8 ms·

Generally pretty solid advice. I say that as someone who is known for solving tough wireless problems. :-) On the cable termination part: I've (mostly) stopp

Generally pretty solid advice. I say that as someone who is known for solving tough wireless problems. :-) On the cable termination part: I've (mostly) stopped crimping cables because I've had too many go flaky and don't have 4-5 figure testing equipment. One thing I'll add is that there are ends for solid conductor and stranded, make SURE you have the right ones for the cable you are using. These days I always just put on keystone ends and then use commercial patch cables from there. I've had very good luck. I'd recommend against the advice to use a screw driver to punch them down, the Leviton ones I prefer you just put the cap on and they punch down themselves. The random ones I get from Ace Hardware have a little punch tool included. One additional recommendation I have is to put 5GHz radios in each space. 5GHz has more spectrum, and less interference, but it penetrates drywall significantly worse. But that's a good thing, because it cuts down on interference from your neighbors. Beware of microwave ovens, baby monitors, cordless phones (last 2 more in residential areas). They can be intermittent interference, and won't show up on the non-commercial spectrum analyzers. Our 2.4GHz used to go out when we'd run our brand new microwave. But it would also go out at other times, possibly when a neighbor ran theirs? 2.4GHz penetrates buildings quite well, which kind of sucks. My credentials: https://www.tummy.com/articles/pycon2012-network/ https://www.tummy.com/articles/pycon2012-network/

slantyyz 8y ago
>> I've (mostly) stopped crimping cables because I've had too many go flaky and don't have 4-5 figure testing equipment. I just redid a lot of the ethernet wiring in my house, and it's super easy compared to how I did it 10+ years ago. If you use EZ-RJ45 jacks (the only way to go, imo), it's super easy to get cables working properly the very first time. The wires feed through the jack so you can verify wire order before crimping. I spent less than $200 on the tools I used to do my wiring: * EZ-RJ45 crimper * RJ45 cable tester with probe and toner (this was easily the most important tool I bought) * Punchdown Tool * An adjustable Cat 5 stripper Out of the several cables I did, I only had one with problems, I wired one end backwards (it was before I had my morning coffee), and it was quickly "debugged" with my cable tester.
- linsomniac 8y ago
  I did a look at those EZ-RJ45 ends when another replied about them in this thread and notice that they are rated for solid or stranded, which I think would help. They look pretty good. I've installed a few (and have a few more to install) of the Ubiquiti cameras, and I've been using keystone at the end and then patch cables. That has worked well, but I'd be tempted to just crimp the outside end. I'd have to see how the shielding works with the crimping, that gear is all on shielded cable per spec. Shielded plenum rated cable is kinda spendy...
  - slantyyz 8y ago
    I just finished installing the G3AFs (outside) and G3 Flexes (inside) at my house, and I crimped the outside ends. For my outdoor cameras, I used outdoor rated cat6 solid. It's a little harder to work with, and I had to buy a spool of 1000 feet because the 500 feet spools were out of stock when I needed them. Are you using back boxes? I think it would be extremely hard to use keystone and patch cables given how little room the cameras have for running the cables, especially the G3AFs with the shielded cables if you are not using back boxes.
    - linsomniac 8y ago
      I'm not using boxes, I'm putting them under the eaves, mounted to the plywood. I drilled a hole just big enough to fit the keystone through (1"? 1.25"? I forget), then I put the keystone on it, put a grounded patch in that, and pushed it up inside the hole. Then I mount the ring and plug the camera in, and mount the camera. The cable runs are in the attic. This is all the G3 Dome, they didn't have anything else when I bought the cameras. I thought about putting a G3AF mounted from the upper eaves to get another view, but haven't done that yet. That'll be a bit more of a project. I'm fairly happy with the setup, but it's kind of a bit flaky. The motion detection fires all the time, with wind blowing trees or the like. Then it'll sometimes cut off in the middle of a recording when it seems like it should be detecting motion. I've been wanting to put an SSD in their little appliance, or just migrate that appliance to a Ubuntu host of my own, but haven't done that yet. The hardware seems solid, but the software seems flaky. A coworker has the Nest cams and those seem to be a bit less flaky. I may need to reevaluate this before I go further in, and it's been a year, maybe there's something else I should look at.
swingline-747 8y ago
Been There, Done That, Bought The T-Shirt. Solid core is generally for premise wiring (PVC jacketed in walls, PTFE-jacketed through ducts); stranded is typically for patch cables. If you try like the first place I worked at in the mid-90's trying to put stranded ends on solid-core wire, breaking of tools and unreliable cables will make. There's cheapo Chinese cable tester kits on eBay, AliBaba and Amazon that do a good-enough impedance at GbE spectrum testing to not have to spring for a Fluke "will-survive-nuclear-winter" "official" tester. Backfilling connectors with epoxy is another idea to avoid corrosion... as long as it doesn't affect the impedance or dielectric values much. No-snag boots, axial aligned label zipties are also a big help. Barcode label and floorplan everything. Finally, always test every cable with iperf3 (two laptops or one laptop w two ethernet ports) and reject for reworking/replacment any cable with abnormal latency or bandwidth figures. PS: our head-office networking guy was awesome; worked 10% time just to keep benefits since his wife was GOOG's first admin.
- slantyyz 8y ago
  It might be worth mentioning that CCA (copper clad aluminum) cable which is sometimes sold with misleading descriptions in places like eBay and Amazon, is not the same as solid copper and should be avoided for power over ethernet applications.
- smolder 8y ago
  Fluke is one of those used-to-be-good now-abuses-their-reputation companies anyway. They're in a mode of milking consumer trust for what it's worth until it's gone.

slantyyz 8y ago

>> I've (mostly) stopped crimping cables because I've had too many go flaky and don't have 4-5 figure testing equipment. I just redid a lot of the ethernet wiring in my house, and it's super easy compared to how I did it 10+ years ago. If you use EZ-RJ45 jacks (the only way to go, imo), it's super easy to get cables working properly the very first time. The wires feed through the jack so you can verify wire order before crimping. I spent less than $200 on the tools I used to do my wiring: * EZ-RJ45 crimper * RJ45 cable tester with probe and toner (this was easily the most important tool I bought) * Punchdown Tool * An adjustable Cat 5 stripper Out of the several cables I did, I only had one with problems, I wired one end backwards (it was before I had my morning coffee), and it was quickly "debugged" with my cable tester.

linsomniac 8y ago
I did a look at those EZ-RJ45 ends when another replied about them in this thread and notice that they are rated for solid or stranded, which I think would help. They look pretty good. I've installed a few (and have a few more to install) of the Ubiquiti cameras, and I've been using keystone at the end and then patch cables. That has worked well, but I'd be tempted to just crimp the outside end. I'd have to see how the shielding works with the crimping, that gear is all on shielded cable per spec. Shielded plenum rated cable is kinda spendy...
- slantyyz 8y ago
  I just finished installing the G3AFs (outside) and G3 Flexes (inside) at my house, and I crimped the outside ends. For my outdoor cameras, I used outdoor rated cat6 solid. It's a little harder to work with, and I had to buy a spool of 1000 feet because the 500 feet spools were out of stock when I needed them. Are you using back boxes? I think it would be extremely hard to use keystone and patch cables given how little room the cameras have for running the cables, especially the G3AFs with the shielded cables if you are not using back boxes.
  - linsomniac 8y ago
    I'm not using boxes, I'm putting them under the eaves, mounted to the plywood. I drilled a hole just big enough to fit the keystone through (1"? 1.25"? I forget), then I put the keystone on it, put a grounded patch in that, and pushed it up inside the hole. Then I mount the ring and plug the camera in, and mount the camera. The cable runs are in the attic. This is all the G3 Dome, they didn't have anything else when I bought the cameras. I thought about putting a G3AF mounted from the upper eaves to get another view, but haven't done that yet. That'll be a bit more of a project. I'm fairly happy with the setup, but it's kind of a bit flaky. The motion detection fires all the time, with wind blowing trees or the like. Then it'll sometimes cut off in the middle of a recording when it seems like it should be detecting motion. I've been wanting to put an SSD in their little appliance, or just migrate that appliance to a Ubuntu host of my own, but haven't done that yet. The hardware seems solid, but the software seems flaky. A coworker has the Nest cams and those seem to be a bit less flaky. I may need to reevaluate this before I go further in, and it's been a year, maybe there's something else I should look at.

swingline-747 8y ago

Been There, Done That, Bought The T-Shirt. Solid core is generally for premise wiring (PVC jacketed in walls, PTFE-jacketed through ducts); stranded is typically for patch cables. If you try like the first place I worked at in the mid-90's trying to put stranded ends on solid-core wire, breaking of tools and unreliable cables will make. There's cheapo Chinese cable tester kits on eBay, AliBaba and Amazon that do a good-enough impedance at GbE spectrum testing to not have to spring for a Fluke "will-survive-nuclear-winter" "official" tester. Backfilling connectors with epoxy is another idea to avoid corrosion... as long as it doesn't affect the impedance or dielectric values much. No-snag boots, axial aligned label zipties are also a big help. Barcode label and floorplan everything. Finally, always test every cable with iperf3 (two laptops or one laptop w two ethernet ports) and reject for reworking/replacment any cable with abnormal latency or bandwidth figures. PS: our head-office networking guy was awesome; worked 10% time just to keep benefits since his wife was GOOG's first admin.

slantyyz 8y ago
It might be worth mentioning that CCA (copper clad aluminum) cable which is sometimes sold with misleading descriptions in places like eBay and Amazon, is not the same as solid copper and should be avoided for power over ethernet applications.
smolder 8y ago
Fluke is one of those used-to-be-good now-abuses-their-reputation companies anyway. They're in a mode of milking consumer trust for what it's worth until it's gone.