this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2025
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Funny

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 days ago (4 children)

It was only a particular kind of RJ45 boot that caused the issue, so if you are sensible and don't use a cable boot you never ran into the issue.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Just saying, this is not the fault of a single engineer but of a whole company that didn't think "try all common cable types" should be a required testing step before a network switch goes into mass production.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago

Cisco is where good engineering goes to die.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

You don't have to test every cable boot. Just have a design guide that says "Don't put buttons above or below ports."

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That can be difficult to accomplish...

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Looks like they learnt and made a recess for the buttons.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 days ago

And it's not in the center of the port. It's in between two ports where a boot should never be in the way.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago
[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

if you are sensible and don't use a cable boot you never ran into the issue.

Uh... huh? What, you're anti-boot?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Boots suck. Good connectors just have the tab be more of an inverted V shape, so it doesn't catch but you don't need to squish a hard plastic boot to remove it.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Like in the image? That's... a boot. Not a full one, but still a boot. (Side note: I'm starting to sound Canadian in my own head.) But I agree. The "snagless" ones are the best of both worlds: you can pull a cable through without it catching on anything, but still press down the plastic retention clip when the collar gets old and stiff.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Nah like this:

Instead of like this:

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I've never seen one of those outside of this image.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They're pretty common in nicer datacenter environments. Newer cat6a is only 28awg (tiny and easy to work with!) and can do 10gb just fine.

For example:

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago

Huh, good to know. Next time I'm looking for cable, I'll keep this in mind. Thanks.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Ah. It's better than nothing but I still have had trouble pulling cables like the top image. Those blocky edges get caught on things...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

i choose to believe this particular engineer saw the potential for this issue, but just hated those cables with a burning passion.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 days ago

I could see it also being a problem if you're trying to remove a cable with a stuck latch. Wiggle it around a bit, accidentally hold down the button... oops