Graham's Top Tips

[Flyfisher]

I have a theory that our eyes are quite well protected by some sort of totally unconscious reflex mechanism that makes us move out head right at the last millisecond. I've lost track of how many times I've nearly got something in my eye(s) over the years.

Anyway, good to hear no real harm has been done and, yes, tears are a good antiseptic! But, given the nature of the nail, keep alert for any signs of infection. Are you up to date with tetanus jabs - always a good idea for anyone regularly working outdoors and subject to cuts to dirty hands.

 

[AMc]

When attempting to trace back & continuity check 32 identical purple cat6 network cables installed by an network engineer avoid the temptation to label the connections from the lounge L1, L2, L3 & L4 then label the library cables L1, L2, L3 & L4 - this is likely to cause you problems later when you cut them down and attempt to terminate them at the patch panel.

 

[Penners]

Thanks, Graham. I'll remember that tip next time I'm terminating my Cat. 6 network cables at the patch panel.

:?

 

[Flyfisher]

I use one of these little tools for anyone messing around with data cabling: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Belkin-Multi-Network-Cable-Tester-Terminator/dp/B0002AFA8K

Not only will it verify all the connections, it can be used to find the ends of unidentified or mis-identified installed cables.



PS: while digging out that link I was amazed to see similar products for under £10 - so really no excuse not to have one in the toolkit (unless you have no interesting in data cabling of course).

 

[FamilyWiggs]

When attempting to trace back & continuity check 32 identical purple cat6 network cables installed by an network engineer avoid the temptation to label the connections from the lounge L1, L2, L3 & L4 then label the library cables L1, L2, L3 & L4 - this is likely to cause you problems later when you cut them down and attempt to terminate them at the patch panel.

For those with Northern/working class origins, I thought the following explanation of some of AMc's more technical terms might be helpful.

A "lounge" is the same as your "front room".
A "library" is a room full of books.
A "book" is a long version of TV Quick but with fewer pictures.

:wink: :wink: :wink:

 

[Schoolmarm]

:lol:

 

[CatherineB]

PS: while digging out that link I was amazed to see similar products for under £10 - so really no excuse not to have one in the toolkit (unless you have no interesting in data cabling of course).

Phew, that's me & my toolkit off the hook then

 

[AMc]

I use one of these little tools for anyone messing around with data cabling: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Belkin-Multi-Network-Cable-Tester-Terminator/dp/B0002AFA8K

Not only will it verify all the connections, it can be used to find the ends of unidentified or mis-identified installed cables.

PS: while digging out that link I was amazed to see similar products for under £10 - so really no excuse not to have one in the toolkit (unless you have no interesting in data cabling of course).

I picked up a network tester, RJ45 crimping tool and punched down tool for about £10 on eBay. My tester only does sequential continuity testing but that was enough to eventually discover the professional installer who fitted the faceplates hadn't punchdown three connections properly (after I'd recabled my end twice). The biggest irritation was having miles of unidentified cable looped up so I had to crimp connectors on the ends to find which cables ran to which faceplates.

BTW The quote for the hardware and labour to connect this up (and certify it) was £500 - I've bought all the bits for about £50.

For those with Northern/working class origins, I thought the following explanation of some of AMc's more technical terms might be helpful.

A "lounge" is the same as your "front room".
A "library" is a room full of books.
A "book" is a long version of TV Quick but with fewer pictures.

:wink: :wink: :wink:

L for Lounge became F for front room - perhaps it should have been BP for Best Palour?
Library is a room full of books (which mostly belong to my partner who is both from up north and of working class origins) it also contains a Le-Corbusier Chaise Longue. :lol:
P is for pool room which contains a baize covered slate table - not sadly an indoor swimming pond - one day I'll actually clear the junk out of the room enough to be able to play on it.

 

[Flyfisher]

A "lounge" is the same as your "front room".

Drawing room, surely? :wink:

 

[Pford75]

Our Drawing Room is at the rear, the 'front room' is the Morning Room :wink:

 

[Flyfisher]

The biggest irritation was having miles of unidentified cable looped up so I had to crimp connectors on the ends to find which cables ran to which faceplates.

Frustrating indeed. My little trick for such situations is to solder small croc-clips to a resistor. Then, after attaching the resistor across a pair of wires at the remote faceplate, go to the 'hub' end of the bunch of cables and use a multimeter to find the pair that shows the appropriate resistance.

If you have a large number of cables to deal with, make up a number of 'resistor clips' of suitably differing values (e.g. 1K, 4K7, 10k, 22k, 47k . . . etc) so that you can identify a number of cables at one, which saves a lot of walking around.

 

[Penners]

A "book" is a long version of TV Quick but with fewer pictures.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[AMc]

Don't read this unless you want to know more detail than is probably necessary or decent about DIY installation of a data network in your house.

My little trick for such situations is to solder small croc-clips to a resistor. Then, after attaching the resistor across a pair of wires at the remote faceplate, go to the 'hub' end of the bunch of cables and use a multimeter to find the pair that shows the appropriate resistance.

If you have a large number of cables to deal with, make up a number of 'resistor clips' of suitably differing values (e.g. 1K, 4K7, 10k, 22k, 47k . . . etc) so that you can identify a number of cables at one, which saves a lot of walking around.

Interesting idea - I was wary of disturbing the faceplates if I could avoid it as cat6 is supposed to be very fussy about connections and they'd been done by a pro.

I decided that as RJ45 plugs were only 6p each and I would need some patch cables I could get to grips with crimping RJ45 connectors accurately and then cut down the offcuts to make up patch cables. In the end I only made one bad RJ45 (my second) the continuity errors I found on 3 of 32 connections turned out to be bad punching down at the faceplates

Some actual tips -
I have 4 ports in each of 8 rooms. Initially I crimped connectors onto all the untrimmed ends and grouped them together based on where they'd come into the utility room which indicated where they were going to.
I had my 2 piece network tester and another similar one I'd borrowed - which handily flashed at a faster rate.
I used short patch leads to connect both remote units to ports 1 & 2 at the 1st faceplate.
Back at the hub I then identified those two by trial and error and made sure I saw sequential lights on 1 through 8.
Then back to the faceplate and noting which was flashing fast and which was slow. I connected the remotes to ports 3 & 4.
The back at the hub I labelled cable 1 & 2 based on the previous flashing rate, then found the cables for 3 & 4. Then back to the faceplate to recover the remotes and note if 3 or 4 was faster. Plugging them into 1 & 2 in the next room.
Back to the hub and label the second two cables from the first room.
Working through it got progressively faster to work out which cables were connected to which rooms and label the cables as I had fewer to check each time.

When punching down the connections for the patch panel I used short patch leads to bridge port 1 to 2 and 3 to 4 at the remote faceplate. Back at the rats nest I punched down the connections sequentially then connected the tester to port 1 & a remote to port 2 & a second tester to 3 & 4 - all being well you get the lights flashing through 1-8 on both testers and remotes. If not then it's a question of plugging both remotes into the errant pair of patch ports and taking the testers to find out which faceplate connection isn't made properly.

The bits were all cheap but seemed up to this job -

Network tester £2.37 delivered
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250660186197
RJ45 crimper £4.20 delivered - the yellow thing is a cable stripper and can also be used as a low tech punchdown tool.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280522567870
Punchdown tool £2.20 delivered
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250652856235
100 RJ45 crimp connectors £5.97 (6p each) delivered
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=400108290063&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:GB:1123
12 port cat6 patch panel £10.50 delivered
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170546840400

I decided I didn't need a data cabinet so I screwed two bits of 3x2 into the wall and attached the patch panels to those. Hardly what he pro's would do I'm sure but I wasn't about to spend £80 on a tin box in to hang on the wall of the utility room.

Now I just need to map out how all the bits of network enabled electronics need to be connected to the 2 wireless access points and wireless router and ADSL mode I have

I could probably have saved time by cutting off the excess close to the length needed to get to the patch panel - but I'm a scaredy cat and wanted to do it all as carefully as possible.
I could have definitely saved time but spent a lot more money by buying individual keystone sockets and modular patch panels. Then I could have simply punched everything down once then shuffled them around and fitted them into the panel in a logical order.

Sorry about the geek fest, I'll try and incorporate lime mortar or at least some limewash into my next post

 

[Flyfisher]

Interesting idea - I was wary of disturbing the faceplates if I could avoid it as cat6 is supposed to be very fussy about connections and they'd been done by a pro.

Fair point. I didn't realise the remote sockets had already been punched-down. But in such cases, the resistor trick could be used by connecting to an RJ45 plug (or cut a short patch-lead in half), Still, you seem to have sorted it now, so it's hardly worth making any test-cables now - unless you're planning more installations.

I could have definitely saved time but spent a lot more money by buying individual keystone sockets and modular patch panels. Then I could have simply punched everything down once then shuffled them around and fitted them into the panel in a logical order.

Ah, the classic pro/am tradeoff. But I wouldn't worry too much about a 'logical order'. As long as the labelling is clear, it shouldn't take long to find one of 32 ports.

Sounds like a good job though. It's a very flexible way of integrating modern technology into a period home (or any home) with no further disruption for the forseeable future.

 

[Penners]

the classic pro/am tradeoff.

Speaking from the extreme "am" end of the scale, what are the advantages of a specially-wired data network over, say:

?

 

[Flyfisher]

Mainly speed and distance. Fixed wiring will support higher speeds, more consistently, over longer distances than a mains-network.

In most cases (domestic homes), distance is unlikely to be an issue.

Fixed wiring will be (pretty much) immune to interference, so will give a consistently high speed. Data-over-mains devices are more susceptible to interference from other things (e.g. fridges switching on and off etc), which has the effect of slowing down the average speed. The longer the distance, the more susceptible to interference, the slower the average speed. The data won't actually be lost or corrupted, it'll just take longer to get through.

So, if you want to do high-speed stuff such as stream music or video over the network then fixed wiring will definitely work, but a mains-network may not. Also, if you're in the habit of copying large files from one PC to another then fixed wiring will be faster (which may or may not matter to you).

If you just want to access the internet from a different location, then a 'mains network' should easily be faster than a typical 8Mbps internet service and you'll not notice any particular advantage over fixed wiring.

Another advantage of fixed wiring is that it can be used for things other than networking. For example, standard telephones can be patched around the home using such cables (though not at the same time as a data network, hence the usefulness of multiple outlets).

Fixed wiring is also much cheaper (per segment) than mains-network adapters, though the mains units are clearly far easier to install.

None of that is to disparage mains-networks though; where speed or distance is not of the essence, they are a very convenient way of installing a small network in the home. In a previous house, I had Cat5e cabling installed throughout a new extension as it was built and subsequently used mains-network devices to extend the network into the older parts of the house as required. So such things can be complementary.

In my limited experience, music streaming worked very well, though video streaming could be a bit 'jittery'. However, the Netgear units I used were first generation (85Mbps) and I believe the latest units are much faster (200Mbps?) - although it's the average throughput speed that's the really important issue, rather than the maximum possible peak speed (so beloved by the marketing people), and much will depend on the quality of the mains wiring, distance and interference.

My general approach is that if there's a lot of refurbishment being undertaken anyway, then fixed wiring should be installed at the same time (even if it remains coiled up under the floorboards or in the attic until needed). But I wouldn't rip things apart just to install fixed wiring, at least not until I had confirmed that a mains-network or wi-fi couldn't do the job instead.

 

[Penners]

Thanks for that very informative summary, FF. So is fixed wiring faster than an 802.11n wi-fi network? I know that's a bit of a "how long is a piece of string" question that ignores variables like brick walls, distance from router, etc, but I'm talking about a general average.

I certainly have no plans to install fixed wiring at home, where a wi-fi network serves our needs perfectly well - I'm just interested in the principles.

 

[Flyfisher]

As ever, there are lots of variables, some of which you've already mentioned.

The first point is that fixed wiring is just that - wire. The speed of a network using the wire will depend on the network devices connected to it. This used to be 10Mbps but the current standard (i.e fitted to almost every PC/laptop) is 100Mbps, so that's a fair reference point for the current speed of a fixed-wiring network.

Having said that, 1000Mbps 'Gigabit Ethernet' is increasingly common in new PCs and will also work over fixed wiring in almost all cases, certainly over typical domestic distances. The standards are such that different speed devices can all use the same network wiring though, of course, any two devices can only 'talk' at the speed of the slowest device. I'd suggest that anyone buying new fixed-wiring 'routers' or 'switches' today should seriously consider buying units with Gigabit Ethernet ports.

But if we consider a standard fixed-wiring network as 100Mbps then an 802.11n wi-fi network will be roughly comparable in speed. However, the comparison is rough because of all the variables:

- 802.11n supports up to 300 Mbps, though this requires 'channel bonding' (the use of multiple wireless frequencies) and is not, typically, an out-of-the-box configuration. A 'default' maximum speed of around 140Mbps is much more likely.

- 802.11n is subject to all the interference issues arising from distance and walls etc, so the average throughput is almost certainly likely to be significantly less.

- Because 802.11n uses multiple frequencies to increase the data rate (think of it as multiple 802.11g 54Mbps channels) it can be more susceptible to interference from neighbouring wi-fi devices. More interference = slower average throughput.

- Etc, etc, into ever more esoteric variables depending on your precise requirements.


Basically, if your wi-fi network is meeting your needs then I wouldn't bother with fixed wiring either.

 

[Penners]

Thanks again, FF. Very interesting. I suspect that you've also explained to me why 'n' routers often have multiple antennae.

 

[Flyfisher]

Indeed. You may see the term "MIMO" or "MIMO" Technology" associated with '11n' wifi products, which refers to their multiple wireless channel capability.

It's all very clever stuff. In fact, even the nowadays simple task of posting this message involves a quite amazing amount of complex technology and data processing, all conveniently standardised so that things from a wide range of manufacturers plug together and 'magically' just work. When I started work in the computer industry back in 19COUGH80, merely connecting a printer from one manufacturer to a computer from another was a major project in its own right and networking could be fairly called rocket science.

It's very easy to lose perspective on the truly astonishing advances we've seen over just 30 years.