[ILUG] OFF TOPIC: Network Cabling

[Chris Higgins]

On Wed, 03 Mar 2004 17:16:15 +0000
Keith Davey <mush_keithd at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> Sorry for the off topic request, but I have tried google and can't
> find what I am looking for.
> 
> I am working for a company about to move to a new building. We need to
> cable the building
> and we are getting stupid quotes for terminating the network cables.
> We can lay them cheap enough
> but its connecting them to the floor boxes and the patch panels that
> is costing a fortune.
> 
> All in all its looking like almost €70 a cable, which seems crazy to
> me.

What category are they doing for you ? Probably cat6, in which
case you might want to consider looking for cat5 which should
be cheaper. ( but I'd recommend sticking with cat6 )
> 
> Is this something you can do yourself if you buy the right equipment?
> If so what does it involve?

If you don't do it properly then you run the risk of errors
on your network which may (or may not) cause annoyances.

I worked for a company once that had a couple of boys on horses
with ropes and hats install the cabling ( back when we needed
cat3 cabling ).. Everything seemed to work ok for a while and
then the token ring network would sit down ( beacon itself into
the crisis clips of a nuclear meltdown movie ).

Eventually we ended up getting some nice expensive cable testers
to tell us that the boyoz had left us with nothing more than RJ45
terminated telephone lines - and we ended up getting most of
it recabled.

If you're happy enough to recable/crimp as needed then doing it
yourself will only lose you a couple of layers of skin from
your hands and the time involved.... 

That being said - I've had conversations like this with an admin
who recently went from a building where they had rolled their
own network - to one in which they had the job professionally
done and he swears that he's going to recable the first building
as soon as he gets the budget allocated. The difference in 
network stability is that noticable.


> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Keith
> 
> -- 
> Irish Linux Users' Group
> http://www.linux.ie/mailman/listinfo/ilug/
> 


--

Chris Higgins                              Cisco Learning Partner
Darach Technology Ltd                      tel: +353-1-6204370
email: chris.higgins at darach.ie          fax: +353-1-6204371
http://www.darach.ie