Today's photo caption: How to spot a Hairy network problem 

Welcome back to Tech Service Today's IT Disaster of the Week series where we showcase the ugliest IT environment our technicians ran into this week. 

Every Friday the 13th, people almost expect bad luck, misfortune, and bizarre experiences. But rarely does an IT professional encounter a patch cable that looks long overdue for a haircut.

I'd like to say this week's disaster photo is a scene from a horror movie in which network cables come to life. But one of our field technicians actually discovered this hairy cable while working on a customer's network.

If you're wondering what the "hair" is, it is in fact the frayed metal braided sleeve that surrounds the copper pairs inside a shielded cable. While there is nothing wrong with having braid shield inside a cable, we are calling this a disaster for two reasons:

First, when you terminate/crimp a plug on the end of a shielded cable, the braided sleeve should never extend beyond the RJ-45 connector. Clearly it extends so far outside of this connector that I'm surprised no one braided it or gave it some fancy dread locks.

The second reason we call this a failure is that an unshielded RJ-45 connector was used to terminate the end of a shielded cable. In order for shielded cables to work effectively (meaning combat the effects of EMI in electrically noisy environments on your network data), you need to have shielded connectors on both ends of the cable. (In fact, if EMI is a big issue in your environment, you should be using a shielded patch panel too.) 

If you are uncertain how or when to use shielded network cabling, call TST or any network cabling technician for help. Otherwise, you may find yourself facing a hairy situation just like this one.