Re: RE: CAT5 - IDC Terminating

["David Yeend" <david.yeend@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Paul,

The items Jim indicated would do the job - although for the number of links
you have to play with it will be at a cost. The 110 system will cost you
less than the single link items considering the number of links you have to
work with. You can see some pictures and info here -
http://tinyurl.com/s5sxa (I did not
read it in too much depth but the
info looked ok) Although this would work it is not the way I would tend to
expect this sort of 110 product to be used. In general the permanent
cabling
would come onto the rear and you would use a 110 Cat5e patch lead to jump
across from the front. Twice as many connections as for the example in the
link given and back to the cross connect idea Keith suggested (but using
110
rather than RJ-45).

If you head down the route of the 110 system then you may gain a space
saving advantage over Keith's suggestion of terminating to patch panels and
creating a cross connect. However you will still need to dedicate some wall
space to the solution.

To answer your other question..... Gigabit was designed by the participants
of the standard development committee to run over Cat5 - in perfect
laboratory conditions it will. However, in practice it was found that in
the
real world many links which tested to Cat5 could not support gigabit so
Cat5e came along to give end users and installers a definitive standard to
work to.

Provided a certification tester (which is calibrated and functioning
correctly) running a Cat5e test certifies that a link meets the standard
(based on a number of tests of different performance parameters) then
gigabit will work. However, a link which passes a Cat5 test may or may not
support gigabit.

You can find Cat5e consolidation points and it is worth a google on this
term.

It is not possible to categorically say if your cabling will or will not
support gigabit if you use Cat5 components - it may! I would say there is a
60/40 chance that your odds will be 50/50 :-) in favour!

One thing I will say for sure - don't waste money on Cat6 components if you
are using Cat5e components elsewhere (and that includes the cable).

Another thing if it was me (mucking around at home trying to find a
solution, probably wanting to save a few pounds but still wanting a
positive
result) I would just give it a try! Join 2 lengths of cable with a bit of
terminal block (keep the twists as close as you can) and see if it works.
At
the end of the day you have nothing to loose but 10/15mins and in all
honesty, unless you test your installation with a certification tester you
are shooting in the dark anyway!

To verify for gigabit put a couple of machines on either end transfer a few
of you larger video files and (if it works at all) check the error counters
for the interfaces at either end of the link an see what gives. Obviously
one good result does not mean all will be the same but you never know.

Regards,

David


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