Where do you get your patch cables.

[Kyle]

We are going to need to buy a load of network leads and patch cables soon. I wonderd where you lot get yours from and who is the most competitive?

[webman]

We get most of ours from our cabling company, Conex, but we've also bought from Videk before.

[Espada]

Don't be so lazy take a roll of cable home with you buy some plugs and crimpers (out of your own money of course) and spend an evening making them.

[webman]

Don't be so lazy take a roll of cable home with you buy some plugs and crimpers (out of your own money of course) and spend an evening making them.

 

Not forgetting the unnecessarily-expensive testing gear

[john]

Mills Ltd or Black Box, Black Box last time as they were on offer 10p each on all size from .5 meter to 5 meter

[Grommit]

10p !!! They start at £3

 

http://www.insight.com/uk

 

Phone them and they will beat any price you have...

[Norphy]

We get ours from Probrand generally.

[mattx]

Make ours to measure - its FUN !!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

When they work.....

Cable testers are quite cheap now... [ Unless you want a Fluke which cost quite a bit... ]

[Diello]

Videk or Comms Express

[wesleyw]

Patchsave

[Geoff]

Buy what? Sorry, don't you people have slaves^H^H^H^H^H Sixth Formers?

[Norphy]

Yes. But I wouldn't trust them with edged tools

[alonebfg]

cable universe are really good and if you contact them and tell them you a a school they help you even more can be found here http://www.cableuniverse.co.uk/

always helpful as well

[Espada]

Buy what? Sorry, don't you people have slaves^H^H^H^H^H Sixth Formers?

 

I would like working cables at the end of it. Admittedly, the idea of working sixth formers is quite a novel one. They do even less work than our network technician who won't make cables because it takes too long. I could make one in the time he spends on the phone ordering one.

[bishopsgarthstockton]

erm conex, videk, or A2Z but if im strapped for cash, I make my own

[kylewilliamson]

Have bought them from novatech before - patchsave are OK, usually get them when we're having a project done with the project.

[Oops_my_bad]

Sorry to throw this thread OT - but if you do go down the route of making your own, where do you guys get your cable testers from? they seem a bit expensive for what they are :/

[Espada]

A standard multimeter will do the trick. Just measure resistance.

 

You can get them from Maplin which aren't too pricey, I am sure you could get them cheaper elsewhere. It is worth the investment for a decent one though as it can help trace faults on the network very quickly.

[elsiegee40]

A large box stuck in the corner... we've got rather a glut of them... but I'm not sharing them... they'll come in handy!

[Jake]

As with a few others in this thread, we make our own. We have a few rolls of 300m of different colours, and we just whip up patch cables as and when we need them.

 

Whenever we build a new IT suite from scratch (as we did last summer) or need to do a larger cable run we do all the cabling ourselves, and when you need a lengh of 13m 45cms, its useful to just be able to roll out some of the cable and make an exact length, nice and tidy

[localzuk]

I've got about 200 spare 2m patch leads at the moment, so don't really have a preferred supplier

 

However, if I can convince my boss to, I'll be purchasing a proper tester and a couple of boxes of cable and do them myself.

[tosca925]

Sorry guys but we just don't have the time to sit making our own. But then again our budget permits this and i know some of you work to a tight budget.

[bishopsgarthstockton]

We've had our budget doubled to just £16k a year. It goes no were. built a computer CAD/CAM room last summer, did all the cabling my self, saved me about £450 rather than get a company in. why is it always a hot roosting day when you have to run cables?

[john]

why is it always a hot roosting day when you have to run cables?

Because thats whats called Sods Law! Why was my Comms Cupboard 30C when I was fitting a new phone system the other week ? Because it could be thats why!

[_Bat_]

We have never bought any... they just come with a lot of the computers we buy and whenever we replace a pc we obviously strip it down first before throwing it away (and the patch lead is obviously a very useful thing to keep).

 

In both my schools now we have loads of spare patch leads since both have had new ict suites installed.

 

EDIT: Thats not quite true, I have bought long ones (I think they were 25M) from misco before for £10.99 each... which I personally thought was a pretty good deal .