Dan Mahoney, System Admin wrote:
Upon leaving a router at telx and asking one of their techs to plug in the equipment for me, I came back to find all my cat5 cables neatly tied with some sort of waxed twine, using an interesting looping knot pattern that repeated every six inches or so using a single piece of string. For some reason, I found this trick really cool. As others have already indicated (and with some good links) it's cable lacing.
For how to's .. find anyone that has done a recognised apprenticeship in electrical, telecommunications, RF, or "multiskill" (electical/electromechanical/mechanical) and ask them to teach you (in this day and age of training courses, that probably means finding someone over the age of 35). Also you could ask your friendly local full license, old school radio ham etc etc... It's a dying skill, not because it isn't good, but because it takes training/practice and time. Tiewraps (Zip ties) are cheap, quick and require little (if any) training. Regards, Mat