Why Copper Is Still The Category Cabling Standard
Ever since the first telegraph in the 1820s and the invention of the phone in 1876, copper was found almost everywhere there was a communication cable. That’s quickly changing as fiber optic becomes more widespread. But, even now we still …
What’s Inside an Optical Fiber Cable
Fiber is often touted as being much faster than copper, but what exactly does that mean? The main difference between these two types of cable is that one conducts electricity and the other transmits light. The signal in a fiber …
How to get the most out of a hybrid network
Way back, around the turn of the century, smart homes began to appear. They were wired with Cat5 cabling, which could be used for phones lines as well as 100 Mbps computer networking. For many of us, this new technology …
What Installers Need to Know About Smart Home Hubs
The term ‘smart home’ has been around for a while now. Initially, it described a residence that was wired throughout and connected to the Internet. Now, the word ‘smart’ in smart home implies some kind of remote control, most likely …
Tips for Tidy Wire Management
Many installers agree that structured wiring using the home run method is the best solution for networking homes and businesses. It involves using dedicated cable runs from a central panel to each distribution point. But, with so much cabling coming …
More structured wiring options: Daisy chain with WiFi networking
Part two of structured wiring options for home and business connectivity In our last post we described the ‘home run’ or ‘star wiring’ method of installing a structured wiring network in a home or business. Other common methods include WiFi …
What exactly is home run wiring?
Part one of structured wiring options for home and business connectivity Family homes, as well as businesses, are now requiring better network solutions for ever-increasing demands for data. As a start, a whole-house network can greatly benefit from an efficient …
How multi-play solutions connect smart homes to the Internet of Things
If you follow tech news even casually, you’ve no doubt noticed a steady uptick in the number of articles about ‘smart homes’ and ‘multi-play’. Well, maybe “uptick” isn’t the right word, since it has actually been more of an explosion. …
How the telco cabling industry reached Cat6 and beyond
Cat5, Cat5e, Cat6… what does it all mean? They’re categories of twisted-pair Ethernet cable, of course, but all twisted-pair Ethernet cables are not created equal. These Cats are all part of one big happy family of copper cabling standards defined …
Will broadband become a basic utility?
The question of whether or not broadband Internet service should be considered a public utility is a hot-button issue, especially in the U.S., where the battle over net neutrality rages on. Internet service providers are currently classified as information services, …