Terminology

[Andy Burns]

Dymo do make some specialist D1 tapes that don't fall off cables, can't remember if the nylon or polyester are best.

[The Natural Philosopher]

patch panel is the trad way.

See my efforts to box in mine...

You cant 'common' them - except using a switch.

[The Natural Philosopher]

The latter is a ReallyBadIdea as CAT5/6 doesnt really crimp well into plugs designed for flexible patch leads.

If you vant be arsed to do a patch panbel just put sockets on the wall in a bank, You can get two RJ45 into a standerd back box.

[The Natural Philosopher]

yes, Dont go there.

get some RJ45 sockets OR a patch panel

[Tim Lamb]

In message [e-mail], T i m [e-mail]> writes

Lot of excitement about my limited expertise:-)

Apologies for missing the proposed cupboard termination method. I have one spare socket set and can easily buy two more. With a little woodwork for the cable duct I can get this done for next week. Perhaps take your availability to mail.

The patch panels seem cheap to buy but I now am an experienced CAT6e/RJ45 fitter:-) so will go this route. There will be an opportunity to link the drain wires to earth if needed. I'll get 5 x 0.5m patch cables as well.

[Tim Streater]

Righto, I didn't spot that.

Difficulty we had was stopping Alcatel techs from cutting off most of the tail; god knows why they did that. Hence the doc I wrote.

Ah well ours went through the laser printer. A4 sheets with the labels pre-scored to make removal from the A4 sheet easy:

[Chris Green]

Quite agree, I buy patch leads when I can, I only crimp them myself when I have to thread them through somewhere a plug won't fit.

[snip lots more sense]

I'd sort of forgotten that one can have a cable with an RJ45 'jack' (i.e. socket) on the end of it was well as a plug.

[Andy Burns]

you can get plugs for solid rather than stranded, I've kroned cat6, but never crimped plugs on it, besides, the bend radius is probably measured in feet rather than inches, so plugs are really not a good way to go (as everyone seems to agree).

[T i m]

;-)

No probs. We did cover that on the first walkround but there has been plenty of other work since then. ;-)

One thing I'm not sure about (without research) is if there is a Cat6e RJ45 spec socket and if you / we will need a bigger back boxes or some slack between the socket, trunking and the roof space to be able to 'lose' / pull back any spare cable?

Ok.

Again, to be able to get the best use from the Cat6(e?) cable you may need to be sure you get a Cat6(e?) spec patch. I know you can get the little 8 port SOHO patches quite cheap of Cat5e (and I've wired a few) but I'm not convinced you will need / want one for your 3 wire needs? For your installation it would need to be boxed (many come rack-mountable) and a case make them more expensive and more tricky to wire.

A Punchdown tool is fairly cheap and if you wanted to terminate the Cat6 into the RJ45 faceplates and I'm sure you could do so fairly easily. You first strip back the outer sheath, unwind / remove the foil and pull the drain wire out of the way. You can form the pairs out neatly and offer them up to their final positions, often simply following the colour codes (Orange / Orange White, Blue / Blue White etc). You untwist just enough of each pair to allow it to go into the IDC socket and push each wire home, making sure the cutter is on the

*outside* of the wire run (so you don't cut off the bit you just IDC'd in). ;-)

I don't think you would be able to form the cable inside the box and still comply with the spec but I don't think it will matter in your situation.

;-)

Again, you might have to be careful about all that, making sure you follow any spec rather than just doing what you think sounds right.

I wouldn't, until you know how long they need to be (or buy overlong (within reason))?

eg. If it turns out easier to fit the sockets at the top of each cupboard, you can then get / run the patch cables down / along / round to wherever it's best to have the switch / whatever, which may be more than .5m away?

Of course, if it suits to have the Cat6 terminating right next to the switch / router then go for whatever patch length you actually need.

The longest job will be getting the cables neatly into the boxes and the cable runs neatly in the cupboards.

Have you decided if you are going to have the router and / or cordless phone base on the outside of the lounge cupboard on a shelf or inside? Are the sockets going on the back wall of the house or inside the front wall of the cupboard etc?

It's really up to you (/A) to determine what you want (if that cupboard wall is plain plasterboard it probably wouldn't make much difference which side it's on WiFi wise) and where best to get power etc. After that, it's just a matter of running any patch cables between the things wherever they end up (in trunking or clipped to the back of studwork etc).

Cheers, T i m

[Tim Lamb]

Yes. Done that elsewhere. As Tim has pointed out, CAT6e doesn't flex readily. OK where you can shove the spare into a studwork wall.

[Tim Lamb]

In message <010120191707031807% [e-mail], Tim Streater [e-mail] writes

Mine are marked up with masking tape and felt tip:-) Actually there is only one location where *in/out* can be confused.

>

[Tim Lamb]

Very smart.

One of the benefits of chalet bungalow construction is the opportunity to include the bits of attic beside the upstairs dormer rooms as storage space.

We have 4, one of which is dedicated to incoming telephone (Open Reach willing) TV booster and distribution, Router/wifi and switch to wired in devices.

[Harry Bloomfield]

This was an issue I enquired about around 2 years ago and yes I did find some plugs designed for solid cable, fitted and they are working fine. I now have a bit of a mix of patch panels and plug terminated solid cables. I had tried and failed to get reliable connections using the standard plugs.

Sourcing the plugs suitable for solid, was not easy.

[Harry Bloomfield]

John Rumm formulated on Tuesday :

The most difficult part with either solid or flexible is fanning the cores out in the correct order and keeping them in the order long enough to poke them into the RJ45. Easy to get wrong and not easy to check until you have done. Best buy, borrow, or steal one of the cheap testers, which check each core for continuity, shorts and for correct layout in the plugs. Two parts, one plugged into each end of the same cable, then switch on.

[Tim Lamb]

In message <q0gde3$kit$ [e-mail], Harry Bloomfield [e-mail]> writes

I'm counting on Tim for this technology:-)

[Harry Bloomfield]

Tim Lamb expressed precisely :

That is not DIY :o)

[Bob Eager]

I made one. Switches, LEDs and some diodes.

[tabbypurr]

I did that. Lost one feed in 15 years or whatever it was.

NT

[tabbypurr]

not sure where you get that from, lots of my cat5/5e plug direct on the end wiring uses bend radius of barely an inch and is fine.

NT

[tabbypurr]

They're something like £3 nowadays

NT