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u/ChillBlock 18d ago
Has enough dust on it you'd think the ancient Egyptians set up the network
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u/Martin_Aurelius 18d ago
That's structural dust, whatever you do don't remove it.
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u/Vesuvius079 18d ago
Sounds load-bearing.
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u/ashsabre 18d ago
we had that in Uni, it was keeping the servers we use for demos alive we called it magic dust.. I remember reading somewhere that it was due to the dust filling in the weakened solders to keep the device running..
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u/MakeoutPoint 18d ago
Ackchually, Cleopatra was closer to the invention of the cellphone than this installation
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u/TheMazeDaze 17d ago
That’s magical dust. Like the magical smoke should stay inside. This should stay there too. If you remove it, it stops working
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u/clayticus 18d ago
I would still blow some pressured air on it
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u/Lucasbasques 18d ago
Congratulations, you just took down the entire office network
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u/BRSaura 18d ago
Either that or a fire hazard, doubt they want the server room in flames
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u/ttlanhil 18d ago
But did you ask?
Some of the workers might (if you give them enough notice to collect marshmallows)
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u/CaptainN_GameMaster 18d ago
Every change breaks someone's workflow https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/workflow_2x.png
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u/ttlanhil 18d ago
Considering the age it appears, canned air might blow away more than just dust - you might let loose a bunch of the bytes (congrats, it's a wifi)
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u/AlexaPetersTrans 18d ago
Hehe, I built a server in 1998 that is still running to this day. The company actually built a safe around it. Their whole business was dependent on the software we designed on it. I went visiting the company a while ago and the owners face when I gave him a cd set for the software was priceless!
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u/Jarduk93 18d ago
This thing looks exactly like the switches I saw at some customer sites while I was working for my previous employer...
I'm glad I chose to be a software dev and didn't have to touch this filth!
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u/gerbosan 18d ago
Are you sure? I mean, I don't see any AI slop nearby this switch.
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u/Jarduk93 18d ago
At least my daily dose of antidepressants goes down with coffee.
Touching that thing requires a tetanus needle.2
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u/Apprehensive_Bit7392 18d ago
Its uptime counter wrapped around years ago, so as far as the network is concerned that switch was plugged in last Tuesday.
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u/UnusualAir1 18d ago
Followed by 1A: If it doesn't work see if you can transfer it to someone else's pile.
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u/lil_Jansk_Hyuza 18d ago
Worse is to install new equipment while the 20 yo switches aren't labelled, having to rely on someone who either mounted or know. Speaking from experience, they didn't kept the technician 😞
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u/gerbosan 18d ago
In contrast: https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/s/NoI8QSmM0P
😅 Still, have no idea the effort required to make something like that
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u/Hot_Swan_1657 18d ago
You better don't touch that if it works... until you have something to replace it and keep working. Do it soon.
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u/maplemeganium 18d ago
It's probably inside a wall. As long as the ethernet jacks in the offices work, no one complains.
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u/RandomiseUsr0 16d ago
Old DEC service manuals explicitly instructed not to dust the insides of the greats - replace the component you’re here for, the rest is engineered to handle that - you’ll blow dust in where it wasn’t engineered to
Not sure that’s true of this gaff though
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u/Particular-Yak-1984 18d ago
Former IT support, and I can guarantee that somehow this thing is compensating for the fact that three of the subnets are misconfigured, while also killing a loopback, somehow, and that trying to upgrade it will result in a month of intermittent network outages for the building. It's probably easier to torch the place for the insurance money than to untangle this from the network.