Upgrading Office Spaces with Cat6 Wiring in Atlanta, GA: The Progressive Office Cabling Advantage
Elevate Your Business Connectivity with Progressive Office’s Expert Cabling Solutions in Atlanta, GA
Empowering Atlanta’s Businesses: The Transition from T1 to Fiber Optic Connectivit
Guide to Proper Cable Management at Your Business
Most companies depend on cabling for data and electricity, but its management is often overlooked. However, safety, functionality and organization are important, no matter what type of business you have. The following will discuss how your company can benefit from proper cable management.
Safety
Management is responsible for ensuring that their facilities are up to code and their company areas are safe for customers and employees. Companies should deploy cable floor cord covers to prevent liability issues and to protect cables from crushing foot traffic.
Reduce Maintenance Time
Staff can reduce cabling maintenance time by being able to quickly and easily differentiate types of wiring. Otherwise precious time and labor costs are wasted in untangling and sorting through strands of cables. Best structured cabling practices call for properly classifying and labeling cables while consulting with professionals regarding proper implementation.
Conserve Resources
Proper cable management will give your workplace a tidier and organized appearance. A benefit from this practice is maximizing the service lives and performance of the cables of your network. If cables are piled up on the floor or left hanging behind racks, they are more vulnerable to being damaged. The introduction of an efficient and market-proven cable management system will allow you to conserve financial resources and delay the replacement of network cables by extending their lifespan.
Clean Work Environment
One aspect of proper cable management that is rarely discussed is the need to clean cables regularly. A clean work environment will not only be healthier and safer for employees, it will give your company an image of professionalism. Consult with an experienced cabling expert regarding highly-rated products in the market that will help to efficiently organize cables in your workplace so they can be easily cleaned.
Progressive Office Cabling
Founded in 1986, Progressive Office’s success has been a direct result of years of commitment to seeking solutions on behalf of our clients in the Washington, D.C. and New York City areas. Efficiently working together, Progressive teams get cabling installed and operating as fast as possible while minimizing disruption and downtime. Call our toll free number (800) 614-4560 today.
Why Your Company Should Avoid CCA Cabling – Part 2
As discussed in Part 1, companies that have a limited budget for network infrastructure may end up buying copper clad aluminum (CCA) cabling to save money. Although marketed as a sufficient substitute for solid copper cabling, CCA cables are far from being the right answer for trimming budgets. Part 2 will continue discussing CCA cabling related issues and counterfeit copper cabling.
Shortened Cable Runs
As lengthier CCA cable runs approach the 100-meter maximum, there will be a decrease of signal strength in comparison to solid copper CAT5e cabling. Reduced signal strength can result in data loss because increased packets of data must be retransmitted.
Unsuitable for Power Over Ethernet (PoE)
Since CCA wires have a higher DC resistance (about 55% greater) than solid copper, its conductors may need to be 60% larger than solid copper to compensate. Without resistance compensation, the drop in voltage will be greater for any channel length.
Longer cable runs of 65 meters or more will surpass TIA’s channel DCR requirements, limiting the available voltage for the device. In addition, higher resistance will result in a faster buildup of radiant heat, which may damage the device.
How to Identify CCA Cabling
CCA wire is also much more brittle than solid copper wire. Identifying CCA is easy because all you need to find is the silver color of the tip of the conductor. Another way is scraping away the thin copper surface of the conductor to reveal the aluminum.
CCA cables also weigh much less than solid copper cables. Go to the CCCA website for the CableCheck™ mobile app (http://cccassoc.org/news/free-apps/), which provides the approximate correct box weights to help detect CCA conductors being used to fraudulently substitute for solid copper conductors.
When a CCA cable is labeled as a Category 5e, 6 or 6A cable or CMP or CMR rated, it is counterfeit cable. It will also be non-compliant with industry performance standards and will pose a hazard by being unable to pass UL fire safety testing.
Progressive Office Cabling
Founded in 1986, Progressive Office’s success has been a direct result of years of commitment to seeking solutions on behalf of our clients. Efficiently working together, Progressive teams get cabling installed and operating as fast as possible while minimizing disruption and downtime. Call our toll free number (800) 614-4560 today.
Why Your Company Should Avoid CCA Cabling – Part 1
If your company has a limited budget for network infrastructure, your team may be tempted to find numerous way to economize. Unfortunately, this may lead to buying CCA cabling in order to save money. Although marketed as a sufficient substitute for solid copper cabling, CCA cables are far from being the right answer for trimming budgets.
Definition of CCA
CCA stands for copper coated aluminum. A CCA cable’s core is an inner aluminum conductor that is coated with copper. As a result, it weighs considerably less than solid copper cables.
A CCA cable can be made at a significantly reduced cost than the solid copper version. This gives a manufacturer an increased profit margin and a significant competitive edge over those companies who continue making solid copper cable.
CCA cables may look similar and are advertised to function just like standard CAT5e or CAT6 cabling, but they have serious flaws that could result in network issues, business continuity problems, and safety hazards as discussed below.
Non-Compliant
CCA twisted pair cables are non-compliant with UL and TIA standards, which require solid or stranded copper conductors. The National Electrical Code (NEC) also does not provide CCA cabling a valid safety listing. Thus, CCA cables cannot be installed legally if the facility requires CM, CMG, CMP, CMR, or CMX rated cables.
Inflexible
As CCA conductors are brittle and easily break, just transferring a faceplate or patch panel can result in failures. CCA wires have low tensile strength, and they are known to break from shearing or pulling, which can happen during packaging or delivery. Moreover, CCA cables have a very limited bend radius.
Oxidation
Aluminum begins oxidizing very rapidly when it is exposed to air. This oxidation and the resulting corrosion may lead to failed terminations inside the network infrastructure, resulting in connectivity issues.
Part 2 will continue discussing CCA cabling related issues and counterfeit copper cabling.
Progressive Office Cabling
Founded in 1986, Progressive Office’s success has been a direct result of years of commitment to seeking solutions on behalf of our clients in the Washington, D.C. and New York City areas. Efficiently working together, Progressive teams get cabling installed and operating as fast as possible while minimizing disruption and downtime. Call our toll free number (800) 614-4560 today.
How Improper Cabling Causes Network Issues – Part 2
As discussed in Part 1, the performance issues of your company’s network may be directly related to improper cabling. Part 2 will discuss Compatibility, Patch Cords, and Poor Installation.
Compatibility
Issues occasionally arise when coupling cabling and connectivity from various manufacturers. The use of jacks from one manufacturer with cabling from another, and then patch panels from a third firm is an example. This combination may result in compatibility problems. When components that are not intended by design to function together are used, network performance issues will likely result.
Purchasing top of the line high-performance cables, while utilizing lower-quality connectivity components, will produce a weak link in the chain. Cable of the highest quality will be unable to attain its full performance potential when it is married to jacks, patch panels, and plugs that are not rated to support its capabilities.
Patch Cords
Patch cords may be the top reason why there are issues in network performance.
Your company may have installed a high performance cabling infrastructure of the highest quality, but if low-quality patch cords were purchased to economize, network speed, signal quality, and overall performance will be compromised.
Poor Installation
Vetting the cabling services team you hire is perhaps the most important factor in the prevention of network performance issues. Check that the company you are considering has technicians that are properly trained and certified to install the cabling system you have chosen.
When cable installers are not properly trained, it will greatly increase the probability that your company’s structured cabling system will not be properly installed. Incompetent installation can result in problems such as improper pulling, excessive bending, and cable being installed too near sources of signal interference like large motors and machinery.
Poorly trained technicians will leave cabling that is not properly terminated or correctly polished. Sloppy work and insufficient attention to detail during installation will usually result in poor network performance, along with costly and time-consuming efforts to address the problems the substandard work caused.
Progressive Office Cabling
Founded in 1986, Progressive Office’s success has been a direct result of years of commitment to seeking solutions on behalf of our clients in the Washington, D.C. and New York City areas. Efficiently working together, Progressive teams get cabling installed and operating as fast as possible while minimizing disruption and downtime. Call our toll free number (800) 614-4560 today.