networking hardware | Progressive Office Cabling

Shielded or Unshielded Cat6 cable?

22 Feb 2013

cat6-cabling,data cabling, With high bandwidth applications and network systems venturing into factory environments, the need for shielded Cat 6 cable has increased. In these new areas of installation, the environment where the network cable is run has large amounts of EMI (Electro-Magnetic Interference). Although Cat 6 cables have improved cable twist to reject noise and handle gigabit Ethernet this by itself is not enough for high EMI environments. A shielded Cat 6 cable helps in high EMI installations. These high performance cables ensure the data within the cable will be protected from EMI, resulting in higher speeds and better data transmission.

Grounding Necessities for Shielded Cat 6 cables

Shielding helps protect the data from electromagnetic interference from outside sources that could alter or weaken the signal traveling through the copper in the cable. The shields of the two connectors are electrically tied together by the drain wire. However, they will only become grounded if the jack they are placed in has its shielding tied to ground. If you are setting up a network with Category 6 shielded cables, you should use Cat 6 shielded couplers and jacks.

Installation caveats

Category 6 and 6a cable must be properly installed and terminated to meet specifications. The cable must not be kinked or bent too tightly (the bend radius should be at least four times the outer diameter of the cable). The wire pairs must not be untwisted and the outer jacket must not be stripped back more than 1/2 inch (1.27 cm).

All shielded cables must be grounded for safety and effectiveness and a continuous shield connection maintained from end to end. Ground loops develop when there is more than one ground connection and the difference in common mode voltage potential at these ground connections introduces noise into the cabling.

Network Cabling Issues

4 Jan 2013

Stu Kushner

Cat5 ,Cat6 ,lan cable Given that labor costs for installation are much higher than the material cost for cable; your first requirement is to use the highest grade cable available. Cat5e is the most common, but Cat6 is becoming the standard as it is rated for a higher frequency signal, a somewhat higher cable quality, and has tighter specifications for noise and crosstalk. Both Cat5e and Cat6 can handle gigabit speeds.

Both Cat5e and Cat6 use 10BaseT “twisted-pair” cabling, because it is ideal for either small, medium, or large networks that need flexibility and the capacity to expand as the number of network users grow. In a twisted-pair network, each PC has a twisted-pair cable that runs to a centralized hub. Twisted-pair is generally more reliable than thin coax networks because the hub is capable of correcting data errors and improving the network's overall transmission speed and reliability. Also known as “up linking” hubs, they can be chained together for even greater expansion.

Should you install the cabling yourself, or hire a contractor? The smaller the office network, the more tempting it is to install cabling in-house. While this will save installation costs, it is important to be sure that all the cabling is installed and tested to professional standards. If your network encompasses multiple rooms-and/or floors, then hiring a professional cable installer that has experience with data communications networks is the safest and most practical route. General electricians may not be familiar with all the requirements. Experienced cable installers such as Progressive Cabling will know the right grades of cables and connectors and have the knowledge and equipment to install and test a cabling system.

US Court of Appeals Veterans Affairs – Cabling Project Notes

18 Jun 2012

Stu Kushner

Project Objectives (Do not call, this project has been COMPLETED)

Number of Drops: 360 (140 duals, and 20 quads)

Ceiling: Non-plenum, separate ducting

Racks: Enclosed, 19”, will already be installed by customer

Switches: Provided by customer, 48 port

Patch cables: None necessary. They will provide patch cables from wall plate to computers and from patch panels to switches.

Labeling and documentation of all cabling is important. How this looks is important to them. Please provide a spreadsheet of all wallplates and rooms.

Location is behind elevators.

All workstation runs will terminate in wiring closet behind elevators.

We will mount patch panels in this closet on the wall. Use 24port, Cat5e, patch panels.

They will mount racks for switches.

4 pairs of fiber will run from the closet to the server room on the same floor. We are to provide the cabling plant for the fiber.

Server Room:

2, 24 port patch panels per rack.

Cabling plant for fiber to switch closet.

Existing server room

They want cable management hardware to be part of the solution. What you see in this room is what they’re cleaning up and looking to make high end and professional in the new location. Photos here include existing fiber. Note the ceiling cable management rack. In the new location these will be in place in the server room and along the ceiling in the main hallways.

New server space - Roughed in area they’re moving to.

General Floor Space:

Quad drops in each office and cube in the technology area

Dual drops in all other offices

6 drops for cable t.v.

Wall facing outside is already dry walled and insulated

Part of that wall has large window with wall space under it. Customer is unsure if drops will go there or anywhere along that outside wall.

Includes the outside wall. They’re not sure if there will be drops along this wall. If so it’ll be interesting because of the insulation. Also note that they MAY want drops under the windows along this wall.

There are some pictures of the ceiling details. Also note that the client will already have cabling runners ceiling mounted down the middle of the two main hallways to the server room.

Special Fiber Optic Line Item Bid:

US Court of Appeals wants this as a line item so they can choose to add this work or not when they’re doing the budget.

Fiber runs between floors. The floor plan represents the 6th floor. 14 runs broken out as follows. A single 6-strand fiber cable will be run from the 6th to each floor in the table below. Three strands will be connected and three will be left as spares.

# of Runs	Floor
3	11th
3	10th
3	9th
3	2nd
2	Mezzanine

12’ ceilings, concrete floors.

Conduit already exists between the floors. We have to repack the conduit we use with fire stop putty to meet fire code. See photos of the “Switch closet” for conduit images.

Make Your Business More Secure with Network Cabling

21 Jan 2011

Stu Kushner

Network Cable Security Every day you gather more information that is critical to the success of your business. Sales and customer service people compile new customer contact information, inventory is managed, quotes are generated and sales information is tallied.

Tying all of your office computer equipment together in a network gives you the opportunity to

Office Network Cabling,Cat6 Cable, Network Patch Cable

Determining Your Office Network Cabling Needs

14 Jan 2011

Stu Kushner

Office Cabling, Network CablingNetwork Patch Cable A faster office is a more productive office right? That means, because you wish your computer equipment to operate at the speed of light, that Cat6 cable is the only way to go – or is it?

Just because you are making upgrades to faster equipment office wide, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll have to invest in Cat6 cable. It’s true that Cat6 has twice the bandwidth of Cat5 and that it is far superior in performance than either Cat5 or Cat5e. Cat6 is also capable of transferring data at a much faster rate, but in most regular office applications Cat5e is more than capable of handling the required workload.

Your new computers, internet service and office communication system may be much faster than the one that you are replacing, but that’s not the only thing to consider when selecting a networking cable. If you aren’t transferring exceedingly large amounts of data or operating virtual PCs, Cat6 cable may be much more cable than you need and cost much more money than you need to spend.

Network Cabling, Data Cabling ,Cat5e ,Cat6/6a Cabling

Computer Network Patch Panel

23 Dec 2009

Stu Kushner

Network Cabling ,Data Cabling, Cat5e, Cat6/6a Cabling A patch panel is an in-line series of connections mounted onto a frame to enable network cables to be terminated in an orderly manner. Typically, the panel is the termination point of network cabling drops that are installed in a office or residential cabling system.It is numbered and comes in 12-port, 24-port, 48-port and 96-port configurations. The numbering of the panel ports allows for the network installer to label the wallplates to match the corresponding connection at the patch panel.

Patch panels are most commonly used for computer data networks but as Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phone systems become more common, we are seeing phone systems being terminated into panels. They are wall or rack-mounted. In small offices, a 12 or 24-port patch panel might be wall-mounted to a wooden mounting board. Larger office networks will usually require a rack mounted series of panels.

The patch panel comes in Cat5, Cat5e and Cat6 types to match the cable being installed. The connections on the panel are RJ45 that are designed to allow for a cable to "punch-downed" into the connector. The connector has 8 punch down points to accommodate the 4-pairs of wires in a Cat5/6 cable.

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