Does Not Fit

[ravenofdreams.livejournal.com]

I was called in to fix a networked printer that's not on the network any longer.  Printer is on, no error lights, so I go to check the cables going to the wall - and it's black.  ...Strange - in an effort to make our lives easier, all our network cables are blue.  I lean down.... and it's the USB cable, somehow crammed into the wall jack.

...Bwha? 
I don't know where they got the cable from, where the network cable went, or which one of them got that USB cable to stick in there, but damn, someone has a ton of stubborn and not so much brains.  (I got back to my desk and my coworker asked if the wall jack was at least USB 2.0.)

Comments

[museology.livejournal.com]

..Wtf? Uh. Right.

That reminds me of someone attempting to ram a flash drive into the floppy drive on an ancient computer.

[the-reda.livejournal.com]

... HOW? How did they get that to fit... hammer?

[the-reda.livejournal.com]

Colleague of mine tried to connect to the (LAN) internet via phone cable. He used tape to get the too small cable to stick ...

[spooforbrains.livejournal.com]

I've discovered a couple of times that it is entirely possible, if not paying attention, to put a USB connector (type A) into the LAN port on the back of a laptop, and not notice what you have done until it comes to the point of diagnosing why the mouse isn't bloody working.

Seriously, I've done this TWICE now.

[phrogg.livejournal.com]

Well, USB is theoretically capable of running TCP/IP services, so why wouldn't that work?!

[gholam.livejournal.com]

That's why you use bluetooth mice.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

USB on the printer side, Type B on the wall side I'm guessing.

I hate Type B - I swear it makes people stupid. I once found someone jam it in SIDEWAYS.

[drquuxum.livejournal.com]

I wish to renew my call for more Power-over-Ethernet ports...if only to see the aftermath.

[mouse-from-marz.livejournal.com]

OWOWOWOWOWOWOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!

seriously, this made my brain hurt.

[laptop-mechanic.livejournal.com]

Because the world is always better with more Etherkiller action! =)

[laviededavid.livejournal.com]

you should of taken a pic of it and gave it the caption "YOUR DOING IT WRONG!11!!"

I would like to second this call.

[adythiel.livejournal.com]

Please, this needs to happen if for nothing more than to teach people not to screw with things they shouldn't be touching in the first place.

[bamatone.livejournal.com]

Yep, done that myself on multiple occasions.

[mynameisnotreal.livejournal.com]

Was it? ;->

[lihan161051.livejournal.com]

I know of one manufacturer that actually had to re-engineer their Ethernet ports because one of the most common customer screwups was to connect their phone line to the "modem" port on the computer, not be able to connect to the Internet, and call screaming mad because "the modem doesn't work and my phones don't work when it's connected, it has to be defective" .. and of course the "modem" port is actually the Ethernet LAN port. (Got confusing when people did this on machines that didn't have internal modems in the config, and no modem drivers bundled as a result. :)

And as a result of that, of course, the actual Ethernet cables can often be a bear to insert and even more difficult to remove. :/

(A USB type "A" connector will actually fit fairly comfortably in a standard Ethernet RJ-45 jack ..)

[sdaemon.livejournal.com]

WIN!

I once rammed a hole through a wall to pass a USB cable through to the other side, but that's a little different I guess...

[rev-thumper.livejournal.com]

I did this the other day with a Firewire 400 cable. Took me about 5 minutes to notice is was in the LAN port on the laptop. Sigh.

[wignersfriend.livejournal.com]

It goes against the old telco addage.

It doesn't touch, therefore it does not talk.