sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring "Split" CAT5 wire - 2 pair data / 1 pair telco?

Whatever! Keep splitting cables and the rest of us will do it the right way!

Do what is in the customers' best interest ...... for many small business customers the right move is to split the pairs.

I know if someone were working for me and said... hey ... i can save you a hundred bucks or so by doing X... which will work fine ... or Y which wont' work any better ... i would say "thanks" and put the hundred in my pocket.

If i was the head of the telcom department at a large company i would tell them to run a new wire.

The problem with low voltage work is that if it's done wrong, nobody dies.

We need to lobby the industry to raise the voltages to 220 Vac. Then, when we tell a customer that "we can do it the cheap way, or the right way," they won't have a choice.

Sorry upstate, but I respectfully disagree. If my name is on it, it is going to be done properly. I would not suggest splitting wires out and deviating from standards. We know it may work, and in a pinch it is often done. If I am going to the trouble to run wires in a new installation, it is going to be done the right way, every time.

We keep calling this "split pairs" which is also the term for splitting one wire from one pair and confusing it with another (white green looks like white blue). Running more than one application on a single cable run is really cable pair sharing. And guys it is going to be the next way of doing things....with cat 7 cable.

https://siemon.com/share/video/learn/08-05-06_danielle/08-05-06_danielle-view.asp

Why is she still using a CRT monitor? HA

I would never do it in a new install ... that is a given. Nor would i do it for a run to a server or mission critical PC. The reality is it works fine in almost every instance... do you think Ed would have continued to do it if it didn't work??

But ... there are many instances where it makes a ton of sense..... as long as the customer is aware that they are deviating from standards and is ok with it...... if the customer is a "do it by the book" guy then i'll do whatever they want.

In my mind it is a wise decision to offer a small business owner in this economy a real world opportunity to save money without impacting performance.... i have seen many customers who understood the risk turn out to be happy and appreciate that an option was offered.

As a small business owner in this economy i know for a fact that i would appreciate the option being presented.... i might elect to go with the correct method... but i would always feel the guy was treating me fairly.

You might find this interesting.


https://www.htdata.co.uk/user/files/downloads/coolportoutletst.pdf

Not available in the States for some reason.

Fair enough upstate...

First, let's get the definitions understood.

"Impacting performance" The jury is still out on this one. If a customer has funky problems, and the cables are shared, how do we absolutely know what's the cause?

"Impacting performance" Down the road, as needs increase and require more copper, the customer's "performance" will suffer if he can't just plug-n-play on a carefully thought out infrastructure. It doesn't matter to me if the operation is a paper bag manufacturer or a doctor's office, or a police department...which one in your opinion is "mission critical" by your definition?

Ask any customer if his operations are not "critical" and I'll bet he gives you a strange look.

"Saving Money" It takes perhaps 5% more labor effort to run two CAT5E cables a distance of 100 feet in new construction. No reason to talk about it here in public, but we all know what 100 feet of CAT5E costs.

When I recommend a second, third, or even fourth wire to a location in a big house or an office, I discount the costs of the additional wires. The customers expect it, just from a common sense viewpoint, and I'd be less than ethical to suggest that the price increase per wire, run to the same location, is based upon multiplying the cost of the first wire.

"Saving money" What I do is sell insurance. I don't sell future drywall and spackling work. Pay me now, or pay me later, and pay a lot more if later, by the way.

"Saving money" I make customers happy when they can save money by unplugging a printer from one jack, and plugging it into the spare right next to it, all in about three minutes. Compare the cost to rewire on an emergency basis vs the cost to call me and ask what to do, while I'm on vacation or otherwise tied up.