I made a patch cable!

[gogeeta13]

<< Thanks for the vote of support Mucman.

I'm really trying to drive home the importance of physical layer here. I have been building networks since 1989 and the number one reason bar none above all for poor performance or just flaky connectivity is cables. I've charged many a company many a dollar to come in and do a network analysis (full week of consulting) only to recommend "fix your cable infrastructure." From my experience (100+ network consulting jobs) at least 70 percent of their problems were physical layer related. This fact is undisputed. Just because you get a link light and can communicate does in no way shape or form means you have a good cable.

So, this thread was hopefully helpful to folks who have had intermittant connectivity problems or slow performance. Lesson learned -

IF YOU HAVE ANY KIND OF PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS OR GENERAL WEIRDNESS WITH NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS - CHECK THE PHYSICAL LAYER FIRST. NETWORKS SHOULD BE TROUBLEFREE. >>



I am sorry if you think I am attacking your expertise, I in no way meant that, and I respect your knowledge.

I just think it is wrong to assume every home-made cable is bad, and the root of all network evil.

Good day

 

[spidey07]

gogeeta,

Just trying to stress the importance. Some people are very good at making cables - my dumbass is not.

 

[Mucman]

I was actually watching a cable guy in our building making some cables... he had this cool tool that would make perfectly straight cable ends that would make them fit into the jack perfectly every time. He also made the cable super fast using this tool. I am sure with all the proper tools (and lots of practice) someone can make certifiable cables consistently... I have chosen the safer and more expensive route (but should save us in the long run).

I also find cable making relaxing for some reason too

 

[SnowPunk98]

heh first time I made cat5e it worked fine....

 

[Nutz]

In a course I attended in 99, one of the guys was making a CAT 5 cable for the first time (he was a programmer). He stipped every single cable down to the bare copper :Q (scarey thing was he actually got it to work if he held it just right)

The guy wasn't really all there to begin with. When we put our name cards out on the table, his said "Nightwind".

 

[ScottMac]

I was at a Solaris course a couple years ago (in Silicon Valley somewhere), the training facility was using Silver Satin (basically decorative phone cord) IN THE WALLS to connect all the stations. I tried to explain that in addition to really poor performance, it had a serious impact on their credibility as a group of "smart" people.

They didn't care, they were gonna get their money for the training....wire's wire, what's the big deal?

I sent a memo up the line at work, they were removed from the training list, I also sent a note to the parent training company, I don't know if they did anything about it though.

FWIW

Scott

 

[indianduddawg47]

is there any software ways to test connectativity?

 

[Tallgeese]

<< I was at a Solaris course a couple years ago...the training facility was using Silver Satin (basically decorative phone cord) IN THE WALLS to connect all the stations. >>

:Q I have a hard time imaging a more stupid thing for a tech training center to do.

 

[jimmyhaha]

u guys seems experience with crimping those sucker..
I never made a patch cable b4 and

I need your advice

1. where can I find cheap crimper.. Radioshack charge $30 =(
2. as well as cat5e cable, connector, etc ?

thanks

 

[gogeeta13]

<< u guys seems experience with crimping those sucker..
I never made a patch cable b4 and

I need your advice

1. where can I find cheap crimper.. Radioshack charge $30 =(
2. as well as cat5e cable, connector, etc ?

thanks >>



I got my crimper, connectors and boots at microcenter, I got a roll of 11,000 feet of cat5 from my network admin friend.

a good place for bulk cable is home depot

 

[toshiba3020]

Ive seen crimper tools for $10 at computer shows. I bought mine for $20 off ebay(with shipping), it came with 100 ends.

 

[Garion]

*sigh* - Don't you guys read the other posts about cabling? Any cable you buy at Home Depot (and, for that matter, most big spooled cable) is SOLID CORE. It's designed to be pulled in a wall and sit there. It's not designed for used as a patch cable, unless absolutely a last resport. If you wiggle it around very much, the conductors are going to break and you'll be SOL.

- G

 

[gogeeta13]

Did you read the thread? People confirmed that stranded cables never pass the test!

Look at the shelf project page in my sig. Do you think that is too much stress? That is what most people will be doing

 

[spidey07]

gogeeta,

not to stir the pot or anything...but damn dude. I'd take a second look at your cables when you have a chance. Looks like a family of rats took up nest. Then invited all their 1000 siblings.

 

[Garion]

<< Did you read the thread? People confirmed that stranded cables never pass the test!

Look at the shelf project page in my sig. Do you think that is too much stress? That is what most people will be doing >>



They never pass the test because they are too hard to crimp by hand unless you're REALLY an expert. There's really no reason NOT to buy machine-made patch cables, at least for business use. You can get 'em for a few bucks.

I'm not sure what you mean by project shelf in your .sig - I didn't see anything referenced that way. Let me ask this - How many times do those cables get moved or bumped? Once a day? Once a week? How often do they get disconnected to upgrade or move a box?

For home use, use whatever you want. You're the guy supporting it and if it breaks, you can figure it out pretty quickly. In a business, chances are you're NOT going to the guy trying to support it. I can't tell you how much time I've wasted finding bad cables, some running mission-critical servers for large organizations. One day it's fine, the next day someone rubs it the wrong way while running another cable through the chase and *click* it's dead.

- G

 

[gogeeta13]

err, I forgot I didnt link to my index..

here is the shelf link. I am surprised you guys didnt just go to the root...

 

[spidey07]

lan party at gogeeta's house!!!!!

heck, you should see the back of my cisco lab at home. Ain't no way to make 32 V.35 cables look good.

 

[ScottMac]

HAH! I can make any cables look good. Ask L3GUy...The folks at Networld + Interop never used to dress the racks/cabinets. I dressed 'em once for the Spring 2000 show, and that was that....I ended up doing 'em all, but they started training the volunteers to untangle and route the cables properly....now it's the desired norm.

For the old booth (for a uh um cabling company), I even bound a loom of cables side-by-side with hot-melt glue (kinda like a ribbon cable on steroids) with some decorative arches and DNA-like helix twists...it was almost artwork....got a lot of comments.....too much work though...I went back to conventional cable management stuff.

You could make 'em pretty if you really wanted to, it's just a matter of how much effort you want to put into it.


(Slacker!)

FWIW

Scott

 

[gogeeta13]

<< lan party at gogeeta's house!!!!!

heck, you should see the back of my cisco lab at home. Ain't no way to make 32 V.35 cables look good. >>



I should take pics the next time 16 people+ my server are here. I had my hub hooked up too, plus a cable going to the other room connected to another 8 port!

Insane I tell ya!

 

[Tallgeese]

<< HAH! I can make any cables look good. >>

Ummm...I know this is typically reserved for OT babe threads, but you opened the door...

PICS???

 

[ScottMac]

I might be able to pull something from the videos (general show shots...I didn't videotape the cabling jobs)....I dunno, I'll look around.

I got eyewitnesses...L3guy was there, he saw 'em.

Of course, my home closet could use a little cleanup, I'll get pics after I swap out the cabinets for panels. I have some new fiber trays I wanna get in too.

Gimme a little time, I'll come up with something.

Scott

 

[Tallgeese]

<< I didn't videotape the cabling jobs >>

You worked and slaved on the hot-glue masterpiece you describe, AND YOU DON'T GET SHOTS OF IT?
My faith in the wisdom of the ScottMac may forever be shaken...and my emotions right now run the full AT gamut :disgust::|:Q:frown:

 

[ScottMac]

Well, geez.

I didn't have a video camera at the time. I did it as a "hoot," and, you know, I couldn't get anyone to visit me if I started yanking out cabling pictures (almost a half-step down from "Slides of the Kids" - "Here's one of changing little Johnny's diaper ...no Johnny is the blob on the left....").

Besides, it's not as ugly as it sounds. You put a dot of hot-melt every couple inches, you stick the cable, you do a few more dots, you stick some more cable...repeat as necessary, measure for termination length differential, terminate. Use a couple rulers to keep the cables ordered and flat. If you're doing a helix, put a quarter twist in the cables (like all clockwise) and the springyness of the jackets help to maintain the helix.

It does look cool, and it dresses up the racks nicely, it's not that big o' deal. Guaranteed to get comments ("Why'd you waste all that time doing THAT?" and "Obviously, you have way too much spare time"...being the top two).

Like I said, I'll check my Booth photos and see if I can find something.

FWIW

Scott