[TAG] Wiring a house with ethernet

[Benjamin A. Okopnik]

On Tue, Oct 18, 2005 at 09:01:01AM -0700, Rick Moen wrote:
> 
> Since I happen to be home and have my toolbag in front of me, I can now
> actually revisit the question of what can't-miss tools I own -- and get
> the brand names right, this time:
> 
> o  Ideal Industries, Inc. Crimpmaster (some model or other, not indicated)

[ ... ]

> o  Progressive Electronics, Inc. model 200B inductive amplifier
> o  Progressive Electronics, Inc. model 77M toner
> o  Harris - Dracon Division model HD8762/D-814 punch tool ("impact tool")

I can't speak for any of the others, but these three are *the* must-have
tools for a lineman. Mind you, not what the phone company (I'm talking
PacBell here, the telco for L.A.) used to issue, at least in the case of
the toner and amp - their toner was this nasty little useless gadget
that barely worked (you couldn't even use it on a shorted line!), and
the amp was an ugly little red thing that took a separate speaker (you
had to connect the butt set via jumper clips.) Any self-respecting tech
immediately got himself an S200B and the 77M toner; I've still got mine
on the boat.

The punch tool is so much the standard that it's often referred to as
"the Harris tool".

> The toner, inductive amp, and punch tool listed happen to be the exact
> ones that all the grizzled old telco guys all have -- which should be a
> clue that either they're really good, or a huge number of telco guys got
> cheated all at the same time.  ;->  (They also tend to all have the same
> make/model of "butt set" tester telephone, which I don't, because I
> seldom touch voice circuits.)

If anybody needs a testimonial, I've used those tools to trace a broken
wire behind a cinderblock wall. Yeah, I'm talking about a wall built out
of two courses of cinderblock with the wire in between them; we had to
use a jackhammer to get to where we could fix them.

> You can learn a lot from old telephone company guys, but take care not
> to learn too much:  I've seen several ethernet cabling jobs go off the
> rails because these guys figure that Cat3 standards have been good
> enough for them since 1952, so they should be good enough for you.

What, unshielded two-pair isn't good enough for you? What are you, some
kind of a finicky computer type or sump'n?


* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://linuxgazette.net *