Screwfix?
Darren
That would be the better solution. For stuff like this though, Staples are not the way to go.
I am fortunate that I live near Scan.
P.
TBH bespoke cables are not worth the time taken to make them these days - the only point in making your own is if you need to feed a wire, and the only way to make it fit is unterminated or if you need a very specific length.
Scan are my first stop for cables (they are reasonably priced and local -
P.
================================== "....half a dozen different items.....".
A recent visit included 2 caddies, 100 DVDs, 3 Linux compatible wireless cards (£10-00 each). I'm sure that those items would cost far more in postage if bought online.
These fairs are usually very good value, as long as you avoid the occasional shark.
Cic.
And the other drawback is...
You have to wait a month for the fair to open again if one of the items is faulty. :-(
================================== No - Sunday to Tuesday or Tuesday to Sunday. And of course most sellers have retail premises to which faulty goods can be returned by post. I never buy anything substantial without confirming the seller's location with a business card or billhead - often both. I've returned only one item since first using these fairs in 1992.
Cic.
Fair enough. Except that the offer I mentioned was indeed 99p for the whole order. And carriage is only 4.99 for up to 20kg anyway!
I'm sure they have all of those items too, even cards for a jumped up wannabe UNIX :-) [1] The point is that there are viable online alternatives...with low or free carriage. I buy a lot of stuff from CPC who are also comparable on price and do free carriage if the goods total > 40.00 (plus VAT).
[1] OK, it's not too bad but IMO there are better UNIX-like systems around...!
( As you state, where you need a specific length. )
At my work, we have several large classrooms, and the network points are on the walls. I've installed semi-permenant patch leads to each station, and making them to the correct length made a very neat job. Otherwise, you have loops of spare cable or tight cables.
But in general, I agree. I won't make up a cable for general use.
I buy in amazing amounts of patch leads.
0.5 or 1m for use inside wiring cabinets, 2 or 3 m for general use. I seem to go through 20 of the longer ones a month. Mostly due to visitors appearing with laptops and wanting to 'borrow' ( ie steal ) a patch cable. Who the heck goes roaming about with a laptop in a carry case *without* a cat5 cable? Sheesh.Don't even **ask** about the wireless.
================================== I'm sure it's really a case of shopping around for the best deals, both goods and carriage costs. The point about computer fairs (apart from prices) is that it's quite a pleasant and enjoyable experience. I'm sure that many people pay just for the pleasure of window shopping. I often buy online but find the worst part is the uncertainty of delivery times. Waiting around for a delivery that doesn't arrive when expected is really quite frustrating. That's not a problem from a local computer fair.
Cic.
Why not? It looks like the ones I used for loads of networking at CeBit and other shows.
Because it's not Cat5 rated. Actually, in my experience at very low levels of network traffic you _may_ be alright. However I've had the misfortune to track down a variety of network faults caused by the use of these non-Cat5 rated couplers. I'd therefore never use one again, and I go out of my way to remove and detroy any I find in any networks I encounter given the potential for wasting days of time tracking down problems.
All of the cases I've investigated and tracked down the problems to these thingys have been on 100BaseT networks, normally with reasonable (ie not low) loads. Problems have been intermittent and bizarre - mostly random network outages that can propogate and span multiple ethernet segments. The biggest problem I tracked down was in a large telephone service provider in the US that had one of these on their voice path. Every 12 hours or so they had a complete outage lasting minutes.
Seconded. A mate and I had no end of trouble trying to link up a workshop to the house with these things in the middle (two parallel runs of cat5, so only one joint per connection). Turned out that some of the time the copper fingers in the connector were getting stuck in their grooves, so that they weren't really making contact with the plugs.
We ended up replacing the connector on the run that was carrying network (t'other was video) with a small hub, to act as a kind of booster. Fortunately the link point was in a small shed that held the main power incomer for the property, so easy enough to add a supply for it.
Pete
Must be different then as I have never had a problem with them.
Perhaps you've missed the point that Screwfix were selling two different couplers. One was Cat5e rated, and one (the one under discussion) was much cheaper and wasn't rated at all. Or are you saying that you've never had trouble with a 'pound shop' version even on a 100BaseT network?
I have used 20p ones and not had a problem. There must be some bad ones out there that I haven't used.
I usually start with a few in my bag, but end up lending them, or simply forgetting to pack it when I leave :-(
If the problem spans multiple segments because of a faulty coupler, you have a poor network,
The most likely reason I can think of for a problem affectimg more than one segment is using them in inter device links rather than to end systems and not having correctly influenced spanning tree.
Another poster provided a link to Scan who do packs of 10 Cat5e ones for £2.20 (ex VAT), so around 22p. I'd not seen them this cheap before, but it is possible that you had proper Cat5e ones like the Scan ones.
Alternatively, you may just have hit no problems because you were lucky. If you're happy to keep on using them, that's up to you. My recommendation would be only ever to use Cat5 rated ones, but you've probably realized that already :-)
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