Spent 3 hours at a client site in Pittsburgh last week because of bad cable labeling

I was working on a server rack for a small law firm downtown and every single cable was labeled with faded masking tape numbers. Turns out someone had moved a bunch of patch cables around without updating the labels. I had to trace each one by hand with a toner probe. What system do you all use for keeping cable labels accurate over time? I am thinking of switching to a label maker with heat shrink sleeves.

2 comments

2 Comments

wyatt_green311mo ago

Heat shrink labels are a game changer trust me. I switched a few years back and never had to retrace a single cable since. Just make sure you leave enough slack for future changes so you aren't cutting and redoing them every time someone breathes on the rack.

danielw881mo ago

Oh man @wyatt_green31 you're totally right, the slack thing is huge. I learned that the hard way when I had to redo an entire rack because someone moved a switch six inches left. Now I always leave a little loop of extra cable just in case, it saves so much headache later.