By Selena Frye From TechRepublic

1st Place: Server Room Nightmare Challenge

Do you think your server room is a mess? Check out these pictures and see if you still think so. Bill Detwiler asked TR members to submit their photos of nightmare server rooms they’ve encountered. TechRepublic editors picked our top three, but it was hard!

We’ve put the winners at the top, but see them in their proper sets, which follow, with more detail and explanation on just what you’re seeing — and in some cases, not seeing.

2nd Place: Server Room Nightmare Challenge

It was a photo-finish with this horrendous hanging garden of cables and equipment from TR member Handyman.

3rd Place: Server Room Nightmare Challenge
This landscape from TR member Tony B. won third for sheer weight and amount of spaghetti cabling!

Remote office do-it-yourselfers
“We had an office in a remote location. No one from the IT group had been there for a site visit in almost 6 years (since the office was first brought online). Due to an extensive inventory we were running, it was necessary for someone to go, and I decided to do it myself.

An office with six users, 1 server, 1 router, 1 switch and 1 PBX, how bad could it be? As you can see, the answer to that question is “very”!! When a user asks, ‘Why can’t we just cable it ourselves,’ feel welcome to pull this one out to show them!!

Credit: NotSoChiGuy

Don’t get clothes-lined in the server room
“You can’t make this stuff up!

Credit: leiby.mark

To view ALL 64  go to: http://www.techrepublic.com/pictures/real-world-server-room-nightmares/?ftag=TREe09998f&bhid=22414566808023710814878762937500