Who does your network cabling??

[maniac]

So as I'm getting more involved in network cabling, I thought I'd see how many other schools actually attempt putting their own fixed installations in. Obviously not fibre, as equipment to do this is expensive, but cat5 is achievable for most people.

I only ask this as we've just completed cabling 20 new network points in a new ICT area, and saved the school several hundred pounds by undertaking the work ourselves. We did a very professional job, ICT co-ordinator thinks it's a neater job than our normal contractor!
We also got the network points exactly where they were needed and it was easier than expected, which begs the question; Why do we keep paying £1000's to outside agencies each year for installing additional cabling when we can do it ourselves? We certainly won't be paying from now on if we can help it.

[kylewilliamson]

Have you conducted approiate risk assestments, had apporiate training for working at heights etc? This is why we don't do it.

Kyle

[maniac]

ceiling in area we were working was a suspended ceiling, acessible from top of a step ladder (which is class A approved) and yes we have appropreate training on working at heights. As for risk assesment, if you mean making sure the cable was installed withing building regs, we read up first and it's really not that difficult. Our site manager also inspected the work at regular intervals to make sure he was happy. It can't be worse that the contractor we were using, trust me!

Mike.

[Grommit]

So as I'm getting more involved in network cabling, I thought I'd see how many other schools actually attempt putting their own fixed installations in. Obviously not fibre, as equipment to do this is expensive, but cat5 is achievable for most people.

I only ask this as we've just completed cabling 20 new network points in a new ICT area, and saved the school several hundred pounds by undertaking the work ourselves. We did a very professional job, ICT co-ordinator thinks it's a neater job than our normal contractor!
We also got the network points exactly where they were needed and it was easier than expected, which begs the question; Why do we keep paying £1000's to outside agencies each year for installing additional cabling when we can do it ourselves? We certainly won't be paying from now on if we can help it.

WHY.. get the professionals in and tell them exactly where you want the points..

i can't be arsed to cable ... It's my job to keep the Network running and thats a big enough job when you have 1400 Kids and 600 PC's to look after...

[maniac]

Mainly because we've had trouble finding a contrctor that can follow simple instructions and complete a job to a high standard. We needed this job doing, didn't have a new contractor or one we wanted to invite back, so we decided to have a go ourselves. We've spent a lot of money on cabling in the past, so if we can save money here it'll free up funds to put towards other projects. It is time dependant of course, if we didn't have the luxury of time this holiday, we would have contracted it out.

Mike.

[iatkinson]

If it's over a long distance we get a contractor in to run the cable then we do all the termination. Over a short distance or in easily accessible areas we run the cable as well...depends on how busy we are and whether the school is prepared to stump up for a contractor.

[CyberNerd]

We do a bit of each, We even done our own fiber runs and termination.
for larger jobs we use Cherry. http://cherrywirelessandcabling.com/default.htm

[localzuk]

We contract it all out, as there is only 1 of me and there simply wouldn't be enough time to do it all if we did it in house.

Cabling contractors are relatively cheap now, compared to a few years ago anyway.

[Jake]

We do all of ours ourselves, I've lost track now of just how much we have done, but its well into the hundreds of points and goodness knows how much trunking. As you mention Maniac, it saves us a fortune in our budget , which is handy as we can spend that on hardware instead
We do all our projector and smartboard installations as well, which saves a few bob too.

Like you Maniac, I can remember when we first cabled an ICT suite, we did it during the summer break, 32 points, few hundred metres of cable, running along the dual channel trunking we put on the walls, and down into and under the flooring. Into the office adjoining, where we installed a cabinet, switches and panels. I have to say, that when we had finished it all, we were so SO proud of it...it looked phenomenal

Sadly..the kids smashed the pcs up and ruined the room within 3 days of the start of term, but just for a moment it was great

[webman]

We use Conex (very good, professional service) for the majority of our stuff; but we will do a short run ourselves from time to time.

[localzuk]

We do a bit of each, We even done our own fiber runs and termination. for larger jobs we use Cherry. http://cherrywirelessandcabling.com/default.htm

I was looking at equipment and training for fibre last night, as this is one area which I think doing it in house could save us serious money. Do you have any advice on approaching this sort of thing? Do you use the LightCrimp system? Did you get training?

[Andi]

Easy stuff we do ourselves, and sometimes attempt the trickier ones. I had a cabling job assigned to me at the end of last week but I got so stressed about it I managed to persuade my manager to hire a contractor for it and we were both surprised at the price quoted.

It would have taken me and the other techie here all week probably, wouldn't have done as neat a job and plus had to pay for all the parts. Sometimes it's worth contracting when the costs are weighed up I think. It's freed me up to look into setting up DFS on our new server which my manager also wanted me to do before the break ends.

[CyberNerd]

We got training from these techoptics a couple of yrs ago:
http://www.techoptics.com/
We don't have lightcrimp unfortunately, only the more labour intensive polishing kit.lightcrimp does look good though
also check these guys for supplies:
http://www.cablemanstore.co.uk/

[enjay]

We contract ours out - most of the site is cabled now, so new cabling happens so infrequently that it isn't worth the time or money in getting the training and all the necessary tools. Plus, I'm a one-man department, which would make some cabling jobs difficult.

Our contractors are very good, efficient, professional and knowledgeable, so I am happy to let them do their stuff while I do mine.

[Grommit]

Mainly because we've had trouble finding a contrctor that can follow simple instructions and complete a job to a high standard. We needed this job doing, didn't have a new contractor or one we wanted to invite back, so we decided to have a go ourselves. We've spent a lot of money on cabling in the past, so if we can save money here it'll free up funds to put towards other projects. It is time dependant of course, if we didn't have the luxury of time this holiday, we would have contracted it out.

Mike.

OK.. I wish had a holiday... the site owes me 4 weeks

I keep getting a flyer through the door that advertises small or big jobs and where you want the data points..

I'll pass on the info as they seem tp be able to do 2 or hundreds..