Plug.It.In

Today, I helped some interns solve a mystery in the office. They were having some problems connecting their PCs to the network and had asked me for assistance. I started off by checking whether their Windows XP had detected the network cards and have installed the correct drivers. Everything checks out fine.

I then suspected that they may not be plugged into the network and so I asked them. Confidently, they replied that their machines were plugged in. I ran ipconfig and still the machines did not report any IP addresses. I asked them again and they said, "Yes! Plugged In, white wire".

Feeling suspicious, I went to the other cubicle and pulled some new network cables. Then I plugged them in to the switch and tested them on my notebook. Lights went *Blinkie* *Blinkie*. I told them to use the new cables instead. So, they crawled under the table but did not come up for quite sometime.

I was curious and asked them what's wrong. They replied, "cable is stucked". Feeling puzzled I said, "Press the clip to release", demonstrating with a spare connector. "Can't it is stucked", they replied. So, I tied up my hair and went down there ...

I see a RJ11 connector stuffed into the RJ45 port. In layman's term, a telephone line plugged into the network card. The RJ11 connector was plugged in so deep that it cannot be unplugged.

I felt like I wanna explode but then I maintained my calm. I even made sure that the network card is not actually a modem card. After pulling out the telephone cables, patiently, I explained to them...

Holding the RJ11 connector I said, "This is a RJ11 connector. It is for telephone lines. At home, your Streamyx uses this". Holding the RJ45 connector, "This is a RJ45 connector and it is used to connect to the office network. As you can see it is slightly larger". And they went, "Oh...".

PS. I'm kinda worried for these dudes.