line was connected to it. I installed a 8p8c connector terminated normally (568B) and split off the blue/white pair to a surface mount jack to connect the fax machine to. The remaining 3 pairs each went to a separate door release button. If needed to add more, I could have used a common wire for each button, to increase the amount of push buttons to a maximum of 5 + the fax dial tone. (or 7 if I did not need to have the dial tone working there.) Best thing about this installation, it is easily removable - or its concept can be used for other temporary applications using existing CAT5 wiring.

Phone and network color codes

2011-11-09T12:18:00.001-05:00

I know I posted a text version of the color code HERE but to add to that I made some Images.

For network cables 568B is the most common used color code. To make a straight through or regular patch cord or jack both sides of the cable must be punched down to the same color code (either 568B or 568A). To make a cross over cable one end must be terminated as 568B and the other side as 568A) The only difference in terminations is that the orange and green pairs swap positions.

This is probably the color code that most people wiring a jack is looking for, What colors do the new CAT3/CAT5 colors go to inside of a phone jack since the colors are different. The first 2 (green/red+blue/white) are for line 1. The second pair does not usually need to be connected for residential customers unless they have a 2nd line. Some phone systems require both pairs to be connected.

Here is the color code for the first 25 pairs of a telephone cable. This code repeats itself for cables larger than 25 pair by being wrapped in binder groups using the same color code (with the first 25 pair being wrapped in blue/white, and pairs 26-50 being wrapped in orange/white, etc.)

Need more than 25 pair? the colors will just continue to repeat, just wrapped in a different color binder, but here is what will be in the binders for 50 pair, 75 pair, 100 pair, and 125 pair.

Click the image for a larger view.

Vonage V-phone

2011-10-31T19:45:00.000-04:00

This was in my draft folder since December - not sure why never published...

Vonage V-Phone with 250MB USB Flash Drive

Considerations when moving into a new office.

2011-10-31T19:28:00.000-04:00

[For some reason this was sitting in my draft folder, never published. I wrote this post about 5 months ago.]

If you are starting up a business, or just expanding and are moving into a new location you are going to have lots of things to consider. This is the best time to do some forward thinking.

If you are doing new construction you should consider getting the low voltage tech on site to do a survey early. So many times I have gone out to a job to wire everything up after the construction is completed, or too far along, and have to make holes into newly installed and/or painted sheetrock.

Have your data and telephone wiring run to the same closet. Use at least CAT5 for your phone jacks, as well as data jacks. Every desk location should have at least 2 jacks - either 2 CAT5 jacks (if you are going to be using VoIP phones) or 1 phone jack and 1 data jack. The reason that you are going to want your phone jacks run with a minimum of CAT 5 wiring is that in the future if you decide to move over to VoIP, you will be able to convert your phone jacks to data jacks, and keep your VoIP phones, and computers on two physically separate networks. While most VoIP phones have dual ethernet jacks (one to connect to the network and another to connect your computer) it is best if they are connected to two separate networks. This will eliminate troubles further down the road, and reduce disruption if one network needs to be worked later on.

The reason that you want to bring your phone and network cables to the same location is for future changes and upgrades. If your phone and data networks are at two different locations then you will likely need to pull new cables between these two locations in the future. If you have no choice but to locate your phone and data networks in two separate locations I would recommend pulling several cables between the two locations.

Pull a cable from your communications closet to the main demarc from the telephone company. Pull at least a 25 pair cable. Also pull an RG6 from your communications closet to where the cable comes to the building.

Don't forget all of the extras aside from your computers and telephones. Consider what doors are going to need to be wired for door phones, and door releases. Are you going to need an overhead paging system? Do you need to pull additional wiring for wireless access points? How about CCTV, where do you want to place your cameras? What about additional monitors? While you are at it, consider your conference room. You are probably going to want data/phone jacks and electric under your conference table. What about video presence? Do you want to install hardware for video conferencing, or perhaps want to pre-wire for a future addition of video conferencing? How about an overhead projector?