nanog mailing list archives

Re: Which P-Touch should I have?


From: Joe Hamelin <joe () nethead com>
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:33:35 -0800

Give me a link to the labeling section and I'll let you know if I've seen
it in the wild.  I'm out in the field now (got sick of the desk) and see a
lot of commercial/retail plants.

I doubt that it's going on in retail, except maybe Lowe's Hardware.  They
do love MM fiber and just did a nation-wide network upgrade to gigabit
everywhere in the stores.  But then again, the label specs were kinda hit
and miss.

Sadly I've seen no IPv6 in any retail shops.

--
Joe Hamelin, W7COM, Tulalip, WA, 360-474-7474


On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 9:20 PM, Kenneth M. Chipps Ph.D.
<chipps () chipps com>wrote:

I don't suppose anyone follows the TIA-606-B Administration Standard for
the
Telecommunications Infrastructure of Commercial Buildings when labeling
things like cables.

-----Original Message-----
From: Owen DeLong [mailto:owen () delong com]
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2012 10:42 PM
To: William Herrin
Cc: NANOG
Subject: Re: Which P-Touch should I have?


For cable labeling I've had good results with 3M Scotch Super88 color
electrical tape. Pick unique color bands for each cable. Band it
identically at both ends. You don't have to squint to see how it's
labeled. And the label isn't invalidated merely because you unplugged
it from one place and plugged it in somewhere else.


I usually use labels printed on all sides in about a 14 point font that
have
a unique number followed by a - and a length. So, for example, 10294-4.5 is
a 4.5' long cable number 10294.

You might need to squint a bit to read it, but, 14 points is usually pretty
legible and being printed 4 times on the label (3 of which remain visible
on
the average cat5/cat6 cable) means you usually don't have to futz with
twirling the cable to find the label.

I usually have the labels installed ~2" from the plug at each end.

In a crowded deployment, I think the color bands would be like trying to
read resistor color codes in a box of ~1,000 mixed resistors. You're going
to end up squinting anyway.  With my tactic, you have the additional
advantage that you get a defined search radius within which the other end
can be located.

Using serial-number labels instead of equipment-specific labels means that
mine aren't invalidated either.

Owen








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