Week 7: Day 020 - Installing a Physical Network #4

You know what, after all the dumb stuff that's happened, the least I should do is make a long entry. Well today is the day once again, for a long entry, so be prepared to take this information in like a sponge!

If you're a professional installer, you'll want to analyze and assess the situation. By this I mean, that you look at what you have to work with. For this you'll need floor plans, crawling through ceilings and walls, basically it sucks. Who'd want to make a living doing that tedious work?! The pay better be good for those people, cause I empathize with them haha. There is also a lot of planning at hand in terms of horizontal cabling and following the TIA/EIA standard. You also have to measure the distances of cables, see if the will reach the destination, and how to route them. Going back to the crawling into walls, sometimes there are firewalls that you need to hire someone to jackhammer through. Again, tedious.

Firstly, you need the floor plan. This is as you would probably think, a blueprint. This is because it provides locations for closets that could be used as telecommunications rooms, or firewalls that will block your path. If there isn't one available, you'll have to DIY it! For that you'll need to go looking about the location of installation, looking for ceilings, firewalls and closets. After you obtain the floor plans then you'll need to start mapping your paths for horizontal cabling. Usually when mapping runs it will be alongside the work areas, with cable drops so you can hook up to the computers. For businesses when it comes to cable drops that's when $$$ becomes a problem. Usually network installers are paid per drop (around $150.) Will you put the cables inside or outside the wall? Well, if you don't have the right to go scouring around inside the walls, then you're better off doing a "raceway" which are simple ways of installing, but not as neat.

Now, where will you put the telecommunications room (TR)? Well this depends on a few variables. My textbook tells me distance, because the room must be in a spot that doesn't require cable runs longer than 90 meters. So you're best off if you put it in a central location. Then they say power is another factor, because there obviously needs to be enough power to run the network, dedicated circuits are best, unless you want microwaves taking down your network. Then there's humidity, because as we all know, electricity and water don't mix well at all. Make sure that liquid substances are AWAY from the network. This is kind of obvious, but it's a reminder not to make the bathroom the TR and don't put it beside a water bucket or a pool, god forbid. The cooling of the room is also essential, because those rooms are bloody hot, and you'll need to keep the room air conditioned. Finally, the room should probably be locked, especially if you're suspicious of that co-worker who likes to play pranks, or who is lazy and wants to cut the network to reduce the amount of work they do. Aside from all those factors, remember that the room should be able to expand at the same rate as your network.

Next, you're onto the most tedious and annoying task, called "pulling cable". Just that name makes me disgruntled haha. If you want to quickly get this job done, get some of your buddies to help you out, the more the merrier! To start off, you'll be removing ceiling tiles, temporarily. Here you'll put cable trays to keep the cables in place, and use tools to make the job easier. The hardest bit is working around the old cable installations in the ceiling. Local codes, TIA/EIA, and NEC (National Electrical Code) have set standards on how to cable pull. Good installers use cable trays and hooks. That provides great organisation and protection from electrical interference. Now, with all ethernet before gigabit, it shouldn't be too difficult to lay. However, I am a millennial and I will never be doing that. In the 21st century with gigabit ethernet, cabling installations have had to be redone in many workplaces, and cable companies have been making a lot of money from it. My textbook tries to relieve me by saying that horizontal cabling is less difficult and tedious than running it down from ceiling to work area. What installers do is cut rectangular holes in the wall, drop a line to the hole, and then put an outlet box or "mounting bracket" into the hole. The bracket is a holder of the faceplate. After all this is finished, the cables from the TR are organised in preparation of making connections.

Finally, for today, I will talk about making connections. This part of the process is characterized by my textbook as: "consisting of connecting both ends of each cable to proper jacks." During this process, all the cable runs should be tested, so that they match up with the network. To connect the work areas, something which I have always been curious about, you must crimp a jack onto the end of the wire coming down from the cable run, and then mount a faceplate onto it.  It popularly, and most likely, uses the same connection as the patch panel one, 100-punchdown. I would guess that purchasing premade patch cables is the right way to go, but you can also roll your own. Basically you take some stranded UTP cable that matches the CAT levels of the horizontal cabling, and then you make sure that you crimp for a stranded core cable, because you'll be needing that specifically (as mentioned in an earlier entry.) Then my textbook shows a bunch of steps to make the cable:

- 1. Cut the cable square using RJ-4 crimpers or scissors.
- 2. Strip off 1/2 inch of plastic jacket from the end of the cable.
- 3. Slowly and carefully insert each individual wire into the correct location according to either TIA/EIA 586A or B. Unravel as little as possible.
- 4. Insert the crimp into the crimper and press. Don't worry about pressing to hard; the crimper has a stop to prevent you from using too much pressure.
- 5. Done.

"Don't forget to slide each boot onto the patch cable before you crimp both ends." So after that I guess you just test it. Following that, you have to connect this to the patch panels. To do this it's good to have the right cable management hardware. Plastic D-rings will put the patch cables in neat form on the front of the patch panel. Finger boxes which are shaped as rectangular cylinders with slots on the front  are great, because the patch cables run into those slots. These are great tools to keep organization on your patch panels. What you want to do at the end of the day is organize the network so it aligns with the logical/physical layout of the network. On that bombshell, thanks for reading, and goodbye!