[wplug] Good hubs and what not.

[Vincent DiAngelus]

A topic I might be able to help with.



Well Cat5 cables are nothing more than 22-24 Gage twisted 4 pair cable. There are a few levels of cable that you could purchase. Cat3 (Telephone cable) Cat5 (standard "old" network cable) Cat5e (new standard) Cat6 (not a standard yet) Each cable has it's advantages. 


I would recommend you use a Cat5 cable in your house. Anything more would be extreme overkill. Cat5 will run up to Gigabit Ethernet!! I doubt anyone will have 1000Mbs running in there house any time soon, we can safely say that Cat5 will do. 

Now making Patch Cords requires a special tool, and the cable, and the plug ends. You need to keep the correct color scheme going to each pin in the connecter. It is better to buy your cables then make them due to the loss of signal with the tiniest of mistakes. The cable can not be untwisted more than 1/4 of an inch, this makes it extremely hard to correctly make a "good" patch cord. They don't have to be that expensive. Just look on the net. you'll find plenty of sites with them for about $1-$5 depending on the length. I recently paid 1.35 for a 14' Patchcord Cat 5e. The cable you can buy in reels of 1000' again depending on where you get it the $$ will vary. Now don't worry about the quality of the cable. You have enough headrrom just running 10/100Mbs that even if you bought the "worst" cable on the market, you would never have a problem. So in your case I would recommend finding the cheapest cable you can.


One last hint I can give, if you go to some manufactorers web pages ( www.levitontelcom.com ) they have a "learning center" that will show you a few tips on how to install catagory cable correctly. Even so much as bending it too much can cut you from Cat5 to Cat3 very quickly! 


Hubs are a different story. With this active device you get what you pay for. I currently use a 10Mbs Netgear hub, and a 10/100Mbs switch by SMC. Both do a great job for what I use them for. This is one area I would have to say don't skimp on the $$. You'll get what you pay for.


Hope I helped a bit. Since I have not been to a meeting yet, and I have only unsucessfully tried to install Linux, I guess I can try to help with this type of topic.


Thanks,


 



Vincent DiAngelus

WESCO Distribution

Datacomm Specialist

412-688-1074



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