Frequently Asked Questions E:Mail Us

1. "I am the Manager of Information Systems of a Fortune 1000 company that is moving its corporate headquarters. I have a data consultant for the computers and a voice consultant for the PBX. Why do I need a structured cabling consultant?"

The structured cabling environment is evolving to a highly developed area of expertise that requires a specialist. With problems such as: short link resonance, delay skew, and marginal links and channel performance which are fully compliant to standards (but may have changed in addendum's) at time of installation, can cause serious future network failures when a change from 10BaseT to 100BaseT network occurs.

LAN Times - "It is clear that a lot of users are taking way too much for granted. Today's cables troubles are only going to become magnified as networks speed up."

2. "We are a 'big six' accounting firm and a few years ago we spent a lot of money to develop a corporate RFP (request for propsal) for our information systems. Why do we need a consulting firm now?"

In the ever-changing world of standards and the application that drives them, an RFP needs to reflect these changes for many reasons including compliance with current standards, warranty, and construction issues. The most important thing about an outdated RFP is that it represents the end-user as someone who doesn't know what he is doing to everyone associated with the project.

PC Magazine - "A network is no better than its cabling: High speed and reliability call for a structured cable system that meets industry and UL standards."

3. "My contractor handed me a big stack of test reports upon completion of the job saying, all the structured-cabling system is certified to Category 5 TIA/EIA-568-A basic link. We had pre-wired 30% of our locations for future growth. Now, six months later, some of the locations that were pre-wired are being used, but we are finding that we are having jacks not wired or labeled right and it is costing us loss of productivity to get the cabling contractor out to our site for one or two jacks at a time. What do we do?"

For the most part, contractors do not intentionally miss cabled locations to save a few dollars on testing, but mistakes do occur. That is why it is so important to have an outside source or someone from your staff go over each individual test report and compare them to installed locations, checking each jack (insert) number against each test report number for accuracy. After you have examined all the records, have the contractor test all locations in question.

Datapro Information Services Group - Managing Moves, Adds, and Changes: "Physical management problems account for about 50% of network problems and downtime."

4. "We selected the lowest bidder to be our cabling contractor; now we are receiving a number of change order in regards to this project, causing us to exceed our budget. What should I do?"

Expect to receive a lot more, due to a poorly written proposal and contractor evaluation. Remember, that you get what you spec., not what you expect.

5. "Our structured-cabling installation of ten high schools was a nightmare. Thirty percent of the cables we had installed were defective. The cabling contractor blames the cabling manufacturer, whose cable was accepted. The cable manufacturer blames the contractor. Who, in this case, pays for the following: pulling out the bad cable, the purchase and installation of the new cable, and the extra costs of installation after normal hours? (Not to mention the cost of down time.)"

This and many more types of problems are popping up due to the advent for the demand of higher and higher data rates, pushing the structured-cabling system to its limits while manufacturers are looking for ways to keep cable and components cost down.

At this stage a expert in the field of structured cabling with extensive knowledge of the standards would be needed to see if the manufacture, contractor, or neither is at fault, and then possible mediation could resolve these issue.

6. "I am an office administrator for a law firm of 250. My office is going to move, and I have been given the task of handling the cabling for the voice and data at our new site. I am concerned that this task could be more than I can handle. What do you think?"

You are not alone in this matter. Many firms delegate this responsibility to someone who is usually overloaded with the everyday job. Unfortunately, it is the cabling job that suffers, but the trouble doesn't usually surface until the end of the project, when items that you thought were finished were not, and violations of standards and code occur that you knew nothing about. We suggest that you call in a Structured Cabling Consultant to give a presentation to your colleagues, so they get a better understanding of what is to be excepted of you during this process so a rational decision can be made based on the information presented and discussed.

PCWeek - "How much does network downtime cost your company? $1,000 per hour? $1 Million per hour? Your job? However, networks still curl up and die from bad cabling."

7. "Our patch-cord management system is a rat's nest. What should I do?"

You are not alone, the majority of patch-cord management systems are a "Rat's Nest." This is due to the accumulation of slack in each patch cord. PerfectSite^SM recommends to follow the Two Golden Rules of Patch-Cord Management, no matter what manufacturer system you are employing; #1- Eliminate slack in each patch cord and #2- Eliminate patch-cord entanglements (for more details on simple patch-cord management guidelines, click here).

8. "We have 5,000 cables at our site, and we having a rough time keeping up with cable records after moves, adds, or changes. Do you think we should buy cable management software?"

You must have well-defined procedure that allocates responsibility to an individual who has time to perform this task. Too many times, firms will expect an individual to learn the software while also performing his/her regular job. On top of this, they must keep track of every move, add, or change daily. This combination can be an equation for failure that no cable management software package can resolve.

9. " We had our Category 5 cable plant certified in November 1994 from our cabling contractor who had a Category 5 field tester but found out later that TSB67 document did not get finalized until October of 1995. Should we be concerned about our cable plant meeting category 5 standards?"

Yes, I would be concerned about any claims made prior to acceptance of a published document, unless you have an unbiased opinion from someone who is a voting member of the standard committee, but another concern is field tester made prior to dual remote testers (January 1995). Typically a contractor would test only one end of the link because the contractor would have to have two sets of testers, (2-masters and 2-remotes) or test with the master unit at the closet side and then take the master to the work area side. This can be easily verified if you could find the certification reports. You should have two reports per cable, not one, if a dual remote was not used.

LAN Times - "Leading Manufacturers are now shipping full-spectrum 100MHz cable testers. But there are no standards to test Category 5 installations against."

10. "We are a government agency and are charged by the footage of cable installed. We are concerned that the installed cable length is inflated, what should we do?"

Typically, without having a field test performed for length and providing a report, this is a very difficult task for a contractor to perform correctly. By instituting a program that requires a field test report that indicates the length of each installed cable will provide the comfort level you are looking for.

If a significant cost in the contract occurs because it has increased the scope of the contract, then you can have someone on your staff randomly field test for accuracy the length of the installed cable when the contractor is present. You will see how much better the accuracy of the contractor will get and the methods they will use at no charge.

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