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New Cable Installation – ideas?

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Well I’m going to be installing network jacks for about 130 nodes. This is a completely brand new installation being installed with new construction. Our existing cabling is a mix of CAT5 and CAT5e cable segments, the oldest being about a decade old(about 60%) and the newest segments being about 2 weeks old (about 40%).

Since this is my chance for a “fresh” cable installation I’m thinking about going all CAT6 this time.

I have a few bits of information about this though.

1) For a replacement installation to Cat5/5e would you go CAT6 right now?

2) Am I going to run into any issues using CAT6 cabling with my existing server and client ethernet NICs?

3) Do you know a good vendor that can premake each of my 130 runs, to length? I’m trying to save myself from making the cables on my own, since I have to do the installs myself already — the company has denied me from hiring a professional cable installation firm. They want to save the money.

Thanks for the input.

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Be Super Careful !

In reply to New Cable Installation – ideas?

I don’t know any cable vendors but whoever you use make TOTALLY sure of your run lengths … then add at least 10%

I’ve been there and just when you are quite sure you’ve got it right and allowed ‘plenty’ of slack the f***** comes up 3 feet short because it had to go round a previously unseen obstruction in the roof void! You look rather silly I can tell you.

Just a thought !

Sticky.

CAT5e ans CAT6 the same.

In reply to Be Super Careful !

many customers ask me to quote on Cat6 runs, but legally I can’t. Cat6 has no standards set yet and is still not regulated by the CRTC (in Canada). CAT5e is ‘supposed’ to give up to a gig throughput, so is CAT6. Again CAT6 is still unregulated and at the decision of the hardware vendor, your hardware warranties can be voided.
I’d opt for the CAT5e but you can save a lot of money by making your own from a roll of 5e or making it from a standard roll of CAT5 and twisting the extra pair to make your own 5e and saveing even more money (it isn’t hard at all).

Cabling companies

In reply to New Cable Installation – ideas?

Hire an interconnect telephone company to run your network cables.
Here’s how it works around here (BC)
Cabling company, running CAT5 and 5e for a couple of years. $140.00/hr plus materials

Interconnect telephone company, running telecom and network cable for 22 years. $82.00/hr

Not only have telecom companies been running cable longer than the so called specialists, they are cheaper to boot!

Does anyone read anymore? lol

In reply to New Cable Installation – ideas?

Respectfully I thank anyone who takes the time to offer their own advice was I ask for it. However I wonder how many people read the whole post before they respond?

Hiring a company to do the installs if off the table, as I said in my original post, I already proposed a company to do the installs – they don’t want to spend the money since they know they have in-house people (me and my group) that can do it. Even if its cheap they still don’t want to spend the cheap money on it.

Next, CAT6was ratified (finally) in June 2002 – this information according to IEEE.ORG. Admittably I’m not sure if that’s the same thing as a full certified standard – but I always “thought” it meant the standard was approved. Cat 6 is very similar to Cat 5e, but its NOT the same. Cat 6 handles a significantly higher frequency (up to 550 mhz) than Cat5e. Cat 6’s primary difference isn’t physical, however, the specs on CAT6 are much more strict than those to qualify a CAT5 cable. Because of this, the quality of the transmission on a CAT6 spec’d run versus CAT5 spec’d run should be significantly cleaner (less noise). Finally CAT6 was proposed soley with high bandwidth applications in mind – like video for instance, that’s why the standard is so much more strict for a quality connection. All this information came from researching books and websites from IEEE.org, BICSI.org and Cisco.com.

And btw, lol, I know what you mean about having cable longer than you think you need it — I’ve learned thehardway about 10 years ago when I did my first cable installation (good ol’ CAT3).

Hey Tom,

In reply to New Cable Installation – ideas?

The local small business shops here cut cable to length (I assume you still have to punch it down yourself into a panel and the wall jacks), but I got my company on several occasions now to pay one of the directors college kid to come in and cut ANDfish cable for me while I test and punch down. They didn’t want anyone else hired, and so I quoted them the cut price vs. the bulk spool and asked if anyone they knew that was responsible and could measure accurately etc. One of the directors kids needs extra pocket money, loves computers, willing to work for minimum wage and is quite accurate. I actually like the guy to boot 🙂 He does save me a lot of time. Just an idea- I wouldn’t want to get stuck with the wrong person either!

The localshop charges us about a 25 cents extra a cable for custom lengths, although on 130 cables it would probably get bid at about 25$ depending on if a lot of them were the same length or all unique. You might ask a local shop.

As far as 5e,6 well, Idon’t know 🙂

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