If you're working with your physical infrastructure
to any degree, you're going to need the right tools.
And in this video, I'll give you an overview
of some of the most popular cabling tools.
If you're going to be working with RJ45 or RJ11 cables
and you need to put those connectors on the end then
you're going to need a good crimper.
This is the device that pinches that connector
on to the end of the cable once you've put all the wires inside
of that RJ45 connector.
There are also crimpers for coax connections and fiber
connections as well, but we most see
this associated with connecting up
an ethernet connection, the RJ45 connector,
to the end of the wire itself.
And this allows you to make the wire as long as you like
and then put your own connectors on to the end.
It works by pushing the metal prongs on the RJ45 connector
into the insulation of your wires
and connecting them to the copper that's inside.
It's on there permanently.
Once you make the connection, you
can't remove it and change it and put it back.
If you make a mistake, you've got to cut off that connector
and put a brand new connector on to the end.
Before you put the modular connector onto those wires,
this is what it looks like.
And you can see their raised up just a little bit.
When you crimp this, it will push down
those pieces of copper.
And at the end, you can see it's got little teeth that
are going to dig into the insulation that's
around those copper cables.
And that's how it makes that electrical connection.
It then becomes flat on the top and that's
what you would put into the connection
where your ethernet jack might be to make
that electrical connection.
Here's what this looks like after we've made the crimp.
We've put all the wires into their proper places,
and we've made the crimp.
And you can see that copper connector
on the outside of the RJ45 isn't sticking up anymore.
It's been pushed into the connector itself
and the prongs have gone into the insulation
to make that electrical connection.
Notice, also that while we printed
there was a connection at the bottom a piece of plastic
that has been pushed right into the cable.
It's not breaking the cable, but it's
pushed up just enough so that the cable will not pull out
of that connector once we have everything crimped
and in place.
If you're planning to crimp cables yourself,
make sure you get a good crimper.
There's nothing worse than getting all of those wires
into the connector and then you're
using a substandard crimper, which loses all of the work
that you spent all that time doing.
You also want a good pair of snips.
These are electricians scissors.
These are the ones that I use and a good wire stripper
can help as well so that you can put this on the wire.
And with a couple of twist, you're now into that sheet.
Then you're able to gain access to the wires inside.
You also want to make sure that you're
using the right connectors for the cable that you're using.
Different types of cabling use different types of connectors.
They look very similar, but there are minor differences.
Especially, if you're going to use either category
five or category six.
There's completely different connectors for those.
And another thing that is extremely important
when it comes to crimping is that you practice, practice,
and practice.
It takes a bit of time to work with the wire
and become accustomed to using them in getting a good crimp.
But once you finally get the hang of it, you'll love it.
You can make whatever linked wires
you would like and customize it for exactly where it
needs to be.
If you're working in a larger environment,
you may need a punch-down tool.
And even in a small environment like mine,
I still have jacks in the floor that I need
to have a punch down tool for.
And this is used to put the wire into one of these blocks
or into one of these connectors, either a 66 block or 110 block.
This can be a very tedious process,
especially if you have a lot of wires you're working with.
And it's one where you may be sitting there for awhile
and punching down wire, after wire, after wire.
This is a pretty efficient process though when
you're punching in a wire.
It's putting it into the block.
The block is getting into the insulation
so you've got a good electrical connection.
And then the punch-down tool is also
sniping the end of the wire so that you don't have pieces
everywhere on the side of your blocks.
It makes it for a very simple process,
and if you could get all of your wires set up
you can punch them down very quickly and you're done.
With all these little wires going everywhere,
it's important that you organize or at least are
able to follow some of the organization that
may be already on your punch-down blocks.
You can see this one even has the colors all set up
for you in the back.
So you don't even have to think about where the wires might go.
You simply follow the diagram that's on the back
and it will put exactly everything in its place.
You also want to be sure you maintain
the twists in the cables that you're using when you're
punching it down in the block.
After all, it's those twist that allows
us to minimize the amount of interference that's
received on each side of that connection.
And you can see here they did a really good job
on the punch-down block, because those twists are still
in place all the way down into the block itself.
In most environments, you'll have punch-downs
in a lot of different places.
And you may have a large number of them
back on the wall of the data center.
So you want to be sure to document
as much as possible may want to tag the cables themselves.
And very often, if you look at the wall
behind the punch-down block, it's usually a piece of wood
and people have written on the wood exactly
where these wires are going.
Whether you're using this graffiti
or whether you're tagging the cables themselves,
you want to be sure that everybody understands what's
in place after you've left.
Another great tool for cabling is the TDR and the OTDR.
TDR stands for time domain reflectometer.
And for a fiber connection, it is an optical time domain
reflectometer.
The TDR is used to give us an idea of the cable links
that we might be using.
It can certainly tell us how long a cable
is from one side to the other.
It can also tell you if a cable been spliced
and how far down the line the splice has occurred.
It may also tell you information about the impedance
of the cable and how much signal loss you're getting
from one end to the other.
We often use these if we need to certify an installation.
So we can put the cable in and then
we can verify that we're getting a cable that
will be able to support 100 megabit, gigabit, or even 10
gigabit speeds through that cable.
A TDR works by sending a signal down a cable or fiber
and looking for the reflection that's coming back.
It sends this ping and it's able to discern
what it's seeing all the way through the cable
by examining what reflection it's getting back.
This reflection can allow us to calculate time and distance
so we can tell you how far away and into the cable might be
or how far away a problem with a cable
might be by just looking at this reflection.
An OTDR is obviously doing exactly the same thing,
but instead of sending an electrical signal is sending
light down and looking for the reflection of light that's
coming back.
We can look at this visually.
We'll send a signal through and when it hits a problem
some of the signal is reflected back and the rest of the signal
is sent down the line, although you
can see it's not as much signal as it was at the beginning.
Let's do that again.
I'm going to send a strong signal.
It hits a problem the signals decreased
and there's the reflection.
And it's that reflection that the TDR uses to now provide you
with information about what's happening
on that particular cable.
These TDRs are not inexpensive devices.
It may cost many hundreds of dollars
to get a fully functional time domain reflectometer commoner,
and it costs even more for the optical versions of these.
These may also require additional training.
It takes a lot to understand exactly what's happening
at the physical layer.
And you may also need training on how
that operates the TDR itself, but these
are very powerful tools.
And if you're trying to solve a problem at the physical layer,
this is exactly the right tool for you.
Especially, if you've installed so new copper or some new fiber
and you want to be assured that it's going to operate properly
once you have your equipment in place.
The TDR is the perfect device to certify that cable plant.