Lab 2 – Structured Cabling

Objectives:
1. Make a Cat5 Patch Cable.
2. Wire up a Patch Panel.
3. Take a quick look and handle a Thicknet / Thick Ethernet cable, a Thinnet / Thin Ethernet cable, and a Fiber Optic cable and then do some research on each type of cable and determine the pros and cons of each type of cable.

Equipment List:
Project 1, 3, and 4 – Dr. Gx’s handout, Cat5 Cables, RJ45 Terminals, RJ45 Crimping Tool, Patch Panels, RJ45 Jack, Punch-Down Tool, and Scissors.

Project 2 – Thicknet / Thick Ethernet cable, Thinnet / Thin Ethernet cable, Fiber Optic cable, and a search engine.

Notes and Observations: Making patch cables and wiring up patch panels for the first time was time consuming but was overall simple and easy to understand since Dr. Gx explained it to us before we tried it for ourselves and he also had some details on the handout. The only issue that me and my partner had was that our patch cable had 3 wires that didn’t work. I’m assuming that on one or both ends of the cable there were wires not cut evenly. On a limb , it’s possible that the patch cable could have been bad considering that we have no idea what each of those patch cables has been through before.

The pros and cons of the different cables.
Thinnet / Thin Ethernet.
Pros: It would be best used for plugging devices into wall jacks or routers and switches that are nearby because it’s pliable and flexible and it’s connections appear to be simple and straight forward. Work Area and Equipment Room Cabling.
Cons: It would be a lousy cable to use for long distances since it’s maximum length is very limited.

Thicknet / Thick Ethernet
Pros: It would make a good cable for longer distances inside large buildings and possibly between buildings if you could protect it from the outdoor elements. Horizontal and Vertical Cabling.
Cons: At best, it’s somewhat flexible or pliable, and the method of connecting to this cable could make it inconvenient to use for plugging devices directly to a network.

Fiber Optics
Pros: It had a very fast bandwidth and can be used for very long distances. It would be a good cable for when you need to run a cable anywhere that is very far away or for a location where there will be lots of traffic on a network or internet. Outside Wiring.
Cons: It can be very prone to damage and signal loss if it is bent or pinched. It could be unusable in cases where the cabling needs to be bent or curved a lot. It can also be expensive.

Diagrams, flowcharts, and figures: Table for Straight Through Cable, a top view of how the wires in the patch cable show be organized inside the RJ45 Terminal.

References: Dr. Gx’s handout
Websites:
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/thick-ethernet-vs-thin-ethernet
https://www.techwalla.com/articles/what-is-thicknet-and-thinnet
https://www.versatek.com/blog/cable-war-copper-vs-fiber/
https://www.sfcable.com/blog/fiber-optic-cables-vs-ethernet-cables-difference

Conclusions: It was good to go through the paces of making our own patch cables. It’s good to have done it first hand experience with it considering that Ethernet cables makes up most, if not all, of the network wiring inside most buildings. Wiring the patch panels and RJ45 Jacks was nice also since there’s not many other settings where I would have had a chance to do that with someone there to show us how to do it and help us with it. I honestly thought that wiring the patch panels was going to be harder than what it really was. It was interesting to see Ethernet cables that were used in the past and compare them to what we use today.