Structured Cable

SMHarman · 05-06-2005, 23:29

Recommend me a site to buy what I need to build it...

Patch board/box
Cable
Wall Sockets

The widgit to nail the cables to the wall

Cable Strippers / plugs / wigits to make up cables etc.

Need to put it into a 5 room office suite, I'm thinking of two cables to 3 of the offices and 4 to the other two (where more hardware will be).

Am I right in thinking that with those cat 5 to bt phone plug thingys I can run the phone service through this too?

A lot of a noob for network cableing, only ever bought it premade before.

Reps and appreciation all round

Paul · 05-06-2005, 23:30

Maplins and screwfix?

MetaWraith · 05-06-2005, 23:38

CPC www.cpc.co.uk

which inturn redirects to cpc.farnell.com

Halcyon · 05-06-2005, 23:49

http://www.cableuniverse.co.uk/

**Graham M** · 05-06-2005, 23:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by SMHarman

Am I right in thinking that with those cat 5 to bt phone plug thingys I can run the phone service through this too?

I cant think what you mean by this, a photo perhaps?

**Rob** · 05-06-2005, 23:58

Definitely www.screwfix.co.uk. Got everything I needed, including the small 9 rack height cabinets, sockets, patch boards and patch cables cable stripping, crimping and IDC tools from there. Did an office with over 30 network points with that little lot.

Wiring up is straighforward, it's all colour coded. Just keep the pairs twisted as close as possible to the connectors.

nffc · 06-06-2005, 00:07

Not a cable purchase site but you should also have a look at this site

http://www.swhowto.com/

Interesting read, if not maybe a way of "showing off" his own installation!

greencreeper · 06-06-2005, 00:42

I tend to favour Maplins.

Cable strippers are hopeless. Have one myself for electrical cabling and its easier to use a vegetable knife. Same with co-ax - recently did an aerial re-wire with just a pair of cable cutters and a vegetable knife. IDC type tools are a must though - no bodging with a screwdriver.

Millay · 06-06-2005, 02:50

You will need a crimping tool for patch leads etc also, an idc tool is a must for putting the cables in the back of the patch boxes etc.

Yes you can run telephones over cat 5 and you need to know what tlepeohne system you are running through before you purchase the converters. Although you can just plum a standard BT line straight into cat 5 I cant see what use this would be.

I always run double wall sockets, this the allows for telephone and data, I also usually find that working out how many people are lily to be working in each room, then adding at extra point is a good idea, this allows for printers etc to be hooked up, and the user can decide which point to plug there machine into.

Dont skimp on buying cable, you will no doubt easilly eat into/use a 1000ft box of the stuff by the time you allow for cuts and wastage, and at Ã‚Â£27 a box its cheaper than buying more smaller runs.

Looking at your plan, I would look at doing 4 cables to all rooms, it just like plug sockets, there are never enough. Unless these office rooms are hoebox size you need to allow for two pcs/printers minimum and then two telephone/fax machines...

Dont whatever you do under price this job if it is for a customer, cable running is often a pig of a job, that will easilly eat into profit margins if you let it. Oh and its a lot easier/nicer to do if there are two of you.

hope that helps...
__________________

You will need one of these if you need to do patch leaads non boxed terminations:
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/CXTOOL.html

and one of these for the back of the patch unit and cabling into the junction boxes.
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GPT107.html
You can get plastic ones but they aint worth the bother... IMHO

zoombini · 06-06-2005, 09:04

www.ardelectronics.com

However, I'd suggest trying your local electrical wholesalers., they can be very cheap & right on your doorstep.

SMHarman · 06-06-2005, 14:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeph

I cant think what you mean by this, a photo perhaps?

**Graham M** · 06-06-2005, 16:22

You'd need some kind of exchange system to run phone cabling through a network switch as phones dont tend to have MAC addresses... When I did my work experience they could connect the CAT5 at the cable rack end to either a network switch or a telephone exchange, hence the adaptor, it is perfectly acceptable to run telephone over CAT5, maybe clearer voice etc, better for Modems and so on, but it needs to be terminated as telephone at the other end and not connected to a hub/switch.

SMHarman · 06-06-2005, 16:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Millay

Dont whatever you do under price this job if it is for a customer, cable running is often a pig of a job, that will easilly eat into profit margins if you let it. Oh and its a lot easier/nicer to do if there are two of you.

hope that helps...

It's for Mrs H, so I'm not likely to make much of a profit on the job!
The job will replace current phone cables, so much of it will be rerunning cable in place of the existing BT lines, the office used to be a recruitment consultants and so is wired to the hilt with phone sockets, but no networking. Looking at it, it should be a case of 1:1 replacement along the same lines so someone has already done the cable route planning for me.
__________________

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeph

You'd need some kind of exchange system to run phone cabling through a network switch as phones dont tend to have MAC addresses... When I did my work experience they could connect the CAT5 at the cable rack end to either a network switch or a telephone exchange, hence the adaptor, it is perfectly acceptable to run telephone over CAT5, maybe clearer voice etc, better for Modems and so on, but it needs to be terminated as telephone at the other end and not connected to a hub/switch.

I'm asking BT to put the phone sockets for their CentrEx sockets and the DSL line above where all this cable terminates, then basically use one of those thingies in post 11 to connect from the phone socket to the patch panel and another at the other end to connect the phone to the cat 5 socket in the wall. I believe that is how you do this, so some cables will terminate in the router and others in the phone sockets.

SMHarman · 06-06-2005, 21:21

Bumping for the evening crowd that may know this stuff.

SMHarman · 09-06-2005, 11:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by SMHarman

Ok final stupid question - well until all the cables turn up and I start trying to put it together...

The widget above connects the structure to the BT phone socket. How do you connect the BT phone socket to the structure?

BT phone socket > The lead I am talking about in the paragraph above > Patch Panel > CAT5 cable > CAT5 socket > Widgit in image above.

Is there anyone here who does cable stuff? Millay?