Why my email no work?

I'm the IT guy for my employer. They do mechanical contracting and service work.



Today (8/21/08) a trouble ticket arrived from one of our HVAC service division employees. His computer was having trouble sending and receiving email. Another IT tech had visited him the previous week and changed his email from "work offline" to "online" to solve the problem. I honestly expected to do the same. I was in for a surprise.



Directing the software to go back online produced strange results. It was as if the network was constantly connecting and dropping. So, the search for cabling problems began... and ended... quickly. The pictured cable occupied the 5-foot gap between the computer and the wall plate.







The knowledge of why these cables were spliced together will forever be a mystery, as no one will admit to it. Of course, it is blamed on an employee that is no longer with the company.



In the event that division needs future cabling work, they've been encouraged to call IT rather than taking things into their own hands.