We sell a lot of DIY Products here, so when I get extraordinary help from a company for a DIY project of our own, I like to say Thank You! Back in ~ 2007 I spent thousands of dollars having phone and network cable run through my building. Between the cost and the issues I vowed never again.
I have since wired three locations. I had never done it before and I could never have done it without the help of the people at cablesandkits.com . They gave me wiring diagrams in advance and walked me through the cables, tools, jacks, connectors, patch panels and blocks we would need. In short they made what I thought would be confusing and expensive into a project that was affordable and easy. They even had a guy that used to do it for a living spend an hour on the phone with me the first time. They even send me chocolate with every order –seriously a bag of candy 🙂
They provide amazing support and although I am no expert, I am very confident in our ability to wire our own projects. This last one cost less than $300 15 different runs of CAT6 cable.
A Few Things I Have Learned:
- Wire with Cat6 even if your computers are not using a Gigabit Ethernet port (yet)
- Use the CAT6 for voice too. This will give you 2 – 2 line jacks per cable. When we switched from landlines to VoIP we were able to use the same cable and just change the ends
- It’s much faster and looks much better to use a Patch panel than it is to put connectors on the end of each and every run.
- Run the cables on your patch panel to the corresponding number on your switch (again buy a Gigabit switch even if you’re not ready). It makes no technical difference but it makes the wires a lot easier to trace.
- I use KLEIN TOOLS. Cables and Kits did not always have them so they told me the name of the tool and I went and found it. Their punch down and cable testing is far superior and the better tester even lets you find and map multiple cables at a time. From their screwdrivers to their testing equipment, it just works right. I never buy anything else.
- Fish more cable than you need. Cable is cheap and if something goes wrong you will be happy you did it. We have one extra run at each wall plate
Anyway, as a small business owner the ability to rely on others ability and save thousands of dollars is invaluable. I a a customer of theirs for life!
That reminds me. One other thing we did is we use different color cables for our wiring, our patch cables and a separate color all together for any very important connections.
