[Asterisk-Users] [OT] Old Building Needs a New Telephone System

[Joe Greco]

> Joe Greco wrote:
> >>We have a 100 year old building here in Colorado that needs a new
> > 
> > Your best bet may be something like this:
> > 
> > http://www.3com.com/products/en_US/detail.jsp?tab=features&pathtype=purchase&sku=WEBBNCNJ220SYS
> 
> I can't find a schematic for the IntelliJack--can I have Ethernet and 
> PoE over two pair?

Hmm, didn't think about the PoE.  That's probably difficult to fix with
any technology, if you really need power centralized.

A question you really ought to be asking yourself is whether or not there
*really* is any way to rewire for Cat5/6.  Any older building that has 
Cat3 in it suggests that it was an after-build job (heheh).  In a small
percentage of such cases, it may have been done as part of extensive
remodelling work, where walls were torn apart, etc., in which case you
may be unable to use the old runs to pull new.  However, in most other
cases, the wires were simply run "as convenient", and such convenience
tends not to change much over time.

Having worked in older buildings in the past, when the answer is "can't",
the question should become "why not".  There may well be a Really Good
Reason, but there may also be a really silly reason.  I've done sites
where we've placed heavy UPS systems and rows of racks on floors that
were originally spec'd for a fraction of the weight.  The initial answer
was "can't do it".  The final answer was "well, yes, you actually can 
cut through to structural steel, weld a 4" modern steel cap bar to the
existing old steel I-beam, and triple the strength of the beam so that 
you can lay load distributing steel on top of the floor."  Took a few
engineering hours and some pesky permits, but in the end nobody had a
good reason that the "impossible" /couldn't/ be done.

I'd investigate - very carefully - the actual reasons you can't rewire,
and the feasibility of possibly doing so.  It may actually be the most
intelligent thing to do.

Otherwise, you might be stuck handing out small UPS's all over the place.
That's not a terrible fix, BTW, though it is far from ideal.

... JG
-- 
Joe Greco - sol.net Network Services - Milwaukee, WI - http://www.sol.net
"We call it the 'one bite at the apple' rule. Give me one chance [and] then I
won't contact you again." - Direct Marketing Ass'n position on e-mail spam(CNN)
With 24 million small businesses in the US alone, that's way too many apples.