Patch panel termination on home network

EnderW

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I paid a local A/V company $1000 to install and patch 48 cat6 runs in my new house. Today they came out to terminate the runs to the patch panel. They cut way too much of the jacket off the cables.

I have several questions for the experts here.

1) What should I expect from this network? This is not a datacenter, it is my home so most of the time network traffic will be limited to 4-5 devices streaming Netflix or the TiVo mini units streaming across the LAN from the main unit.

2) How can I test the cables? I was looking at this item
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006HYWD
and also planning to do a simple file copy test from one laptop to another to measure transfer speed. My main concern is dropped packets and/or data corruption.

3) What are my options for fixing this and any idea how much a real professional would charge me to repatch all 48 runs? I anticipate a battle with the company that did this getting my money back as there was no discussion or mention of cables passing certification and I'm not sure what my legal options are if came to that.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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Don't worry too much about the jacket; with UTP cabling it is mostly just about convenience. The twists between the pairs are the key and while it does look like they left much of twist it still looks to me like they took out too much near the posts. That said you would need to test to be sure. The tester you linked is basically just a continuity tester with some logic This won't do you any good asI assume the installers rang out each termination and made sure everything was wired correctly as that is standard. If they did not at least do this then they should come back and do that for no cost.To test cables for suitability for personal use or even very light commercial I would suggest this:

http://www.amazon.com/Byte-Brothers-RWC1000K-World-Certifier/dp/B000J157WQ

It's not a FlukeDTX but it will do what you want and can likely be found a bit cheaper if you hunt around. I'm certain I got mine for a lot less than the above and I got the POE kit with it. Again it's not a Fluke but doesn't have that extra digit a DTX would have either. Good luck!
 
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it will probably work OK for typical home use, but the strands are exposed to scratches and damage. not too mention a mess when troubleshooting. all those exposed strands is typical for telephone, not data.

that tool only checks the pairs. a real Ethernet tester costs thousands $.

they might charge 2 to 3 hours of labor. that is definitely not to spec, only allowed 0.5 inch unjacketed. ask them to redo it if the work order was for CAT6 ethernet termination. it's not worth certifying for your particular home usage
 
1) What should I expect from this network? The network will work just fine.

2) How can I test the cables? They should have done a basic continuity test for each run. Since you only paid $1000 don't expect a Fluke level certification of the cable runs. If the runs tested fine then there is no need to retest.

3) What are my options for fixing this and any idea how much a real professional would charge me to repatch all 48 runs? I don't believe your going to have any problems with the network. Sure its not the norm, but the twists are what counts and most of them look reasonable. For Cat 5/5e/6/6A cable, the maximum amount of untwisted wire is specified as 0.5" (13 mm) but it's good practice to minimize the amount of untwist


There is no spec on jacket removal from what I can see
"Although there are no firm requirements on the maximum amount of cable jacket that can be stripped back during an installation, common sense dictates that only as much cable jacket as is necessary to properly terminate the cable pairs should be removed. However, even the definition of a "common sense" limit differs from person to person."
 
WTF :eek:

Make them redo it, hopefully they left enough of a maintenance loop to fix it without a repull.

Pulling the sheath back more than 0.5", especially what they did, it is no longer CAT6 certified cable. The individual pairs are twisted so many turns per inch (each color pair is a different TPI). Then all the pairs are twisted together per inch. By removing the sheath the way they did, that is no longer the case.

Will it be good enough? Only you can tell.
 
2/3's of all Cat6 runs wouldn't be certified. Not sure why a person would have an A/V company do this, but whatever. It's done, not perfect, just leave it be. You'll still have gigabit speeds and really after a few weeks, you'll forget about how it looks. If anything, I'd be pissed about how they didn't secure the bundle to the wall with some kind of cable wrap.

Not sure why someone needs 48 ports in their home, but rock on.
 
2/3's of all Cat6 runs wouldn't be certified. Not sure why a person would have an A/V company do this, but whatever. It's done, not perfect, just leave it be. You'll still have gigabit speeds and really after a few weeks, you'll forget about how it looks. If anything, I'd be pissed about how they didn't secure the bundle to the wall with some kind of cable wrap.

Not sure why someone needs 48 ports in their home, but rock on.
I'm hoping you're right. My server rack will be in a different room and all the servers and my workstation will be on a smaller network that doesn't run through anything on this patch panel. So all the heavy traffic will be avoided. The only thing other than just internet connectivity going through the patch panel will be Plex streaming to a couple clients and TiVo to TiVo mini units.

Next time I plan to hire a real pro that certifies each run and only do Cat5, I think Cat6 was a poor choice anyway.
 
Wow that's almost as bad as the wiring closets at our hospital. :D You'd think the network closets are telecom rooms because you see all the individual pairs come from the ceiling to BIX panels then to the patch panels. It was a real WTF when I saw that.

But if it works... leave it be I guess, but I'd be hesitant to pay a grand for that install.
 
The twists are intact it looks like. Should be just fine.

Edit: they snipped off the plastic guide to keep the pairs separate, didn't they.

Fuck those guys. make them re do it if you can.

You can always move the whole thing up a few feet.
 
1G is probably fine, If you ever hope to run 10G on it, you're screwed, actually that may be a good way to test/get your money back, if you have access to 10Gbit equipment. Since you specified Cat6 and it should be good up to 55m for 10G, if it can't then they installed it wrong.
 
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Two of these and run some several minute long iperf tests watching whatever OS logs/monitor for network errors? Just test your patch cables first make sure they're not inserting any errors of their own (I recommend monoprice cat6a).

Testing for 1Gbase-T is easy and will likely work fine, there's not going to be any easy or cheap way to test for proper cat6 compliance.
 
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Two of these and run some several minute long iperf tests watching whatever OS logs/monitor for network errors? Just test your patch cables first make sure they're not inserting any errors of their own (I recommend monoprice cat6a).

Testing for 1Gbase-T is easy and will likely work fine, there's not going to be any easy or cheap way to test for proper cat6 compliance.
that's overkill I think. as long as I get gigabit speeds without abnormally high packet loss, it should handle everything I need it for. I don't have any desktops connected right now, was planning on using 2 MacBooks connected via thunderbolt to ethernet adapter and running some file copy tests and iperf if I can figure out how to do it ;) won't have a chance to even try until Sunday

if it doesn't work well enough for my simple purposes, I'm gonna try to get a partial refund from the company which I think will be difficult and whether I get money back or not I'm leaning torwards redoing it all myself if the consensus is someone with no experience patching cable could do a better job. Also, if anyone is in the Oklahoma area that does this kind of work (on a professional basis!) please PM me.
 
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The tester I linked will test for compliance. Given the way they have everything at the panel I'd be surprised if these pass CAT5E specs.The real question is what exactly did you contract the vendor to do? If you contracted them run+terminate 48 CAT6 network drops then they have not done that to anything like normal industry standards. You should seek remediation immediately the longer you wait the harder it will get. If you contracted them to run+terminate 48 drops then you're likely borked.
 
That's deff. not standard practice. I'd have them fix it.
 
I'm looking for documentation that I can send to the installer to show it's incorrect, so far I haven't found anything official, and according to this link there is no official amount just "as little as possible"

http://www.siemon.com/us/white_papers/99-07-05-twistpairprep.asp


You should not have to prove the installation is correct. That is the installer's job. At a minimum they should have provided evidence that each port was rung out correctly. Anything above and beyond that depends on your agreement. If you paid for CAT6 drops the onus is on the installer to prove that is what they did.

Have you questioned them at all?

Also you will not find anything official as the spec is something you have to buy. What you will find are best practices designed to pass the tests built by people who paid VERY large amounts of $$$ for the spec.
 
http://www.cat6.com/faqs/dosanddonts.aspx

Just one example. But yes, the official spec is big money. So are real cable certifiers.

Ultimately up to the contract you had with the installers. If all you asked was to pull some cable, they did their part. If you asked for CAT6 certified cable, make them prove it.
 
You can look up the cable specs on the manufacturers website, that will have proper install guidelines.
 
wow, what a mess

amateur hour, you get what you pay for i guess, 48 runs, terminated, for $1000, this is exactly what you should expect

one of the guys i use is DIRT cheap, and he's doing 16 runs for me next week for $980...
 
Yuck!

In my neck of the woods CAT6 48 ports over 2500sq ft costs $6000 installed and certified. Regular CAT5e is usually $100/run up to ~48 ports and $75/run at 96 ports. Keep in mind that's new construction cost too, not retrofit. 48 ports of Cat6 retrofitted & certified is about $10k.

You get what you pay for.......

I would mount that patch panel up higher and re-terminate them. Don't bother calling the other people back..... Put in a deeper, taller rack and you won't mind having them up that high.
 
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Unless they are all super short, I don't see how they did 48 runs of Cat6 for $1,000 in materials alone!! I'd bet they used the cheap CCA cable which will give you problems later down the road.
 
wow, what a mess

amateur hour, you get what you pay for i guess, 48 runs, terminated, for $1000, this is exactly what you should expect

one of the guys i use is DIRT cheap, and he's doing 16 runs for me next week for $980...

Not really an excuse to do a shoddy job though, it's not like it takes more time or effort to terminate them better. 1 grand is still a lot of money... actually now that I think of it, materials would still be costly so 1 grand actually is quite cheap...
 
On a home network it will most likely work fine.
It is a messy job with more sheathing removed than i have seen before. I guess it depends on what you contracted for a job. Did your contract include any specs to the install?
 
Those pictures make me want to puke...I'd only imagine that ALL of their installs look that way.
 
Those pictures make me want to puke...I'd only imagine that ALL of their installs look that way.

No just the ones with the shitty techs who don't give a shit or know any better. BTW, he was prob one that learned at a class and never actually took the time to truly learn it.
 
I just don't get it...the way they did it would take a LOT longer than stripping back each cable 1-2 inches and terminating.
 
Maybe they're old-school Telco guys that are used to stripping a bunch of jacket off?
 
...48 runs, terminated, for $1000, this is exactly what you should expect

Cheap as sin. Definitely either an old telco guy or taught by 1....

I would definitely secure the cables in some way with something rigid (zip ties/cables ties)

However, the twists look pretty good up to the termination, I really wouldn't worry about it in actual performance to much.
 
I'm late to the party.

1) They actually did a SEMI neat job... meaning they wires are in nice bundles behind the patch panel... HOWEVER they should have left a service loop... the cables come straight down on the right into the back... no room to really move it around

2) As noted, thats not how you patch a patch panel down. You usually only have maybe 1" of the twisted pairs exposed... the idea is to have minimal exposure on the twists..

Again as others stated you will not notice any difference as the twists are there... but its just not how you do a patch panel. We keep the wires cover right up until the punch down (we cut them long and as we patch them, the wires cut perfectly)

I'm guessing the company that did this is more in the Audio Visual line of work rather then data networks? As this job screams "I'm an AV integrator" as a network integrator would never do this type of work.

For $1,000 including all wire runs... that's not a bad price. Typically on a good day you'll see a charge of $150 per run.

BTW, not to toot my own horn, but this is the proper way to do a patch panel (IF YOU ARE DOING TELEPHONES... these are TELEPHONE lines):

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And if you are doing data, this is one of a few proper ways using cable management bars:

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Even without the cable management bars you see how theres minimal exposure on the twists, thats what you want.
 
You got the level of work that you paid for IMO. There's an easy $400-500 in materials there. $500 in labor to pull those runs, and terminate both sides (assuming they did the finishing keystones and wall plates at the other side) is outrageously cheap. You can't go to McDonalds to order off of the dollar menu and then complain the "beef" you ordered isn't a ribeye steak.
 
You got the level of work that you paid for IMO. There's an easy $400-500 in materials there. $500 in labor to pull those runs, and terminate both sides (assuming they did the finishing keystones and wall plates at the other side) is outrageously cheap. You can't go to McDonalds to order off of the dollar menu and then complain the "beef" you ordered isn't a ribeye steak.

Who cares what the materials cost? For all we know the OP supplied the materials.What matters is what was contracted for. If McDonald's has a rib eye on the menu and delivers you a cheeseburger then you absolutely can and should complain. If the contract was for CAT6 data connections and the vendor charged 1000 that is the vendor's problem, not the customer's. The vendor sets the pricing. Their margin is not customer's concern.The vendor has almost certainly not delivered CAT6, willing to bet these don't pass 5E either, connections.

I again ask the OP, what has the vendor said about this? You need to get their feedback on the situation ASAP.
 
Who cares what the materials cost? For all we know the OP supplied the materials.What matters is what was contracted for. If McDonald's has a rib eye on the menu and delivers you a cheeseburger then you absolutely can and should complain. If the contract was for CAT6 data connections and the vendor charged 1000 that is the vendor's problem, not the customer's. The vendor sets the pricing. Their margin is not customer's concern.The vendor has almost certainly not delivered CAT6, willing to bet these don't pass 5E either, connections.

I again ask the OP, what has the vendor said about this? You need to get their feedback on the situation ASAP.
The only thing I supplied was the wall mount and patch panels. However, I've learned the Cat6 runs may have cost me closer to $2000. The reason I'm not sure of the price is this was all part of a custom home build and I don't have original invoices for each contractor. I paid these guys $1000 directly for additional Cat6 runs, but I'm not sure what the $1250 my builder paid them out of the home budget went to.

I have been dealing directly with the owner of the AV company and he is extremely unhelpful. I sent an email Monday expressing my unhappiness with the job and requesting that he test all the runs. He has not responded. He will not answer my phone calls. I'm going to attempt to get some help going through the home builder, but I'm not optimistic I'll get anywhere. I don't know anyway I can force them to test or replace runs that aren't working. The company is run by 2 guys and they obviously have no concept of customer service.

I'm going to see if I can get my hands on a Fluke tester and see if the runs at least support gigabit. If they don't I'll likely redo the patch panel termination and chalk it up to a lesson learned - get everything in writing next time.
 
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